McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Author In Progress

<< < (88/123) > >>

Breandan:
there's some fourty pages of in-character setting and background that I wrote for it before one even hits the rules, so I got to go a little nuts, it was fun :D

Romantic Heretic:

--- Quote from: Breandan on May 16, 2011, 01:55:52 AM ---Well, it's not a novel, but the RPG I wrote is now published, just hit the printers last night and should be shipping out in two weeks. So, I am officially published... sorta :D

--- End quote ---

Well done.

I designed one myself a couple of decades ago. It was never published though.

Snowleopard:
Maybe it's time to trot it out, dust it off, tune it up, and see what can happen.

WizardJay:
Hi, my name's Andrew, but everyone calls me Jay. I'm mostly a science-fiction/fantasy writer, and haven't done much beyond some short stories and a lot of notes for fuller ideas. I'd love to be able to show some of that off, get some constructive criticism.

I've always liked telling stories. The first story I "wrote" was in second grade, and is what I now know is referred to as an "interquel:" in this case, filling in the story between the movies Peter Pan and Hook. On reflection, this was an auspicious omen for how my storytelling style would proceed…

Since then, I've tried and failed to work on numerous stories, covering everything from lost worlds to time travel and multi-universal epics. I've currently got a bunch of ideas bubbling in my head, including:
The Covenant Wars, a deconstructive fantasy epic.
Mad Ventures, what I call a "fusion punk fantasy" about a world torn apart by magic and mad science.
Sojourner, a science-fiction space opera.
LUNAcy/i will survive, a science fiction survival horror story.
And a whole bunch of other stuff, which does not bode well for my poor stories that will never get told.

It's a bit hard to nail down my style or my likes. I like fantasy settings where the magic has rules, but the protagonists (and villains!) can figure out how to turn those rules to their advantages. I like things to be explained or justified, and if there's one thing that bugs me it's someone saying "It's magic! I don't have to explain it!": if you're not going to explain it, at least justify why it can't be explained. I like protagonists who get ahead through thinking and planning, not through deus ex machina. And, well, the ability to let people be AWESOME. If I can justify someone resurrecting a dragon or dual-wielding a death ray and a magic wand or an army of cybernetic demons battling psychic knights in powered armor, then I'll do it.

As for how I'd like to improve, I'd like to at least write and complete something. I'd like to refine my style so it feels more natural and not so purple-prosey. I want to be able to write stuff that can make people laugh and cry. I'd like to write stuff that people like. And I'd like to write stuff that I like. That may be my biggest problem, that I'm my own worst critic who sometimes can't see what people like in what they've read. I suspect that my confidence issue is what needs to be conquered before I can improve much, but hey, admitting you've got a problem is the first step to fixing it, right?

Breandan:

--- Quote from: Snowleopard on May 17, 2011, 06:37:38 PM ---Maybe it's time to trot it out, dust it off, tune it up, and see what can happen.

--- End quote ---
ESPECIALLY these days, when RPGs have largely been homogenized into D20 system or similar variants by a handful of companies. I miss the 80s, with the ten-frillion independent game systems and companies. There's a market for that sort of de-centralized and diversified product field again

WizardJay- One thing I was forewarned about a long time ago is this: its perfectly fine to diversify your own writing genres and even styles, but make sure each book falls into an easily-defined millieux, even if it has elements of others. For example, the first Dark Nova novel has elements of military sci-fi, adventure, a bit of romance, etc., but I had to pick one for marketing aspects. Thus, it was reclassed as a military sci-fi novel due to the majority focus being on the conflicts involved. Sounds like you have a pretty wide variety of genres to work from, so you'll probably have classifications from "Science-Fantasy" to "Steampunk" from the sounds of it :D

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page