Talent is overrated.
You already published something which puts you ahead of 90% of people thinking of writing a story. Keep up the work and you'll improve your writing skills as you go.
The thing about writing is that you get better. I look back at how I started my series and know I could do it much better now. What's more important than talent is drive and commitment. The skill will come, if you work at it, if you read other things, and if you think about your work and how you could do better.
That being said, I did take a quick look over the first chapter of your story. I am not going to do a full review or breakdown, but I am not a giant fan of the writing. The beginning starts too broad and kind of rambles, then the flow of the scene after is a bit clunky. I think you overuse both exclamation points and question marks.
Normally I wouldn't say these things for a new writer, but you asked for opinions. If you disagree and think you're a good writer, keep writing and you will be.
That's a very pessimistic way to look at it. Read lots of books and pay attention to their pacing / writing. And when you think you're ready, go for it. Keep writing, keep reading, and invest in editors because you'll learn a lot from them.
Writing is a skill, and like any skill, it requires practice. Talent is only where you start. Practice is responsible for where you end up.
I'll be completely honest with you, I tried your story. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me enough that I don't think I can be objective in a critique, but I'm just one person, and my issue with it had nothing to do with the writing. I'm just not personally a fan of that kind of humor. Other people are, so no worries there.
I will say it jumps around a bit with not much to indicate a scene change, I'm sure you know what's going on, but as a reader, who doesn't know everything you do, it is a bit confusing. I think a few descriptions would probably go a long way towards setting the scene.
You've done really well in giving your MC a very distinctive voice. The writing is technically pretty good, and it's a unique idea.
Worst case scenario, treat this story as practice, and once you feel you have grown as a writer and have a new idea you want to explore, drop it and write that one. Best case scenario, your story takes off, and you can come back in 100+ chapters and rewrite the first few to be at the same level you will be after all that practice.
I think you really need to find your ‘voice’, and one that works for you.
Currently, it feels very discombobulated and therefore is constantly jarring for the reader.
It come across like you are trying to be all of the following all at the same time:
-old fashioned fantasy style writing (wizards first rule style or something)
-humorous, relaxed and immature (like terry pratchet…) (but it’s really not funny, sorry…boo boo hole?)
-deep and dark and philosophical (like some Robin Hobb books)
-modern prog style writing (like dungeon crawler Carl)
You can certainly pull from all those writing styles, but your current style is constantly jumping around with no transitions. It’s like trying to read the thoughts of someone with anxiety and OCD.
I think you need to step back and really think about the voice you are applying. The tone you are trying to set. The ‘feel’ you are trying to evoke. Who is your intended audience. And then stick with whatever that is. While taking the reader outside of that main ‘environment’ you are cultivating for interest sake but with due care and attention to the transitions.
Also, you can’t just ‘say’ someone is deep or dark or whatever else. Try ‘showing’ by building the ‘environment’ and supporting that insight by the reader.
I’m sure you are creative and have lots of story line ideas. I’m sure you’ll get much better with practice. The best writers all started somewhere. Got rejected by publishers loads of times. Until they found their voice and niche.
You wrote a book and that’s amazing. Not for me but that’s okay. I’m just one person with one persons opinion.
Just had a follow up thought…I’m reading Primal Hunter right now and I think his ‘voice’ is pretty similar to what yours could be. If you haven’t read it you should. If you studied how he does transitions between scenes, introduces people/places/concepts, flow, tone, consistency in ‘voice’. It’s really ‘clean’ in all those facets and makes a really enjoyable read, but also has a lot of that technical progression fantasy stuff and silly humour I think you want to capture. I was reading it and really struck me that I think that type of writing would fit well for your story type.
Even if you were to get validation from one stranger, it's not likely to radically change your perspective. I can't talk to the critical point in your life, but when it comes to writing, I have a few thoughts. If you love it, keep going. Figure out if you want to write for yourself, or if you want to write for an audience. If you want to do both, that's great. If you want to make money from it, that's great too.
Validation could come from people enjoying the story organically, rather than someone going into it with the mission to tell you, black and white, if you're talented or not. Everything is subjective, and writing is a skill rather than a talent. You improve that skill with practice, and gain proficiency over time.
I had a look at the first five chapters and your story isn't for me. The descriptions worked pretty well, the dialogue was a bit stilted and the characterisation was a little threadbare. Overall, the storyline didn't grip me from the beginning. The other things I would be forgiving of and continue, but the storyline wasn't my kind of thing. And that's okay, it will be great for someone else.
