TheTrinary
Hi, I'm Stephen
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2020
- Messages
- 977
- Points
- 133
Would keep reading.well, I'm in a good mood since I've edited my first chapters a few days ago. I could need some feedback.
First chapter.
This was quite good. Interesting off the bat and you shifted your focus where you needed to. Good pace and drive. My only real critique for a work at the web novel level is just some of the writing here and there. Extra words, extra sentences. It could use a slight paring down, but overall very good job.
Would not keep reading.I would love some feedback If anybody wants to take a gander. Good or bad please let me know what you think!
Right away, I'm seeing a lot of tense issues swapping between past and present. And then the first section is just the MC rattling off exposition. Pick one and stick with it. And it's not that you can exposit in the set up or whoever, but that exposition has to be entertaining and matter more than the base information it's conveying.
"We lived in Corinth" is a sentence completely devoid of meaning. It tell us the name of where he lives. . . but who cares. Good exposition transitions takes that base information and transforms it into something more important (story, commentary, humor, whatever it is you're going for).
Let me give you an example of that same paragraph. It may or may not jive with your world building, but that is hardly the point:
Until the death of my parents, we lived a normal life in Corinthin. It was a small city whose only appeal was to farmers and criminals hiding from local law enforcement. The only way out for the first group was to join a guild, and guilds didn't recruit from no-name hick towns.
Sentence 1: Establish the information. Exact same.
Sentence two: Characterize the city and create a bridge that will lead us to the point. Both are the same thing.
Sentence three: The point. the MC is stuck and unable to leave his small-town life. By describing the town we now know the MC better. It's a little writing tip. They say always do two things at once. (Plot, world building, character writing, etc.)
It's not exactly high art, but it's quick and to the point and it, uh, has a point. If we look at your comparable paragraph. . . you spend a long time establishing that he's a normal dude doing normal things. But like. That's what the reader assumes right? We understand children go to school, so why are you telling us this. What information are you conveying that adds to our conception of school?
And I guess that's the problem in general. You engage in these descriptions without even knowing the point of WHY you are doing it. Case in point: "Even though the guilds are a relic of the past. . . ," You then proceed to tell us why guilds are extremely important and people can't live without them.
Other times there's just redundant information. It very much feels like a rough draft that someone wrote very very fast.
Technically my rating system of "would keep reading or not" is a bit of a sham in this case because I immediately read the second chapter. So I'm just going to describe my experience.I'm definitely down for some feedback: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/401254/underland-and-the-forehidden-kingdom/
It's engaging. It's even entertaining. But not in the way that writers want their works to be. I read on because I needed context. . . and understanding. I'm still a little confused here.
You start off pretty hard. You have some lavish prose that rides that line on purple. That's fine. Where we hit the first bump was the follow up tone and voice of the characters. They are flippant and immature and it seems you are going for overtly comedic off the back of some wordy Tolkien-esque writing. I shouldn't have to say it, but these two things don't go together.
Actually, that was my second question. My first confusion was why he had to summon. . . a clone? to help when he could blow up entire swaths of the castle with a swing of his sword. The logic was immediately wobbly.
Once we get to the second chapter, I'm more clueless. I was thinking portal fantasy, but was that all just a dream sequence? I guess it must be. If you take out most of the first chapter, everything else pretty much tracks. But then judging it on that, it's not super entertaining. A lot of the character stuff is grating and the dialogue is at it's worst when you think you're being clever because oh boy is it not. Like that bit about Scrappy Doo was so bad. You clearly had a punch line in your mind and didn't know how to get to it, but oh boy did you take the wrong path there. There's a logic to conversation and people think a certain way. Scrappy is a real word and has a meaning. Everyone universally understanding it to mean the cartoon character when the real definition fits better is just. . . what.
And then. And then oh boy. The rest of the prose doesn't match the starting purple. So. . . what is the intent? I don't know. I can't give you the gold medal, but this is one of the more confused starts to a story I've seen.
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