My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#1
You can find my story in my signature if you so desire to suffer. I've written a 'first arc' (which isn't great), I'm doing some updates to the writing, cutting some stuff here and there, but I admit it isn't enough. However, I still have ideas to continue the story onwards.

Having reached this point, I'm currently struggling with 3 choices:

  • Completely rethink the entire story from the beginning and publish it again.

  • Continue with the 'second arc' (which I promised to do...), try to improve my skills and use it as a training ground for a potential rewrite of the 'first arc' down the line.

  • Start another story altogether (I've a few ideas that just need exploring) and abandon this one for now.

Give me opinions, comments, wtv. Anything is helpful.
Earth XIV - an OLN finally finished! (kinda)

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#2
This will help: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a0ll3XxM5bRyv3xHpNfuRld4q5-9bKpW-K4_LLWESak/edit?hl=en_US

Also, I wrote my own thoughts here: http://royalroadl.com/fiction/chapter/119922

However, I'm curious about what it is you're trying to accomplish? Do you want to make it more interesting? If so, can you be more specific? What are the problems you think you are facing?

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#4
'OutspanFoster' pid='821727' dateline='1487728771' Wrote: This will help:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a0ll3XxM5bRyv3xHpNfuRld4q5-9bKpW-K4_LLWESak/edit?hl=en_US

Also, I wrote my own thoughts here: http://royalroadl.com/fiction/chapter/119922

However, I'm curious about what it is you're trying to accomplish? Do you want to make it more interesting? If so, can you be more specific? What are the problems you think you are facing?

Thanks for the links, I'll read them when I have the time.

My main objective is for people to like the main concept and underlying message of the story as much as I do. I believe it has a lot of potential, but likely I simply didn't transmit it very well. From the feedback I've gotten, it seems my story is just boring on the beginning and I believe it isn't a matter of just cutting stuff here and there, but the structure of the events themselves that are not appealing. I did something terrible when I started writing this, which was coming up with the story as I went. I think I made the plot convoluted and it takes way too long to reach the main point. This all makes me believe the only way to salvage this concept is to throw it on the garbage can and rethink it completely. I'm not exactly sure how I should proceed, hence this post.

I've also been warned that the characters are 'meh', which is surprising because I rather like them.


'Oinos' pid='821737' dateline='1487751278' Wrote: I you promised your readers to continue your novel I suggest you do so. Writing is the best way to improve as a writer and you can always go back and edit the first arc.

Yeah, that's something I'm regretting. I shouldn't continue with the story if I'm going to change it so much in the beginning it will no longer be the same. The amount of changes I have to make amount for a complete rewrite and I don't want to be struggling with making the continuation fit with the first arc.
Earth XIV - an OLN finally finished! (kinda)

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#5
First of all, the best way to improve is to read your own work. No one will be as critical and helpful as yourself. The only thing you have to be aware of is that YES that is a flaw. Everything that you are noticing that you aren't proud of is a flaw. The problem is that you need to know how to fix the flaws.

That's where professional writing guides come in. They're found all over the internet. The ones we have here help sometimes, but often they're amateur stuff.

A few things to look up would be

-Passive voice
-Show don't tell
-Character dialogue
-Blurb writing

We can look at your stuff all we want and 99% of our efforts will be wasted. Most of the time the author doesn't like whatever criticism is given or he takes it the wrong way. Almost guaranteed, you'll not understand it if we do it for you and you'll just end up redoing the mistake somewhere else or not fixing it properly.

Asking for help from us is really a final step, once you have something that you're proud of and you can't find any mistakes yourself.

I can tell just from reading your blurb that you have a lot of really easy mistakes to fix.

First of all, you tell us how we should interpret your characters personality. Tell me, when is it that we get to decide how people interpret our personalities. If I were to walk up to you and tell you "I'm a snarky highschool student." would you just suddenly have that impression of me? No, if anything you would probably have the opposite impression and think that I'm annoying. Remember the rule, "show don't tell"

Then there's the grammar. You have paragraphs for sentences.... The English didn't sound that bad, but you need to look up the rules for commas and periods... YES it matters....

Your blurb is overwhelming with information I don't need. We've got angels, UFO crash landings, mythological beings... It sounds like you are shotgunning the reader with information and trying to see what sticks. Focus on a single idea and let the story build on it. Whatever it turns into is what it turns into. Too much information in a blurb just scares readers away. The reader should never have a concrete impression of the story just from reading the blurb. You should make it mysterious enough that he picks up the novel. I should never have a concrete impression of the novel going in.

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#6
'DarkD' pid='821749' dateline='1487778840' Wrote: First of all, the best way to improve is to read your own work.  No one will be as critical and helpful as yourself.  The only thing you have to be aware of is that YES that is a flaw.  Everything that you are noticing that you aren't proud of is a flaw.  The problem is that you need to know how to fix the flaws.

That's where professional writing guides come in.  They're found all over the internet.  The ones we have here help sometimes, but often they're amateur stuff.  

A few things to look up would be

-Passive voice
-Show don't tell
-Character dialogue
-Blurb writing

We can look at your stuff all we want and 99% of our efforts will be wasted.  Most of the time the author doesn't like whatever criticism is given or he takes it the wrong way.  Almost guaranteed, you'll not understand it if we do it for you and you'll just end up redoing the mistake somewhere else or not fixing it properly.  

