Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark
George R.R. Martin is one of my favorite authors; his epic fantasy series Song of Fire and Ice is one of the more realistic in the genre in how it handles magic with subtlety and focuses on character development and adult issues. This skill and poise was completely absent from the first short story in his collection Dreamsongs. But after reading his introduction and his roots in fanzines and various superheroes, its origins are not so dark as the main antagonist. The story pits the prince of darkness against the Angelic Avenger, or Mystic Marauder. He was in High School when he wrote it, and it received an Ally award.
But the work is littered with fixables, such as the profusion of adverbs and adjectives making each noun phrase as front-heavy as a breast-implant patient gone terribly wrong. All of the dialogue is of the stylings of superheroes -- very high flown, not necessarily high register. The two human characters and one female sacrifice are stick figures, and serve only to motivate the entrance of the dark lord and his reappearance.
That being said, it is the amatuerish writings of an imagination that could mature. It shows enormous potential, much as the comments I received on my first story or two. Alas, my own writing career has not been nearly as full of determination as his. This can be rectified.
I perhaps should have submitted The Dragon Secret, though I think with some perspective and a better grasp on character I can polish it up and put it on my list of submittable stories. Unfortunately, of the current stories I'm working on, only one other is close to submittable -- Prudence and Pigments, and its audience is not yet to be determined. Its certainly not fantasy, nor science fiction Rather, its general interest without the kick of human emotion that is necessary for such a story to be successful. The other three are novellas or full blown novels, and might have to be shelved until I have more complete works < 5,000 words.
Fantasy and Science Fiction has been and always will be my most ardent passions; the sooner I get a feel for the market and my future in it, the sooner I'll comfortable set off for a life of research and grad school to augment rather than merely support my writing and explorations.
But the work is littered with fixables, such as the profusion of adverbs and adjectives making each noun phrase as front-heavy as a breast-implant patient gone terribly wrong. All of the dialogue is of the stylings of superheroes -- very high flown, not necessarily high register. The two human characters and one female sacrifice are stick figures, and serve only to motivate the entrance of the dark lord and his reappearance.
That being said, it is the amatuerish writings of an imagination that could mature. It shows enormous potential, much as the comments I received on my first story or two. Alas, my own writing career has not been nearly as full of determination as his. This can be rectified.
I perhaps should have submitted The Dragon Secret, though I think with some perspective and a better grasp on character I can polish it up and put it on my list of submittable stories. Unfortunately, of the current stories I'm working on, only one other is close to submittable -- Prudence and Pigments, and its audience is not yet to be determined. Its certainly not fantasy, nor science fiction Rather, its general interest without the kick of human emotion that is necessary for such a story to be successful. The other three are novellas or full blown novels, and might have to be shelved until I have more complete works < 5,000 words.
Fantasy and Science Fiction has been and always will be my most ardent passions; the sooner I get a feel for the market and my future in it, the sooner I'll comfortable set off for a life of research and grad school to augment rather than merely support my writing and explorations.