ecdavis
Troubadour
Well, I've been a member of this group now for about 5 minutes, so obviously I don't have a very good feel for what goes on here, but I thought that since there is an Introductions forum, perhaps this would be the best place to start.
I found this site this morning while searching for forums for Fantasy writers. I'm glad I did, because apparently there are a lot of you out there. That is comforting to know because I recently learned that my friends are not really big fans of fantasy books, or at least think my writing really stinks and are just too polite to let me know. It was crazy; I used to write when I was a teenager, but gave it up for more adult pursuits such as making money, getting married and stuff like that.
When I was a teenager, I joined the ranks of nerdy guys by getting heavily involved with AD&D and role-playing games for 4 long, girl-free years. Like most RPGers from the 80s, I read the usual fantasy novels as well as Sci-Fi, but at about the same time I gave up writing, I also gave up reading Fantasy and Sci-Fi for non-fiction stuff such as history books.
Fast-forward to the typical age of male mid-life crisis (mid 40s) and after falling in love with Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Lord of the Rings (and I know there are many purists that don't like it), I found myself thinking about several fantasy stories I had kept in my head for about 25 years. I'd really liked the old AD&D Drow series (Descent Into the Depths of the Earth and Vault of the Drow) and had an idea about a character that was a Drow slave that led a Spartacus type of revolt in that setting. I even went as far as to outline the story, but as it had been 25 years since I had the idea, and as I knew there were probably a million nerdy mid-lifers like myself that loved the same stuff, I decided to check first on-line to see if anyone had taken my idea.
Of course I found R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt series and bought the first six books. Even though my idea was somewhat different, I knew upon reading his stuff that my idea would be a pale and pitiful imitation, so I scrapped it.
But at about the same time (still in my mid-life crisis) I began looking into computer based Fantasy games. Before getting involved with Dungeons and Dragons on-line I found a copy of an older disc based game, either Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate -- I don't remember now-- and was playing the first part where you set up a a character and go through a brief back-story to teach you how to use the controls. I created a Drow girl just to see how the graphics looked and the story line in the game had her as the adopted daughter of a Weapons merchant in a small town. I never went on with the game, but I thought the idea of a Drow girl orphaned and raised in a backwater town was a good story idea.
At first I fretted about writing my idea, but i decided that instead of trying to make the story fit into molds that publishing houses like, I would instead just write for enjoyment, taking the story where I wanted to take it without trying to get it published. That is exactly what I did, and I found that writing for your own enjoyment is the way to go, at least for me. Instead of trying to fit my story into an existing universe such as the Forgotten Realms setting that Wizards of the Coast has copyrights on (and it is where Drizzt's stories take place), instead I'd create my own world.
It took me a year and a half and one major re-writing to finish it, but I did last October and hoped my friends, whom I had encouraged in their creative endeavors would at least give me the typical half-hearted approval as friends usually do when they are 'just being a good friend' and don't really like their friend's work. Two of my friends indicated they wanted to read the book when it was done, but after I gave a copy to each of them, they suddenly found no time to read it, or even part of it. I was sure my story was so poorly written that they just couldn't tell me.
My wife and a relative read it and actually said it wasn't bad. So in a brave moment, I put it on Booksie, and began working on the second book of what became a trilogy. I was thrilled when they featured my book on their homepage for about a month and I received a large number of reads and many positive comments. I thought I had arrived, but I've recently learned that much of the comments and reads are probably people wanting to get more reads for their books and stories as their comments will show up on a featured page. I have posted the first book there, a rather long 'short' story (in the same fantasy setting) and I'm posting -- chapter by chapter-- the second book in the series there now. I'm also working on the third book in the trilogy now and will post it there when I get it done.
The thing is; I've noticed that my non-featured work placed on Booksie doesn't seem to get many comments or nearly as many reads (which of course I knew would be the case). My point is, I'm not really sure if my series is any good or are just being looked at by other aspiring writers wanting to get links and positive reviews to their work. I don't mind that, and in fact I've reviewed several writers on the site, but I'm still not sure if my stuff is any good. If I had to review it, I'd say it was okay, but somewhat primitive in construction and a bit too old-school.
I'm hoping, by joining this site that maybe I can see how other, much more talented writers think and write and (hopefully) compare my own stuff to their works. My series, by the way, I've entitled the 'Chronicles of Aurei', the first one is 'Aurei of Westmark' and the second one is 'The Knights of Northmarch'. I don't want to break any rules by posting links to them, just in case that is taboo.