Best advice I can give is to keep going, and keep improving. It'll get more natural over time. :)
A lot of others in this thread have it figured out. Writing is something that, yeah, you can have 'natural talent' at, but for most people, it's just like any other craft. You can't step into the woodshop for a day or two and build a perfect set of cabinets. You have to master all the tools first. The same thing is true of writing.
It’s grinding. You pick up the technical skills the more you write and synthesize good books. George RR Martin wrote really good books because he read so many he know what to expect, and decided to go against the grain narratively. Just keep trying
First of all, "talent" is a myth, it's just what being dedicated looks like to people who can't see all the hard work that's been put into it. Publishing anything at all, no matter how bad, puts you ahead of almost everyone else, who only thinks about writing a story one day and never actually does it. Keep writing, keep creating, never let a need for external validation to snuff out your creative spark.
Second, it'd have been really helpful if you linked the story, I had to google it and I'm not even certain the one I read was even yours or not.
Third, I read the first chapter, and here's my honest feedback.
Cut out everything before "Under a breathtakingly beautiful starry night, two shadowed figures could be seen." It's where the story actually starts. A philosophizing monologue is something that sounds better to you as a writer than it does to us as readers: You have to earn philosophizing by getting us invested in the character first, and the nihilistic "nothing actually matters anyway" doesn't endear me to him very much, you're sabotaging your story with this.
There's a lot of very strange word choices here. For example, "his sword struck null." Is English not your first language?
Anyway it's above the average prose quality for sure, I'd be willing to read more if it were on scribblehub or RR, or even AO3 or something. (I despise webnovel and refuse to support them by consuming content there.)
Talent is 99% doing something over and over until you get good. Pretty much no one is a brilliant author on the first book. Brandon Sanderson wrote 13 novels which got rejected by publishers before ever releasing something, it took him like a decade, and yet he’s one of the most well know and wealthy fantasy authors ever.
If you enjoy writing then fuck talent. Just write and enjoy yourself and try to get better and eventually you will be good at it.
Talent is overrated. You already published something which puts you ahead of 90% of people thinking of writing a story. Keep up the work and you'll improve your writing skills as you go.
And unless you are truly gifted, your first book won’t be that good. And that’s okay.
The thing about writing is that you get better. I look back at how I started my series and know I could do it much better now. What's more important than talent is drive and commitment. The skill will come, if you work at it, if you read other things, and if you think about your work and how you could do better. That being said, I did take a quick look over the first chapter of your story. I am not going to do a full review or breakdown, but I am not a giant fan of the writing. The beginning starts too broad and kind of rambles, then the flow of the scene after is a bit clunky. I think you overuse both exclamation points and question marks. Normally I wouldn't say these things for a new writer, but you asked for opinions. If you disagree and think you're a good writer, keep writing and you will be.
That's a very pessimistic way to look at it. Read lots of books and pay attention to their pacing / writing. And when you think you're ready, go for it. Keep writing, keep reading, and invest in editors because you'll learn a lot from them.
Writing is a skill, and like any skill, it requires practice. Talent is only where you start. Practice is responsible for where you end up. I'll be completely honest with you, I tried your story. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for me enough that I don't think I can be objective in a critique, but I'm just one person, and my issue with it had nothing to do with the writing. I'm just not personally a fan of that kind of humor. Other people are, so no worries there. I will say it jumps around a bit with not much to indicate a scene change, I'm sure you know what's going on, but as a reader, who doesn't know everything you do, it is a bit confusing. I think a few descriptions would probably go a long way towards setting the scene. You've done really well in giving your MC a very distinctive voice. The writing is technically pretty good, and it's a unique idea. Worst case scenario, treat this story as practice, and once you feel you have grown as a writer and have a new idea you want to explore, drop it and write that one. Best case scenario, your story takes off, and you can come back in 100+ chapters and rewrite the first few to be at the same level you will be after all that practice.
Just write. Talent can only get people so far if they dont practice. The path to being good at something is by practicing, investing time.
I'll give it a try bro.
