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East Gorteau22261 Posts
Over the past few weeks, I've been dedicating every free second of my day (which unfortunately doesn't amount to very much at present) to writing about things distinctly non-Starcraft. I've written a blog or two in the past about writing fiction (leaning toward high fantasy and hard science fiction, á la Steven Erikson or Peter F Hamilton) and believe it or not, every idea I had back then has been scrapped, rewritten, rescrapped and finally forgotten as I realised that they were all probably terrible at the core.
This time though (and I feel like I'm about to curse myself when saying this), I've gotten some 100,000 words into the initial draft and I feel differently about this story compared to the other ones I've written (and failed horribly with) - there is a different flow to my writing and the ideas come naturally and in sequence rather than sporadically or only when forced. This has made me incredibly enthusiastic about the writing process, which has led to more writing and more ideas, which has slowly but surely come together.
So, since very few of my friends share my set of interests when it comes to reading and writing in general, I would like to humbly ask if anyone would be interested in reading some of what I've written so far.
I have no illusion of any of it (besides perhaps the core ideas) being extremely good or even fairly good, but I firmly believe that the first step to becoming good at anything is sticking with it, so I'd love to receive some feedback from intelligent people who may share a few of my interests in the genre. For "security" reasons, I would like to avoid sending the draft to everyone and everything without knowing who exactly is reliable, and thus I'll probably have decline offers from peoplethat I'm not very familiar with (though I would still greatly appreciate any advice you may have to share! <3).
Anyway, as for the story in itself, here is a general outline of what you can expect:
- Set in a pre-industrial, sort-of medieval-ish high fantasy world. The main plot plays out in a small island kingdom to the east of the world's only continent. There is some interaction between the island kingdom in question (nicknamed Dissentia for now) and the main continent, but to limit the scope I've minimised the amount of active interaction to make sure things don't get out of hand or too hard to follow
- Character-driven plot first and foremost, with a focus on the struggle of power taking place in the Order Templari, Dissentia's largest military organisation. The major players in the Order, the Families, seek to outmaneuver one another by employing a full bag of dirty tricks and political coups. Think Game of Thrones for reference but with a higher degree of cataclysm.
- Graphic. Violence isn't Disney.
- Might be hard to follow. I made a conscious choice not to reveal how everything came to be what it is at present in the story, and as a reader you will (sometimes) know less than the characters themselves.
Without spoiling anything, this is pretty much what I can tell you about the setting and the story. If you're interested, I'd love to hear from you and I would really appreciate some reader feedback - there is only so much I can tell myself.
Will it be terrible? MAYBE. PROBABLY. I DON'T KNOW
 
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I'm almost to the end of writing the first full draft of my first novel, I can completely empathise about the writing, re-writing, scrapping and rescrapping hundreds of ideas. Mine is a sci-fi time travel novel, which by its very nature is complicated and so it took me a long time of hashing a rehashing ideas about 1)how they would achieve time travel and 2)how to make it all make sense, let alone the characters, plot etc. I have somewhere in the region of 60 docs with differing ideas and attempts at a first draft, its quite instructive to read back through them from time to time as there are always little gems that you can use in the final work. I've been at it for almost 5 years now!
Good luck to you with your work, it's a long and arduous path but one well worth taking. I have no illusions that my own work will ever be read by a large audience but the experience of writing a novel is extremely fun and mentally challenging and that is its own reward. I would offer to read yours but I'm not greatly in to fantasy save for Harry Potter and the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon) and therefore I would probably get bored, no matter how good or bad your writing is.
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i am like Karl Kraus, you know, best reviews eu.
to prove my reliability, please check out my flawless moderation history.
gl with the story
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I wouldn't mind taking a lot. I've been finding myself reading a lot of random books on my Kindle lately... just from unknown part-time authors and the like. Some of them are decent, and have great potential, while others make some silly mistakes and it just seems like they lack someone to be their editor. I am personally awful at writing, but as someone who reads a decent amount I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what works and what does not work (at least what works in my opinion  )... As far as what I read... I don't read nearly as much SciFi as I would like, been trying to read more Heinlein lately, he's got some good shit. On the fantasy front I definitely prefer Jordan/Sanderson to Tolkien.