Anyway, this is my long, rambling introduction.
ecdavis
I found this site this morning while searching for forums for Fantasy writers. I'm glad I did, because apparently there are a lot of you out there. That is comforting to know because I recently learned that my friends are not really big fans of fantasy books, or at least think my writing really stinks and are just too polite to let me know. It was crazy; I used to write when I was a teenager, but gave it up for more adult pursuits such as making money, getting married and stuff like that.
When I was a teenager, I joined the ranks of nerdy guys by getting heavily involved with AD&D and role-playing games for 4 long, girl-free years. Like most RPGers from the 80s, I read the usual fantasy novels as well as Sci-Fi, but at about the same time I gave up writing, I also gave up reading Fantasy and Sci-Fi for non-fiction stuff such as history books.
Fast-forward to the typical age of male mid-life crisis (mid 40s) and after falling in love with Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Lord of the Rings (and I know there are many purists that don't like it), I found myself thinking about several fantasy stories I had kept in my head for about 25 years. I'd really liked the old AD&D Drow series (Descent Into the Depths of the Earth and Vault of the Drow) and had an idea about a character that was a Drow slave that led a Spartacus type of revolt in that setting. I even went as far as to outline the story, but as it had been 25 years since I had the idea, and as I knew there were probably a million nerdy mid-lifers like myself that loved the same stuff, I decided to check first on-line to see if anyone had taken my idea.
Of course I found R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt series and bought the first six books. Even though my idea was somewhat different, I knew upon reading his stuff that my idea would be a pale and pitiful imitation, so I scrapped it.
But at about the same time (still in my mid-life crisis) I began looking into computer based Fantasy games. Before getting involved with Dungeons and Dragons on-line I found a copy of an older disc based game, either Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate -- I don't remember now-- and was playing the first part where you set up a a character and go through a brief back-story to teach you how to use the controls. I created a Drow girl just to see how the graphics looked and the story line in the game had her as the adopted daughter of a Weapons merchant in a small town. I never went on with the game, but I thought the idea of a Drow girl orphaned and raised in a backwater town was a good story idea.
At first I fretted about writing my idea, but i decided that instead of trying to make the story fit into molds that publishing houses like, I would instead just write for enjoyment, taking the story where I wanted to take it without trying to get it published. That is exactly what I did, and I found that writing for your own enjoyment is the way to go, at least for me. Instead of trying to fit my story into an existing universe such as the Forgotten Realms setting that Wizards of the Coast has copyrights on (and it is where Drizzt's stories take place), instead I'd create my own world.
It took me a year and a half and one major re-writing to finish it, but I did last October and hoped my friends, whom I had encouraged in their creative endeavors would at least give me the typical half-hearted approval as friends usually do when they are 'just being a good friend' and don't really like their friend's work. Two of my friends indicated they wanted to read the book when it was done, but after I gave a copy to each of them, they suddenly found no time to read it, or even part of it. I was sure my story was so poorly written that they just couldn't tell me.
My wife and a relative read it and actually said it wasn't bad. So in a brave moment, I put it on Booksie, and began working on the second book of what became a trilogy. I was thrilled when they featured my book on their homepage for about a month and I received a large number of reads and many positive comments. I thought I had arrived, but I've recently learned that much of the comments and reads are probably people wanting to get more reads for their books and stories as their comments will show up on a featured page. I have posted the first book there, a rather long 'short' story (in the same fantasy setting) and I'm posting -- chapter by chapter-- the second book in the series there now. I'm also working on the third book in the trilogy now and will post it there when I get it done.
The thing is; I've noticed that my non-featured work placed on Booksie doesn't seem to get many comments or nearly as many reads (which of course I knew would be the case). My point is, I'm not really sure if my series is any good or are just being looked at by other aspiring writers wanting to get links and positive reviews to their work. I don't mind that, and in fact I've reviewed several writers on the site, but I'm still not sure if my stuff is any good. If I had to review it, I'd say it was okay, but somewhat primitive in construction and a bit too old-school.
I'm hoping, by joining this site that maybe I can see how other, much more talented writers think and write and (hopefully) compare my own stuff to their works. My series, by the way, I've entitled the 'Chronicles of Aurei', the first one is 'Aurei of Westmark' and the second one is 'The Knights of Northmarch'. I don't want to break any rules by posting links to them, just in case that is taboo.
Anyway, this is my long, rambling introduction.
ecdavis