Asking for help from us is really a final step, once you have something that you're proud of and you can't find any mistakes yourself.

I can tell just from reading your blurb that you have a lot of really easy mistakes to fix.  

First of all, you tell us how we should interpret your characters personality.  Tell me, when is it that we get to decide how people interpret our personalities.  If I were to walk up to you and tell you "I'm a snarky highschool student." would you just suddenly have that impression of me?  No, if anything you would probably have the opposite impression and think that I'm annoying.  Remember the rule, "show don't tell"

Then there's the grammar.  You have paragraphs for sentences....  The English didn't sound that bad, but you need to look up the rules for commas and periods...  YES it matters....

Your blurb is overwhelming with information I don't need.  We've got angels, UFO crash landings,  mythological beings...  It sounds like you are shotgunning the reader with information and trying to see what sticks.  Focus on a single idea and let the story build on it.  Whatever it turns into is what it turns into.  Too much information in a blurb just scares readers away. The reader should never have a concrete impression of the story just from reading the blurb.  You should make it mysterious enough that he picks up the novel.  I should never have a concrete impression of the novel going in.

I'm asking for help precisely because I've reread this thing over and over and over again. For me it's fine and that's precisely the problem. There are a few hiccups here and there, but overall I'm telling the story I want. I'm aware of the main traps I should be cautious about, like 'show, don't tell'. I might have done it in one chapter specifically, but I don't have any idea how to explain some basic concepts that are known to some characters and not others and advance the story.

English is not my native language, so a few weird sentences are to be expected. I can't find them right away though, and I read a lot of books in English.

The blurb has been a massive problem as well from the beginning. However, even if I rewrite it, the problem of the story itself is still there. It's funny how you said I should cut stuff because I've already received critics before the current synopsis that made me do just the opposite.

All in all, this is a mess that can't be solved without some major rewriting. I'm not sure when I should do it though.
Earth XIV - an OLN finally finished! (kinda)

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#7
Blurb writing is a very precise art and extremely easy to screw up. Everything is a balance in writing. You can have too much and too little information. And third party readers often don't care much about giving detailed criticism. It could have been that you lacked some minor detail and he went ballistic over it.

If you honestly think you have improved so much that you wanna completely redo everything, I'd just start over with a different fiction for now. Banging your head on the old stuff can really kill your motivation. Especially if you are so far in that a rewrite seems unfeasible.

You've improved, you're a better writer now. The old fiction probably isn't going to gain those more discriminating readers just because you fixed a few things. The old readers almost certainly won't reread your fiction just because you rewrote it a bit better. The odd one might, but how many days of work will you need to put in for that?

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#9
If you wanna guarantee you write something better, there's a very simple trick to it most authors on this site are too lazy to do. PLAN OUT YOUR FICTION... It's obscenely obvious when an author doesn't do it. Or only does a bare bones job of it. It makes a MASSIVE difference in the quality of your work.

It forces you to limit how long your fiction is, and that's a good thing. When an author doesn't know where he's going, it shows in the writing. If you plan things out and plan to end the fiction in three books, I can tell within ten chapters and it feels SO MUCH better.

You can avoid so many mistakes with a plan as well. Plot holes, inconsistent story elements, two-dimensional characters. All of that have drastic improvements.

RE: My first fiction isn't that good. What should I do?

#10
On DarkD's point, I'd have to agree. You can only really do it for yourself. While a proof-reader would undoubtedly help with typos, grammatical errors, and the like, the core issue remains. If you don't understand how to convey the information in an adequate manner, then, even interesting, it will fall flat. In regards to the planning aspect, I'd hitch on that for one small point: find your writing preference. There are people who feel constricted with a plan, thus slowly down their ability to write, frustrating them to no end; if that is you, then I'd suggest leaving it out - well, leave out the detailed, plot-point-by-plot-point, device, and character growth for a more organic end. That isn't to say it isn't important to know where you are going. It can - and will - bite you in the butt later on when you realize, 'Oh... I totally 'effed that up - time to delete four chapters...' but it is something to note the dangers of.

In my experience with writing Ephemeral Cycle, to which I suffered the same issues, being a new writer, I found little purpose and enjoyment in writing in a forced manner. So I stopped. I had to completely evaluate my writing style such that it would make things enjoyable for me - and, in turn, the reader - whilst making sure the technical aspects were on-point. With such a novel, it'd be absolutely terrifying to do a full rewrite, so I just continued with another project. And another. And another still. You can get inspiration from damn near anywhere.

You'll only find yourself improving if you enjoy what you're doing; so I'd take out the stress, genuinely try to learn to find ways to showcase characters you've become attached to in the process, and make them shine in ways that make you, yourself, surprised. It will translate to the reader if done properly. So have fun. Play around with it. Have an experimental fiction that only you see to test yourself. The one that is posted here will be the cumulative effort placed on technical ability, passion, and it is, in fact, such a conduit to yet another story you've no doubt in you, days, weeks, or months down the road.

Anyways, before I head off, it definitely seemed to be an interesting concept. I don't quite have the time to look at it right now, but after work I'll take a glance through it. Be proud of your work because if you aren't, who else will?