McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Opinions requested

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fitzypoop:
Hey all,

A couple of years ago I wrote a book that pretty much sucked and was rejected by every publisher I sent it to.  Now I'm going through and pretty much re-writing the whole thing but there are aspects of it that I am definitely changing from the original and I'd like to get the opinion of some people here about whether or not it's a good idea or if I should just write and see where it takes me.

My main character is a wizard who is feared and somewhat despised by other wizards but not because of anything he did.  His father was a respected wizard in their world and he fell in love with a woman who was of a species that could willingly transform into a creature just like a werewolf (I'm using generic terms for now, I haven't come up with a species name for them yet or any other details).  She gave birth to my main character and he inherited his father's magical ability and his mother's shapechanging powers, except his is more like the lycanthropic full moon curse that is normally associated with werewolves.

My question, and feel free to be honest with this, is whether or not you (or people in general) might like to see a character like this, should I just write it and see where it takes me, or should I just drop the idea entirely and try something else?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Darwinist:
not my cup of tea, but I'm not an avid reader myself, and I loathe werewolf stories. Fool Moon being the exception, Jim.

Still, there's a market for anything out there, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Personally, it sounds like you're trying to make the backstory of the character a bit too complex. A little of one, a little of another. It's a fresh angle, which is nice though. Maybe punch up the language a bit in your synopsis because it's way too much geekspeak for me. Wizards. Lycanthropes. Curses. The. Its big scary geeky words, they frighten me.

Again, there is probably a market for this, but on a mass media front of a general audience - just generalize it. Use plainer terms and simplify how you're explaining the plot and it will come off much better.

seekmore:
You used a lot of words to say "Everyone hates my werewolf-wizard not for who he is, but what he is."

And that's not really a lot to go on for determining whether a character is interesting enough to read about, in my opinion.

In my experience, story and character execution is the determining factor, rather than originality of premise.

What is you character doing? How does he act and react? What does he face beyond simple prejudice?

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: fitzypoop on August 01, 2009, 12:56:03 PM ---A couple of years ago I wrote a book that pretty much sucked and was rejected by every publisher I sent it to.  Now I'm going through and pretty much re-writing the whole thing but there are aspects of it that I am definitely changing from the original and I'd like to get the opinion of some people here about whether or not it's a good idea or if I should just write and see where it takes me.

My main character is a wizard who is feared and somewhat despised by other wizards but not because of anything he did.  His father was a respected wizard in their world and he fell in love with a woman who was of a species that could willingly transform into a creature just like a werewolf (I'm using generic terms for now, I haven't come up with a species name for them yet or any other details).  She gave birth to my main character and he inherited his father's magical ability and his mother's shapechanging powers, except his is more like the lycanthropic full moon curse that is normally associated with werewolves.

My question, and feel free to be honest with this, is whether or not you (or people in general) might like to see a character like this, should I just write it and see where it takes me, or should I just drop the idea entirely and try something else?

--- End quote ---

Nothing about the character either leaps out saying yes or leaps out saying no to me. 

The thing that would worry me as a way people writing a character with that sort of bad past piled up and that sort of powers would be likely to fail - presuming from what is implicit in what you have here that he has quite a bit more power than most folks in that world, and therefore isn't going to get that much direct physical challenge - would be for all the fear and despising to turn him into a hopeless angstmuffin who spends all his time wailing and whining about nobody liking him.

Aludra:
The Anita Blake series left a bad taste in my mouth for magical hybrids.  I'd still be willing to give it a chance given a little more plot hints and humor previews.

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