The Review Club Forum New Guy

Hello one and all,

First I want to thank Rob for keeping me in mind. I have reviewed and been reviewed by some in this group back on urbis and so I am familiar with some of the group, work, and styles.

Now, a little about me. I have been a closet writer since I was about 14 years old. My main degree is in Architectural Engineering, with a minor in journalism, and I had a few shorts and poems published back in college, but that was too many years ago to remember them without dragging them from my trunk of musings. Yes, I actually have a trunk.

Over the years, my family and mundane career took center stage and my writing was a hobby more or less, writing a page here and there, a chapter, a story, a poem, something, when ever time permitted and the house was quiet. Not until after 911 did something snap in me that drove me to consider writing seriously. Since 2002, I have been working on a series of high fantasy fictional stories. In 2003, I even got an agents interest in the first book. But, after a year, she could not sell, because I had too many issues with grammar, structure, passive voice and POV. Still, I learned alot about the submission process, got great rejection letters from some of the bigger publishing houses in which the story was pointed out as being very worthwhile. With suggestions from Ms. Kraass, (who is now retired), I have been able to clean up many of the issues. But not until the last year, taking some on line courses, reading a multitude of books, and the reviews on urbis did the light bulb begin to come on. Donald Maass even hand pinned a rejection letter last year in which he noted, "Nick, you're getting closer." Now I know that does not say much, and its only the query process, but I am either wearing him down, or my query letters are getting better.

I take both my reviewing and getting reviewed serious. I am very good at plotting, pacing, and structure of a scene. I suck at grammar and punctuation still, and thus it takes me a little longer to craft a sentence just right. I try to be very detail oriented in giving a review on anything that puzzles me as a reader, often presenting the writers with questions. If its a personal taste issue, I will note that.

In receiving reviews, I have learned to temper my responses and to step back and look at what is being said. You can tell me my work is amateurish or that this area sucks really bad and I will look at it so long as you can show me that its not a personal taste issue. I take all reviews under advisement, even if I do not change a scene, or restructure. I feel...(and again this is personal)...that only the author knows where the story is going and what they are trying to accomplish, and until a reader has done more than a chapter or two, anything other than pointing out the mechanic's is personal opinion/taste. Yes, personal taste is also a good thing to note in a review because it shows the writer who their targeted audience is.

In Donald Maass's book, 'Writing the Breakout Novel,' Ann Perry is quoted, "if we do not involve the average reader in the life of the characters, he will stop reading after a chapter or two at the best. And we want the average reader as well as the deligent, educated, hard core fans, literary snobs, and so on and so forth." The optimum word here is Average, and that is who I tend to write for, the average readers, in a style that I call quick and easy reading.

I am currently working on revising, (hopefully the last time), Book 1 from my main body of work and should have the revised chapters up soon. I ask that the group give me a little time to look around and figure out who my first vict..writer will be that I review. If anyone in the group wants to partner on a novel lenght process, I especially enjoy working on that. Yes, I know its time consuming, but I have had a few readers now that read the whole first book and gave me a very comprehesive breakdown at the end, which I found very useful on knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the story. Individual chapter reviews help the writer, but a synopsis at the end is very useful. In my humble opinion.

I look forward to reading and reviewing everyone. Its been a while since I have read anything of Robs, or Julies and so I again look forward to exploring your minds, and devious thoughts. lol. CC, I remember from urbis and I look forward to this time reading her work with a fresh start. As to the rest, if anyone wants a fresh persepective from a new member, an average reader...just message me. I usually can do about 3 reviews a week, time permitting of course. If there is anything else anyone wants to know, just ask.

Nick.

Sheesh, Nick, you beat me to my welcome to the group thread. Well, welcome to the group.

Yes, a fresh start. ::biggrin:: Deal.

And as for the average reader versus the literary snobs. What literary snob is going to say that Shakespeare isn't one of the greatest of all writers in the English language? But Shakespeare wrote for the masses, and as his early critics that had the thankless task of making some sense out of the copies of his plays pointed out, he seemed entirely unconcerned about preserving himself for literary posterity. He wanted simply to entertain people. (Yeh, all those words to say I agree, Nick.)

I've worked on several novel-length projects with critique partners, so yeah, I agree on the value of that. When I'm a little more focused on one project (instead of completely scatterbrained and thinking about approximately 6 projects), I will consider your offer, definitely.

Again, welcome.

