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United States24701 Posts
For quite a number of years, I've thought about writing fiction, but I never got serious with it until now. My sister's been self-publishing urban fantasy books and the like on Amazon and she's a great writer overall so she's been a good mentor to bounce ideas off of and get some tips. She also has similar interests to me (Starcraft aside).
I finally buckled down and wrote a ~250 page fantasy novel. Then, I wrote volume 2 of similar length. Now, I'm starting a new project. Once I got going, I found the process surprisingly fun. I decided to post the books as I went on a web novel site: RoyalRoad.
The purpose of this blog isn't to promote my books so I won't put a link, but if anyone's interested they can find my work under the pen name Garfield on that site. I thought sharing on a chapter by chapter basis was a good way to get some feedback and hopefully improve my fiction writing. I write a great deal for work (not fiction) so I was confident in the technical aspects of what I was publishing, but fiction is obviously a whole different beast.
What I found was that most readers are pretty quiet. I have evidence that a fairly large number of people (and some bots probably) viewed my various chapters, but few commented, rated, or reviewed. Still, I did receive some feedback which I found helpful so it wasn't a waste. It's also fun to see readers enthusiastic for what comes next. I made a good effort to obey most of the writing advice here: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php?threads/allen-guthries-infamous-writing-tips.102594/
I didn't attempt to monetize as some authors on that website do. As I said, I'm writing for fun and improvement. One day, I want to write a novel I have serious ambitions for and maybe pitch it and try to get it published the old-fashioned way. For now, I want to try writing books in different genres and subgenres while building experience. The more of a beating I take from whiny online readers and reviewers, the more ready I'll be when every publishing company on the continent repeatedly rejects my work (which is apparently normal)!
Anyone else give fiction writing a try? It's not for everyone, but I found it to be a great learning experience, at least so far.
  
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That's really cool! I'm considering writing a novel based on the video game I developed, Mango Mischief, which would obviously be a work of fiction too  Not sure if I'll have the time to actually follow through on it though. I was going to ask if you had any tips for beginners, but that link in your post is certainly a great answer to that question!
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United States24701 Posts
I wouldn't worry too much about following that list strictly for two reasons. The first is that it's fairly genre-dependent. The author of those tips may not have had your type of fiction in mind. Second, some of that stuff is fairly advanced to get perfect and isn't worth your time on you first book or two. Still, it has many great points in it so giving it a thorough read is a good idea.
I can comment a bit on other tips that have come up. For example, the most common one is, if you want to write something, get started! Too many projects never leave the ground because the author is trying too hard to get ready to start. You can always go back and edit if you make mistakes in the early chapters (although publishing web novels makes this a bit more difficult).
On the other hand, do spend a bit of time thinking about what you are going to write in and if you will need any other tools to help you. I do my writing in MS Word because I'm comfortable with it, but it's obviously not your only option. I also create a separate document or two for reference, but what you need depends on genre. Having a character document where you list all the characters as well as defining information about them is a good idea. Even tips about verbal tics can help you remain consistent later. For my first volume, the timeline was very important so I made a separate document that was just a bulleted list of day # and what main events happened each day. For volume 2 it wasn't as important so I didn't bother.
My new project, which just went live on RoyalRoad a couple of hours ago actually, requires me to have a spreadsheet since it's a Lit-RPG. I actually had to do a bit of calculus to get the formulas for my experience curves set up right! If your fiction is based on a videogame, that may or may not become relevant as well.
I hope this helps. Definitely make the time to give it a try if you can!
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That's very helpful, thanks! I had some separate documents and spreadsheets used for when I needed to write out the verbal tics for my game's characters' dialogue (or anything else I needed to consistently remember), so those will be helpful parallels for when I try to write the novel + Show Spoiler +And, of course, getting to do math is always a plus! 
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Canada11363 Posts
Very cool. Now when you say 250 pages, what is the word count?
I am also writing fantasy—currently trying to flog my third story to literary agents. So far no bites. I think the pitch is strong, so it's either they don't like the concept or the word count is scaring them off (160K). . .or maybe my writing is not that good. The word count is not super long for fantasy, but it is long for a first time author. I was trying to keep it shorter this time but still blew over the recommended 80-120K. I'm just starting up my fourth, and I'm aiming to write a story half as long as the last one. (Fingers crossed.)