Some of the random stuff I've read lately:
The Atopia Chronicles (This was pretty good actually, I'll be looking forward to future works)
A Quest of Heroes (First book in the Sorcerer's Ring series, don't think I'll continue it though...)
Further: Beyond the Threshold (This one was okay, but had a lot of annoyances that could have been fixed by an editor)
The Last Swordmage (First book in Swordmage Trilogy, This one had some flaws but overall decent, will read the 2nd book soon)
Legends of Muirwood series (Not bad, had it's ups and downs, a little too religious for my tastes)
The Broken God Machine (This was pretty interesting, worth a read, made me want to read his other works...)
The Blood That Binds (Speaking of other works... this was just awful... nothing but sex with no real content, had to force myself to finish)
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I have a physics midterm in 4 days and this sounds like an excellent waste of time! Id live to read it.
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United Kingdom31935 Posts
I would love to read it  always love reading and it sounds interesting. :D
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United Kingdom31935 Posts
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United States23455 Posts
I volunteer myself in service of your writing.
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This sounds intriguing. I don't fit the 'very familiar with' criteria, but I'd be interested to read an extract or two. Feel free to PM me if you're up for it.
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If you don't mind me asking, when you say character driven how would you describe the scope of main characters (don't know how to phrase it better ;P) more Final Fantasy (core group, rest important but less explored) or Game of Thrones (100 main characters)? I'm asking because I'm a little meh on stories where it's hard to define the protagonist/-nists,
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I wouldn't mind reading some, would be a good way to spend my breaks at school
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
On February 10 2014 05:33 McRatyn wrote:
If you don't mind me asking, when you say character driven how would you describe the scope of main characters (don't know how to phrase it better ;P) more Final Fantasy (core group, rest important but less explored) or Game of Thrones (100 main characters)? I'm asking because I'm a little meh on stories where it's hard to define the protagonist/-nists,
Keeping spoilers to a minimum, you could say that I've divided the main characters into four "groups". Occasionally the groups will interact, split, rearrange and find themselves pitted against each other, but there are several different reoccuring characters that play key roles that won't all be together all the time or might even find themselves fighting against each other.
So, more of the Game of Thrones variant than a cast like The Belgarion or the Inheritance Cycle.
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I'd be happy to give feedback.
Is this a self-contained story or the beginning of a series, and are you looking for writing/content suggestions or editing?
I was immersed in fantasy books for much of my young life, though it's petered out a bit since finishing school and working in DC 
It would be great to help with something like this
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
On February 10 2014 06:01 tili wrote:I'd be happy to give feedback. Is this a self-contained story or the beginning of a series, and are you looking for writing/content suggestions or editing? I was immersed in fantasy books for much of my young life, though it's petered out a bit since finishing school and working in DC It would be great to help with something like this
I'm really fond of the world I've created. Initially I was thinking several standalones set in the same world but separate from each other, but I decided to divide the story into at least (two) parts instead. Whether I'll expand that or not, who knows, but I'd like to write at least two.
As for suggestions, I'm somewhat open to ideas. I have a fairly good idea of how everything is going to play out in my head that I'm sticking to, but I'd never say no to different ideas.
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4713 Posts
I admire your dedication and passion and would be honored to help you.
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One question: Is one of the main charakters inspired by life?
Whatever your answer to this is, i would love to read it
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I'll help! Always good to have some outside input
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Would read and critique as well, especially after the erikson and hamilton
My qualifications include having been one of the judges on the annual broodwar.de short story contest and having read through the Ghormengast trilogy.
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I'd be curious to read it, sure.
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Sounds interesting. Make sure to add a bunch of weird stuff, and it will at least, well..., weird.
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EPT
