My new Novel(s)

[Ping]

If we're mean, it's because we care.

 

But yeah, I do have to agree with some of the above.

 

I will be completely honest with you, these ideas in your "novels" have been tried and done before; that, therefore, makes them cliched (sorry if this sounds mean, but I'm trying to be realistic). Besides, how many 14 year olds can write a good, professional novel? Not many.

 

IMO, you're not being realistic. Even in the scenario that you do write these books, I don't believe any publisher will take a teenager seriously. If you're set on this stuff, then you must view this with realism, nothing more, nothing less.

[Tysyacha]

Te Darasuum,

 

I fancy myself a writer as well, and I KNOW how hard it is to make it. Keep practicing and writing. Don't give up. PM me a sample of it. I'm serious.

 

I could have received the EXACT same kinds of responses when I first started posting roleplays and stories in the Coruscant Entertainment Center/Dantooine Theater Company, and therefore by the grace of God (and the Force) go I. Like I said, don't quit.

 

By the way, I'm 30 years old, and I have a LONG way to go toward being a "master".

[The Seeker]

No need to be asses, guys. Sheesh, he's 14. Sure he's egotistical, but don't put down a writer in any form. It's refreshing to see a 14 year old who can actually write a coherent sentence. Sure it's not original, or mind blowing, but it's a story in the works. Nothing wrong with finding your groove on a paved road before striking through the woods.

 

I started my first book at 15 and finished it at 20. The basic premise is done to death Fantasy revenge stuff, but it got me rolling and taught me how to get a beginning, middle, and end on paper. Now I'm working on my second more original story because I wrote the cliche first.

 

To Te Darasuum Mandalor, I don't recommend coming here fishing for validation because it's not gonna happen with this crowd, especially with the "I don't wanna brag but I'm really good" attitude. Keep writing though. Stick with your stories. Just don't expect people to be blown away and then get offended if they aren't. Instead, just write your best, and if people dig it, then you know you're doing well. Here on the big wild intranets though, a gaming forum is a hive of spiteful, see-I-told-you-so sorts who argue just for the sake of argument.

 

Take your stuff to a writers forum and you'll get some good criticism other than "you're a terrible writer and 14 to boot therefore anything you say is crap and you're an idiot"

[jonathan7]

Moved to CEC - Please post topics such as this here, rather than in Ahto -- j7

 

Isn't there already a section of the forum dedicated to this type of topic or perhaps a blog?

 

Correcto-mundo

 

I think that this is also concidered an acceptable spot for this kind of thing

 

No, it's not! I'm not quite sure why you think you'd know better than mimartin considering he's a member of the SW:K Moderation staff.

[Astrotoy7]

You have such a depressing life my not so friendly friend, you should have been banned a long time ago! LOL

 

 

I will try my hardest to prove you wrong.

 

Wonderful!! I am glad a young person has the confidence to stand up to the forum bully.

 

To Te Darasuum Mandalor, I don't recommend coming here fishing for validation because it's not gonna happen with this crowd, especially with the "I don't wanna brag but I'm really good" attitude. Keep writing though. Stick with your stories. Just don't expect people to be blown away and then get offended if they aren't. Instead, just write your best, and if people dig it, then you know you're doing well. Here on the big wild intranets though, a gaming forum is a hive of spiteful, see-I-told-you-so sorts who argue just for the sake of argument.

 

Take your stuff to a writers forum and you'll get some good criticism other than "you're a terrible writer and 14 to boot therefore anything you say is crap and you're an idiot"

 

Superbly said.

 

 

egotistical... with delusions of grandeur.

 

lolz... coming from you, that is cause for concern

 

 

I know I am fairly young, (and I don't mean to brag) but I have been told by my friends and my teachers that I am an exceedingly gifted writer and have a way with words.

 

Personally, I think it is great that young people are still interested in writing, and that teachers are encouraging them to do it.

