Maxime Chattam helps you get started in writing -

20 Minutes

  • Your newspaper is launching this Thursday the second edition of its 20 Minutes of the novel prize, open until March 15.

  • The theme "the day after" is imposed, but the literary genre remains completely free.

  • Maxime Chattam will once again chair the jury and the winner will be published at the end of 2021.

Tempted by the adventure of writing?

The second edition of the

20 Minutes

of the Novel Prize is launched this Thursday, still under the aegis of a jury chaired by the novelist Maxime Chattam.

Like Estelle Tolliac, author this year of the superb 

Noir de Lune

, the next winner of our writing competition will see her novel published in 2021.

A theme, "the world after"

No privileged literary genre: white, black literature, romance, history, anticipation, fantasy… anything goes.

Only the theme is imposed: "the world after".

Because, undoubtedly more than ever, the world in which we live has to be reinvented.

But the one that interests us is obviously the one you are going to imagine… "What matters is to respect the theme with your writing desires", explains Maxime Chattam.

Respect the theme?

“Yes, it's essential, but without taking it at face value.

Above all, we should not try to literally describe what the next world could be like, nor necessarily play the card of the anticipatory story or science fiction.

Rather imagine the world after a human tragedy, or the world after a complicated night ... The question to ask is how this theme, "the world after", can resonate with what you are doing. , you want to write… ”, specifies the president of the jury.

But what was the world before?

And him, Maxime Chattam, as a writer of thrillers, what idea could come to his mind?

“What would amuse me would be to tell the story of a character's new life while letting the mystery hover over what he was in the world before.

It would not be a futuristic novel, it would rather be anchored in the present, with in the end an outcome that would offer a second reading compared to everything that has just happened… ”

You were 504 of our readers to have worked on the topic “the future belongs to the youth” this year, we hope at least as many of you to register a manuscript on the topic of the “world after” next year.

Appointment with your manuscript before March 15, 2021 on the dedicated platform of the New Authors site.

Books

"Moon Black" by Estelle Tolliac: Why this novel will illuminate your days and your nights

Culture

“20 Minutes” Prize: The beautiful adventure of “Noir de Lune”, a heroic epic with a romantic breath

  • Maxime Chattam

  • Literature

  • Literary prize

  • 20 minutes video

  • Novel

  • Culture