-cc

Hey Nick:

Welcome to the the club. I'm glad you joined, as I always enjoyed your reviews and writing. I'm one of those average reader fans as well, as are alot of other writers in the group, so it should be fun.

I look forward to reading.

Julie

hi Nick,

welcome to the Review Club!

Malenkov

Welcome aboard!

Thank you one and all. I will start a new thread for comments on my works. Right now I have a rough draft of my synopsis up for Book 1, from Tales of Netherron. Very rough draft, and revised chapters 1 and 2.

I am not all that happy with the synopsis yet, so any comments on that will help.

I also hope to start reviewing in the next day or so. Again, thank you one and all.

Nick.

Welcome to the show Nick, glad to have ya! I've heard good things, and look foreward to reviewing you and being reviewed.

--Gabe ::cool::

Hey Nick. It's definitely going to helpful for everyone having you around. Your perspective and solid reviews are going to be a pleasure to have again. Also, I'll get to focus on your work again. I haven't read much in awhile. sorry. Welcome!

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the warm welcome and hope the reviews I have issued are somewhat helpful. 

I also wanted to let anyone who wants to read some fresh meat, know that I am hoping to have some stuff up this weekend and will be looking forward to hearing any comments, suggestions or rants about my work.    I know some of you have read the first postings of my Book 1, Tales of Netherron, but the revised chapters will be what I am posting and if I do say so, I have taken the story up a notch.    I will also be posting chapters from Book 2 for those tired of B1.  LOL.   Its still a work in progress.

Some of the future work I will be posting is non fantasy...well not fantasy fiction anyway, but geared more toward erotic short stories.   I will be especially interested in hearing from the ladies on what they think, and I always pay attention to the ladies. 

Nick.

 

Cam and Rob, I want to thank you both for the reviews.  You both tackled issues that deep down were troubling me. 

Cam,  I agree that the prologue needs to be racheted up another couple of notches to show slightly more, and dig the hook in deeper.   But since the prologue is a device to introduce the storyteller, the general drift of the world and storyline, that is where my troubles lie.  How much to ramp it up since the village, its inhabitants and such are immaterial to the main story at this time.   What I hope to do, is expand this knowledge with each epilogue and prologue with each book into the series, and then have them all tie in with the last book of the series.  Not sure though if the readers will continue after the first one though, so there is my issue.   Still, I did revise slightly and reposted based on your thoughts, which seem to be a common thought of others as well.   Sighhhhh....I am stubborn at times, but if hit over the head enough...I am capable of change.  lol.

Rob,  Yes, the backstory of Nathin's life is a bit long, even if its only snippets.  Your not the only one lately to point out those 9 paragraphs as a stumbling point.   My issue here is that for most of the reviews I have gotten, the reviewers wanted to know more about Nathin, sooner than later.   I have read several very good books and talked to several authors about character developement vs storyline or plot.   From what I get is that plot sells, but without involving the readers in the life of the characters, the greatest plot will never be read because the readers will not care.    Hmmmm, its the old Commercial vs Literary Plot issues. 

And yes, the MRU are important, and I will be going back and look at those to see if they were presented eventually, or if I missed, or your missed.  lol.   Yes...yes... blame the reader for not getting it.   NOT.    lol.  I think that the point you made of haveing a MRU thread would be a discussion worth noting.   I will await your comments.

Once again.   Thank you Cam and Rob, and please feel free to discuss any of my replys or reviews of your work.   I can be stubborn at times, (aren't most writers?), but I am always open to new views, advice, and thoughts from others, even if I do not use them.

Nick.

   Okay, so here's my further thought on that. The prologue is a piece of a seperate but related story. Treat it like that. Now if it isn't worth that much then dump it and say good riddance. And does it matter if they continue past the first book? I mean either they do or they don't, but that should affect what you're doing in the prologue. :) But those are just my thoughts, so take what you will and leave the rest :)

Hey Nick! I think I've figured out this blasted new site. I was looking at your prologue and realized that the font is just to damn small for me to read. Is there anything you can do about that, or is it just me? Let me know and I look forward to reading your stuff.



Gabe


[img]http://a236.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/68/m_233aa9fa2d0eae3f6902726e7773db13.jpg[/img]

Gab,

Said and done.  I increase the size to a #2.   I have a large monitor so I forget at times that not everyones resolution is like mine.   Looking forward to your review and it has been revised since Cam read it.  I think I upped the anty.

Nick.