 

We're all brilliant at 14[/sarcasm]

 

At least his teacher is encouraging him to write/not keyboard his way into literacy

 

 

Te Darasuum Mandalor

Kudos on being interested in writing and having the confidence to share it in public. Pay no attention to the nasty comments. I haven't seen anyone above win the Nobel Prize for Literature, so don't take the spirit of their critiques to heart - though some of the advice is sound:

 

*read/research - the more you learn - the more nuances and detail you can bring to your created worlds. eg, Most modern fantasy writers all list Tolkien as an inspiration, if you look at Tolkien hismelf, he owes alot to Shakespeare, Celtic Mythology, and Epic Poetry such as Beowulf and Nibelunglied.

 

*Check your spelling and grammar, to the best of your ability. This will improve as you read more. I also recommend audio books - listen to books on the go - this doubles your exposure to new words and expressions. Reading is such a sedentary activity! For free audio books check places like LibriVox.org and iTunes Lit2Go releases.

 

*Four Novels isnt really a good place to start. Too much!! Start with shorter stories, chapters, which you can tinker to perfection.

 

*As The Seeker said, find a good writing forum where people are open and respectful to you personally, whilst being helpful to your work.

 

Close-knit forums like this are rife with persons who enjoy being rude to others, even when they are trying to tell you something useful. Pay them no mind.

 

Also, a blog is a good way to present your work. You can feature snippets and then have downloads to the whole content. Even think about doing an audio version which can stream from your blog. Some great services that allow you to setup a great looking blog for free are:

 

*wordpress

*typepad

*blogger

 

sharing audio on your site can be done by plugins or streaming players from services such as divshare.

 

If you'd like to see an example, click the funny looking logo in my sig for my blog. It's non fiction, but can give you a taste of how you can make your own little space on the web - all for FREE!

 

Also, you might want to think about making some electronic copies of your work. People use their phones, hardware and software e-readers to read stuff. If you have a blog, they can also subscribe via RSS and keep up to date with all your work.

 

Hence, think about outputting work in these formats

*text file

*epub

*PDF

*mobipocket format (works on kindle) you can add metadata, cover art etc

 

An all in one tool is available called Calibre, feel free to watch the demo HERE

 

Finally, visuals help - whether it is a cover or an illustration. Places like deviant-art are full of artists of varying ages and degrees of skill. Have a look around and make some connections.

 

good luck! work hard and have fun! Feel free to PM if you need any help setting up your own blog, using e-formats. I use blogger myself so am most familiar with that.

 

mtfbwya

[purifier]

Ok guys, I hope you enjoyed my summaries of my current projects, and I hope you would tell me which story I should focus more on over the summer.

 

 

Well they're not bad Te Darasuum Mand'alor, especially for a 14 year old, but there's still room for some improvement. And more writing and reading should help you get even better. So I'd say practice, practice, practice, on all of the stories in the summaries you've just proposed to us.

[Arcesious]

I've been trying to write a good story for quite awhile now, but whenever I read something, like a Timothy Zahn book, I realize just how undetailed and poorly written my story is, despite how hard I might try to write something good. Another problem I have is pre-conclusion writer's block. I usually have some huge conclusions and events in the story, but writing the story up to the point where they occur can get boring. Being original isn't that hard for me now that I've had enough time to develop all my ideas in my imagination into something new. I used to post very unoriginal and poorly written stories on this forum... They're not good, at all. So I pretty much agree with the above posters.

[Sabretooth]

Astro pretty much stole all I had to say, so I'm going to slink away into the shadows now.

[LordOfTheFish]

Te Darasuum Mandalor,

 

 

It's great that your interested in writing, however I think you took the wrong approach to posting this. Right from the start you mention how you consider yourself a very good writer. Probably not the best thing to post here... I remember when I first joined this forum, everyone flamed me too anytime I posted a new topic it seems like.

 

Now about your writing-

 

I myself have pretty pathetic english and grammar. It's my weakest subject in school. That be said, I noticed a few mistakes in your summaries. I guess maybe reading the stories out loud to yourself my help you with better punctuation, which is mainly what I found to be missing. That and a few over-used words. It was still not that bad for someone of 14, so keep it up. Your writing is a lot better than mine at 14.

