Hey all, the names Ebenstone and I'm a bit of a lurker but I want to get some general feedback from some of you to see if I am barking up the wrong tree with what I've got cooking. I need to tell you two things to start so this makes sense.
First, I am a RABID fan of George RR Martin, he of A Song of Ice and Fire, and in no small way he is the inspiration behind much of my writing and in particular the series I have named Seasons of Destiny. When explaining the series, I basically say it is ASOIAF for Teens and YAs. I have patterned it very much in the same manner as ASOIAF and had some die hard fans read the outline so it didn't sound like I had crossed over from allusion to plagarism. I didn't.
Now I've completed the first draft of the first book Winter's Discord, which clocked in at just shy of 99k and am presently 30k of an intended 110k of book 2: Spring's Tempest. I start rewrites on Winter beginning July 1 and am really excited about changes I intend to make. That being said, on Sunday I was at my wife's aunt with no computer and I hadn't written since Friday because of a grad party then Father's Day, so I scrounged up some paper and started freehanding what was bouncing about. I was then barraged with question about what I was writing (I had about 3 hand written pages), which ranged from impressed (the 16 yo neighbor girl raved and raved about how cool she thought that was) to impassive (one aunt kind of curled her lips at me kind of funny). Now when pressed about what the books were about, I froze. To me this is the hardest part of the process. How can I describe the book in a few simple phrases?
Now to her credit, the 16yo still thought it was cool even though I explained it was epic fantasy and that it was the story of a family during a great civil war. (She's on the ARC list and free copy list now too!) However, I am barking up the wrong tree by calling it a YA book? All four books will each be between 90-120k but I still call them books for teens.
But I'm still struggling with the hook. Seasons of Destiny is the story of a family (the noble Granges and thier allies) who gets caught up in events much bigger than them and how they cope with thier united destinies as the possible saviors of all they know and love set against the backdrop of a realtively warm southern continent embroiled in a conflict that dates back centuries.
Too cliched? Does it sound interesting? What else do I need? Want to read it? Has this happened to anyone else when you were found out to be a writer?
First, I am a RABID fan of George RR Martin, he of A Song of Ice and Fire, and in no small way he is the inspiration behind much of my writing and in particular the series I have named Seasons of Destiny. When explaining the series, I basically say it is ASOIAF for Teens and YAs. I have patterned it very much in the same manner as ASOIAF and had some die hard fans read the outline so it didn't sound like I had crossed over from allusion to plagarism. I didn't.
Now I've completed the first draft of the first book Winter's Discord, which clocked in at just shy of 99k and am presently 30k of an intended 110k of book 2: Spring's Tempest. I start rewrites on Winter beginning July 1 and am really excited about changes I intend to make. That being said, on Sunday I was at my wife's aunt with no computer and I hadn't written since Friday because of a grad party then Father's Day, so I scrounged up some paper and started freehanding what was bouncing about. I was then barraged with question about what I was writing (I had about 3 hand written pages), which ranged from impressed (the 16 yo neighbor girl raved and raved about how cool she thought that was) to impassive (one aunt kind of curled her lips at me kind of funny). Now when pressed about what the books were about, I froze. To me this is the hardest part of the process. How can I describe the book in a few simple phrases?
Now to her credit, the 16yo still thought it was cool even though I explained it was epic fantasy and that it was the story of a family during a great civil war. (She's on the ARC list and free copy list now too!) However, I am barking up the wrong tree by calling it a YA book? All four books will each be between 90-120k but I still call them books for teens.
But I'm still struggling with the hook. Seasons of Destiny is the story of a family (the noble Granges and thier allies) who gets caught up in events much bigger than them and how they cope with thier united destinies as the possible saviors of all they know and love set against the backdrop of a realtively warm southern continent embroiled in a conflict that dates back centuries.
Too cliched? Does it sound interesting? What else do I need? Want to read it? Has this happened to anyone else when you were found out to be a writer?
and say that there can be a vast difference in YA and adult literature. Perhaps slightly less in fantasy, but perhaps not. 