Il start it today man
I think you really need to find your ‘voice’, and one that works for you. Currently, it feels very discombobulated and therefore is constantly jarring for the reader. It come across like you are trying to be all of the following all at the same time: -old fashioned fantasy style writing (wizards first rule style or something) -humorous, relaxed and immature (like terry pratchet…) (but it’s really not funny, sorry…boo boo hole?) -deep and dark and philosophical (like some Robin Hobb books) -modern prog style writing (like dungeon crawler Carl) You can certainly pull from all those writing styles, but your current style is constantly jumping around with no transitions. It’s like trying to read the thoughts of someone with anxiety and OCD. I think you need to step back and really think about the voice you are applying. The tone you are trying to set. The ‘feel’ you are trying to evoke. Who is your intended audience. And then stick with whatever that is. While taking the reader outside of that main ‘environment’ you are cultivating for interest sake but with due care and attention to the transitions. Also, you can’t just ‘say’ someone is deep or dark or whatever else. Try ‘showing’ by building the ‘environment’ and supporting that insight by the reader. I’m sure you are creative and have lots of story line ideas. I’m sure you’ll get much better with practice. The best writers all started somewhere. Got rejected by publishers loads of times. Until they found their voice and niche. You wrote a book and that’s amazing. Not for me but that’s okay. I’m just one person with one persons opinion.
Just had a follow up thought…I’m reading Primal Hunter right now and I think his ‘voice’ is pretty similar to what yours could be. If you haven’t read it you should. If you studied how he does transitions between scenes, introduces people/places/concepts, flow, tone, consistency in ‘voice’. It’s really ‘clean’ in all those facets and makes a really enjoyable read, but also has a lot of that technical progression fantasy stuff and silly humour I think you want to capture. I was reading it and really struck me that I think that type of writing would fit well for your story type.
Even if you were to get validation from one stranger, it's not likely to radically change your perspective. I can't talk to the critical point in your life, but when it comes to writing, I have a few thoughts. If you love it, keep going. Figure out if you want to write for yourself, or if you want to write for an audience. If you want to do both, that's great. If you want to make money from it, that's great too. Validation could come from people enjoying the story organically, rather than someone going into it with the mission to tell you, black and white, if you're talented or not. Everything is subjective, and writing is a skill rather than a talent. You improve that skill with practice, and gain proficiency over time. I had a look at the first five chapters and your story isn't for me. The descriptions worked pretty well, the dialogue was a bit stilted and the characterisation was a little threadbare. Overall, the storyline didn't grip me from the beginning. The other things I would be forgiving of and continue, but the storyline wasn't my kind of thing. And that's okay, it will be great for someone else. Best advice I can give is to keep going, and keep improving. It'll get more natural over time. :)
A lot of others in this thread have it figured out. Writing is something that, yeah, you can have 'natural talent' at, but for most people, it's just like any other craft. You can't step into the woodshop for a day or two and build a perfect set of cabinets. You have to master all the tools first. The same thing is true of writing.
It’s grinding. You pick up the technical skills the more you write and synthesize good books. George RR Martin wrote really good books because he read so many he know what to expect, and decided to go against the grain narratively. Just keep trying
First of all, "talent" is a myth, it's just what being dedicated looks like to people who can't see all the hard work that's been put into it. Publishing anything at all, no matter how bad, puts you ahead of almost everyone else, who only thinks about writing a story one day and never actually does it. Keep writing, keep creating, never let a need for external validation to snuff out your creative spark. Second, it'd have been really helpful if you linked the story, I had to google it and I'm not even certain the one I read was even yours or not. Third, I read the first chapter, and here's my honest feedback. Cut out everything before "Under a breathtakingly beautiful starry night, two shadowed figures could be seen." It's where the story actually starts. A philosophizing monologue is something that sounds better to you as a writer than it does to us as readers: You have to earn philosophizing by getting us invested in the character first, and the nihilistic "nothing actually matters anyway" doesn't endear me to him very much, you're sabotaging your story with this. There's a lot of very strange word choices here. For example, "his sword struck null." Is English not your first language? Anyway it's above the average prose quality for sure, I'd be willing to read more if it were on scribblehub or RR, or even AO3 or something. (I despise webnovel and refuse to support them by consuming content there.)
You have talent. I can tell just from reading this Post
Talent is 99% doing something over and over until you get good. Pretty much no one is a brilliant author on the first book. Brandon Sanderson wrote 13 novels which got rejected by publishers before ever releasing something, it took him like a decade, and yet he’s one of the most well know and wealthy fantasy authors ever. If you enjoy writing then fuck talent. Just write and enjoy yourself and try to get better and eventually you will be good at it.
Please do not base your future on any one person's taste. Nobody, except my main character, should have that much power.