 

I would take Tysyacha up on her offer, she does know what she is talking about, her works are some of the best in the CEC.

 

Also read what Astro and The Seeker have to say.

 

One thing for sure is you have the right attitude, and with that you could go a long way. Just make sure you aren't cocky and arrogant about it.

[Tysyacha]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

*HUGS*!!!! Plus, Darasuum, my offer still stands.

[machievelli]

Guys, I may only be the old bag of wind who does critiques and gentle (And sometimes not to gentle) correcting but if you go back to the first year I was doing this job I mentioned two things.

 

First my first magnum opus (Age 11) which did not survive (Thank all the gods of wicked mirth) was so bad that if I had judged my chances then I would have gotten into techincal writing and never darkened your doorstep here. I have been writing since then and one thing I can say is, the more you practice and edit and tweak and polsh, the better it gets. So if you're going to criticize, do it with out the flames, because if I were that age now and you guys laid into me like this, I would never have written the second story.

 

Second, when you criticize, even in the negative, make it constructive. One editor back in 1977 sent me such a scathing indictment of my work (And we're just talking about me sending the equivalent of a modern query letter, with the basic idea sketched out) that I didn't even try to sell anything for almost a decade. All that denunciation because he read all of 200 words I wrote.

 

Our friend may think he is the greatest, and as Jae said, we're all the greatest at 14. But I look at it as if I were hiring him for a job.

 

Don't brag, pull out all the stops and prove it.

 

As for subject matter, I focus on naval warfare, because I know it backward and forward. I focus on warfare in general because I understand the mentality without becoming abusive of the people in it. That doesn't mean it is all I have written. If you look at a site named lulu dot com with the name of Lorance (My last name) you will see two sword and sorcery novels, three about Faeries in the real world, One about a costume shop where the costumes really work, An action adventure/ murder mystery, and an off the wall romance.

 

So having one 'niche' doesn't mean you can't teach an old dog, or even a new one a brand new trick.

[Pavlos]

Epic Poetry such as Beowulf

This makes me happy.

 

Gesyhð sorhcearig on his suna bure

winsele westne, windge reste

reote berofene. Ridend swefað,

hæleð in hoðman; nis þaer hearpan sweg,

gomen in geardum, swylce ðær iu wæron.

Gewiteð þonne on sealman, sorhleoð gæleð

an æfter anum; þuhte him eall to rum,

wongas ond wicstede.

 

And Seamus Heaney's loose but wonderful translation

 

He gazes sorrowfully at his son's dwelling,

the banquet hall bereft of all delight,

the windswept hearthstone [reste]; the horsemen are sleeping,

the warriors underground; what was is no more.

No tunes from the harp, no cheer raised in the yard.

Alone with his longing, he lies down on his bed

and sings a lament; everything seems too large,

the steadings and the fields.

 

Anyone with the occasional free weekend should learn Old English, it's not difficult for those who know English, and it's worth slogging your way through things like Aelfric's "Colloquy on the Occupations" to get to some of the purest-souled poetry and prose in any language; not contrived by artifice, but speaking on an almost instinctual level. I'm probably being needlessly romantic about it, but it really is worth a look. Lk srsly.

[Te Darasuum Mandalor]

good ole, Beowulf!

[Astrotoy7]

I'm probably being needlessly romantic about it, but it really is worth a look. Lk srsly.

 

Whilst I don't plan on picking up Old English anytime soon, I'm always interested in hearing about it - mainly from an historical perspective (as opposed to a linguistic one, which is also interesting)

 

I just finished listening to a 5 part podcast from Oxford called Introduction to Old English. For those that are interested, check the Oxford University Podcast site or this direct RSS link

 

There's also a 4 part series about Tolkien at Oxford, which Tolkien fans should really check out

 

mtfbwya

[JediMaster12]

Having read this thread, I am going to lock it finding it to be nothing more than a breeding ground for flame baiting.

 

Here in CEC please use constructive criticism on works posted here. I stress this on members who have been here longer. Not everyone is used to bluntness or realist comments like others.

 

Overall, be nice everyone.

 

JM12