Book review request

[Maia]

I'm planning to write a young adult fantasy novel, or more of a novella, in fact, as I'm aiming for around 40k words. When it's finished, and I've no idea when that will be, to be honest, would anyone like to read it, and let me know what you think? I'm not asking for a proof reader or copy editor, or anything like that, just overall thoughts and impressions.

[promethean75]

I can't do it, Maia. The last time i read a member's fictional writing - Fishpie's Alpha One - i wanted to change a lot of stuff, and Fishpie told me to go play in the road. That was my first traumatic experience with an author, and hopefully my last.

[Maia]

I can't do it, Maia. The last time i read a member's fictional writing - Fishpie's Alpha One - i wanted to change a lot of stuff, and Fishpie told me to go play in the road. That was my first traumatic experience with an author, and hopefully my last.

That's ok, no worries. I may never get round to writing it, anyway.

[promethean75]

How can you plan to start writing on the 10th, and then the very next day you're already expecting to "never get around to it"? That's not the writing spirit!

Here's how to initiate the process. Don't start writing as if you have a plan and a quota. If you do, you'll be under duress to perform, and you'll get writer's block. Instead, just start making filler scene material up... a few pages to developing a scene where, say, a large herd of deer being chased by wolves come crashing through the forest as that group of teenagers and the elf they're escorting are passing through. Maybe some wolves drop off the pursuit and turn to face the group, and they have to fight or something. Or maybe the elf casts some spell that allows her to calm the wolves.

Once you have this little experiment scene worked out, set it aside and insert it somewhere later into the story. If you have a bunch of these set aside, you can then work on the main plotline-carrying scenes. The filler scenes can be put anywhere.

Just keep your eye on th... er, I mean don't lose sight of... no, I mean... well you know what I mean. Don't lose the idea and don't rush the writing.

How many novel pages is 40,000 words, anyway?

[Maia]

How can you plan to start writing on the 10th, and then the very next day you're already expecting to "never get around to it"? That's not the writing spirit!

Here's how to initiate the process. Don't start writing as if you have a plan and a quota. If you do, you'll be under duress to perform, and you'll get writer's block. Instead, just start making filler scene material up... a few pages to developing a scene where, say, a large herd of deer being chased by wolves come crashing through the forest as that group of teenagers and the elf they're escorting are passing through. Maybe some wolves drop off the pursuit and turn to face the group, and they have to fight or something. Or maybe the elf casts some spell that allows her to calm the wolves.

Once you have this little experiment scene worked out, set it aside and insert it somewhere later into the story. If you have a bunch of these set aside, you can then work on the main plotline-carrying scenes. The filler scenes can be put anywhere.

Just keep your eye on th... er, I mean don't lose sight of... no, I mean... well you know what I mean. Don't lose the idea and don't rush the writing.

How many novel pages is 40,000 words, anyway?

Thanks, a good idea, I'll try it. So far I've been working on a good, catchy opening that will grab the reader's attention. Not so much "It was a dark and stormy night" to quote Bulwer-Lytton's famous and oft-parodied beginning to a long forgotten novel, but this:

...and hundreds of dead elves lay strewn across the hillside under the bloated, setting sun, as Clocoedwig the Shiny One surveyed the scene of destruction he had wrought, laughing maniacally. With his weeping prize on his arm, the elf-maiden he had ended so many lives to steal...

Complete with the ellipses at the start and finish, exactly as written above, as if it's some fragment of a text, which is exactly what it turns out to be, an ancient legend, but one that informs the present in mysterious ways. There's quite a bit more already, too, but I won't be boring everyone to tears by reproducing the whole thing here.

I'm not sure how many pages 40k words would work out as in a printed edition, but for comparison The Hobbit has 95k words and The Lord of the Rings 480k. I picked the figure of 40k as it's apparently the minimum expected in a young adult novel. If I end up writing more, then that's all well and good.

But yes, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any new ideas.