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United States24701 Posts
A little over 70K per volume.
Another SFF author told me he was pitching his 100K word novel at an event and one publisher or agent suggested shortening it a bit! Definitely could be a factor. Good luck and let me know if you need a beta reader.
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Canada11363 Posts
Yeah, if you pm me an email, I could share a google doc with the first few chapters. (I don't know if you want to commit to beta reading the entire thing as you might find it onerous in the end.) But after the first few chapters, if you want to do more, I can share more as you go.
In the same vein, I skim read your prologue and chapter one to see if I could add some value, and I think I have a few thoughts. Similarly, I don't know if I can commit out of the gate to commenting on the whole story as I'm hoping to gear up to write over the holiday; however, I'm sure I can make a start on yours so as to trade commentaries. I don't know if you have a version that's in a google doc (Commenting Privileges only), but I find commenting directly on the text is easier than trying to refer to pieces of text from the bottom comment section like they have in RoyalRoad.
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United States24701 Posts
I pm'd you. Yeah, if you don't mind, I'll read the first few chapters and share my thoughts.
As for my work, I'm not going the traditional publisher route, so I'm actually able to get some feedback from the web novel site which is quite nice (even if it's not always constructive haha). If you want to read a similar amount of my work, would you prefer the 2-volume fiction I suspended, or my newer project? After glancing at both on RR, let me know which you'd prefer to look at and I'll load it into a separate collaborative google doc.
The 2-volume fiction is basically the first fiction I ever wrote, so I've already learned a fair amount about what I would do different if I went back and started over. Charming Dungeon Master hopefully benefits from some of that, although the presentation is quite different due to it being a different sub-genre entirely.
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Canada11363 Posts
I was going to say probably your newer story so I wouldn't be repeating lessons you already learned. However, looking at the newer story, I have no idea what I would say about it. (Except to say that because the game mechanics are referred to so heavily, this is a very niche story.) I have done a fair amount of tabletop gaming, so I know the subject. However, I've never read anything close to a novel where it is totalling hit point damage and referring to tiers, levels, defence etc. (Except maybe a Shamus Young retrospective blog on past gaming sessions.) Whatever my commentary is worth, I think it will be better used with the more traditional story format—the I Guess I'll Try This World a Try.
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United States24701 Posts
All right. Let's see if you come to similar conclusions as I did. I'll send the doc your way once I receive your chapters (I'll try to roughly match word count).
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I've read a few chapters thus far. It's definitely fun to read, it feels super casual for now, I don't know if it becomes darker later. I'll read more, I think the text is engaging even though it's quite simple. If that was the inherent idea, you've aced it. If not - I'd say it's a most welcome by-product. Yes, I think I like your style.
All in all, the book feels like it'll be promising. Thanks for sharing.
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United States24701 Posts
Thanks for taking a look and for the initial feedback. Falling also provided me some good feedback for places where I can improve it, although my focus is on my current and future projects for now.
The first fiction (with the hydra in the prologue) is definitely more laid back and fun, less serious overall. The second fiction I only have a few chapters of so far is more serious but still has some light humor.
My style is definitely not for everyone (particularly in my first fiction) but I'm glad you're enjoying it! If you can make it to the big reveal chapter then statistically you are likely to make it to the end of volume 2! 
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Well, knowing that there have been people which have criticized Cicero's writing style (and he seems to be the closest we've been to immaculate prose writing) we can safely say there's no style that's for everyone. Nor there is need to please everyone.
I'm sure I can make it to this chapter you're mentioning. The only issue for me is time; as much as I like reading, I have to say I prefer non-fiction, like the Cicero I mentioned, a newyorker article here and there (since I paid I might as well make my money's worth, I suppose) and even this I squeeze between work tasks. I guess I'm trying to say I'll be able to read it later rather than sooner.
Anyway, have nice holidays and again - thanks for sharing.
ps: for what it's worth, I like your fantasy style way more than, say, Stephen King's Gunslinger. From this hyped work I managed to read like seven pages at most. It was deplorable, that's all I remember now.
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