Wow...Rowling may not have been strong in the romance department but at least she made school interesting! When is the plot going to decide to roll on by?
I do believe we get the first glimpse of what contributes to the plot in about...two chapters. Of course, it's even longer until the actual conflict is made known. -_-
Once more I feel the need to point to Homestuck as a beacon of awesome in this. It spent the entire first act needlessly fooling around, not really contributing to the plot. But it still was fun and interesting and readable. The interactions between the four characters were so much better too. You got the feeling they were people, and they had their own things going on, not always relating to John or his activities.
Side note, the best way to describe Act 1 is "Doo dee doo doo doo OH SHIT METEORS"
Homestuck's first act is definitely the sort you have to say "stick with it, it gets better" about for a lot of people (I know I spent a very long time going "WTF" after being lured in with promises of epic and trolls)-but it does a hugely important service for the story by introducing the kids and hooking you in to care about them. IT ESTABLISHES THEIR PERSONALITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS. And to set up the shock of METEORS FALL, (almost) EVERYONE DIES.
And, y'know, there's interesting stuff, or stuff that's treated as boring slice-of-life but is really bizarre (like the captchalogues).
/late, if my tone's not clear this is a burble of agreement. XD
I feel like I should be reading author notes at the top of the chapters saying "Sorry, I didn't have much time, it's mostly filler, I'll do some real writing soon I PROMISE!" :P
I don't know about anyone else, and since I haven't read the actual book, I don't know exactly how bad the description of Elliot is, but... I think he's way more interesting than any of the other characters so far. Seriously, at this point, I can relate more to the nose-picking slacker than your main character, Cast-ladies.
I also second what mogseltof said above. I'm currently fighting my way through a fanfic (with some intention of trying my hand at sporking it later), and this chapter really reminded me of it.
A character who is portrayed in the most unappealing way - who has only appeared once this far, and whose existence is pretty much to show what a horrible person he is - is more interesting than the main character or any of the Scary Sues supporting characters.
Then again, Zoey wasn't interesting to begin with, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.
You know, we're up to Chapter 13 in this story and I still have no idea what it's actually supposed to be about. Isn't the action supposed to have started way earlier than this? It's, like, Writing 101, dammit
( ... )
It's going to be a few more chapters before anything remotely resembling a conflict arrives. Trust me I...I was honestly at a loss for words, it was so unsatisfying.
Aw. :( You wrote a book though? What's it about? (Also, if I may offer advice, from what I've gathered it's much easier to pitch your book to a literary agent. It ups your chances of publishers taking you seriously, you don't pay them until your book makes money, and they can help you with financial negotiations. Just my two bits. ^^; )
But yeah, rambling aside, I have no idea how it got published. I suspect that "hot male love interest" and "vampire teen romance" have to do with it.
Red-heads certainly show up a lot. Nyx, the Lit teacher, and now Elliot. I have no idea what's up with that.
If it wasn't so ridiculous, I'd think refusal to swear would be an interesting trait of Zoey's. As it is, it's just childish, annoying, and inconsistent.
I never read Great Expectations, but I saw the Alfonso Cuaron adaptation and thought it was beautiful!
I wrote a story about a girl running away tot to the circus from her crappy life and how she becomes apart of that world. The story is called The Black Window Circus and it is a novel(And before you ask, I had only heard about Water For Elephants a month or so ago :D I didn't even know it had a circus in it till recently! I actually want to read it now :D And part of the reason why i wrote my story was because I didn't know of many circus stories to begin with).
I've sent the story to both lit agents and publishers and written cover letters making sure to pitch the idea properly (more advice I also read somewhere). Thanks for the advice, though, it's good to get the attention of a lit agent first, but I gave it a go with both to see what would happen. I think I've had about 8 or 9 rejections now.
/Right, one more thing - the teacher's name is Professor Penthesilea, which was the name of an Amazon queen who fought in the Trojan war, was killed by Achilles, and was only mourned by him because he thought she was hot and he wanted to marry her. Yeah. I feel I ought to bring this up, Zoey seems perfectly peachy with her name choice, even though she ridiculed Aphrodite and Thor for choosing names that had "delusions of grandeur". What, naming oneself after an Amazon Queen" theoretically isn't a sign of delusions of grandeur as well? Bull, I say
( ... )
"Not to mention that not only is Penthesilea's name not as well-known in popular culture, but I'd imagine that it's also a lot harder to pronounce. But then again, Zoey apparently likes her, so she can call herself whatever she wants. No double standard there, right?"
Ohhh yeah. Protagonist-centered morality ahoy. >_"And what if he doesn't *want* to be a warrior? What if he wants to be something else? Did you ever think of that? Not to say that that's an excuse for failing, but to say that his poor grades are only bad because then he won't become this one particular thing isn't good either
( ... )
That's silly~ all us men care about is killing things and sex, what else is there.
And yes that was sarcasm.
Also the whole book thing - really? "Oh they expected me to read a classic!" "God forbid, what did they think they where - a SCHOOL!" "They also expected me to do math and know my ABCs!" "Like totally EVIL!" "Like I know!"
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Side note, the best way to describe Act 1 is "Doo dee doo doo doo OH SHIT METEORS"
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And, y'know, there's interesting stuff, or stuff that's treated as boring slice-of-life but is really bizarre (like the captchalogues).
/late, if my tone's not clear this is a burble of agreement. XD
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I don't know about anyone else, and since I haven't read the actual book, I don't know exactly how bad the description of Elliot is, but... I think he's way more interesting than any of the other characters so far.
Seriously, at this point, I can relate more to the nose-picking slacker than your main character, Cast-ladies.
I also second what mogseltof said above. I'm currently fighting my way through a fanfic (with some intention of trying my hand at sporking it later), and this chapter really reminded me of it.
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Then again, Zoey wasn't interesting to begin with, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.
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Aw. :( You wrote a book though? What's it about? (Also, if I may offer advice, from what I've gathered it's much easier to pitch your book to a literary agent. It ups your chances of publishers taking you seriously, you don't pay them until your book makes money, and they can help you with financial negotiations. Just my two bits. ^^; )
But yeah, rambling aside, I have no idea how it got published. I suspect that "hot male love interest" and "vampire teen romance" have to do with it.
Red-heads certainly show up a lot. Nyx, the Lit teacher, and now Elliot. I have no idea what's up with that.
If it wasn't so ridiculous, I'd think refusal to swear would be an interesting trait of Zoey's. As it is, it's just childish, annoying, and inconsistent.
I never read Great Expectations, but I saw the Alfonso Cuaron adaptation and thought it was beautiful!
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I've sent the story to both lit agents and publishers and written cover letters making sure to pitch the idea properly (more advice I also read somewhere). Thanks for the advice, though, it's good to get the attention of a lit agent first, but I gave it a go with both to see what would happen. I think I've had about 8 or 9 rejections now.
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Well, best of luck with it! Your writing is really good, I'm sure someone will pick it up. XD
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Ohhh yeah. Protagonist-centered morality ahoy. >_"And what if he doesn't *want* to be a warrior? What if he wants to be something else? Did you ever think of that? Not to say that that's an excuse for failing, but to say that his poor grades are only bad because then he won't become this one particular thing isn't good either ( ... )
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And yes that was sarcasm.
Also the whole book thing - really?
"Oh they expected me to read a classic!"
"God forbid, what did they think they where - a SCHOOL!"
"They also expected me to do math and know my ABCs!"
"Like totally EVIL!"
"Like I know!"
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