Right now I have 3 idea's going on in my head at once. The sad part is that they've been stuck in my head brewing for 5 or more year's. Now they want out but I'm having trouble with them. I need people to critique my idea's. See if they can find any flaw's in them. P.S. These story's all take place in the same fantasy world but in different era's of time. All three of them will probably be a trilogy of book's. Also I'm having trouble categorizing them. Currently they all have some basic fantasy element's. They all involve a paranormal romance of some sort. They all have big villain's wanting to take over the world that the main character has to fight in the end. There is one thing that set's them all apart. They each have there own niche that they fill.

The first trilogy is a high fantasy with some element's of urban fantasy and will focus on a young elven knight having to look after the dragon princess while at the same time stopping all of the kingdom's from going to war over a foe that hide's in the shadow's manipulating event's on a grand scale.

The second trilogy is a horror/dark fantasy and will focus on a human priest sent by the church to look into report's undead activity. What he find's is a rogue alchemist's attempts at bringing the dead back to life have seriously backfired and there is now an undead plague sweeping across a small town. The priest also has to deal with the growing prejudice of his team of paladin's as they have work together with a local tribe of werewolves' to stem the demonic plague the alchemist created from reaching the rest of the world.

The third trilogy is the newest idea and so far will focus on one of the villain's of the series as he tries to find different way's of staying alive forever.

Hi, Rojack79. Welcome to Book Country!

Those story ideas do sound interesting. If you posses the skill to put those ideas to paper, I say go for it. I'll take a look at them.

I'm going to send you a connection request, so we can be friends.

Happy Writing!

Amber

Hi Rojack--thanks for posting. And like Amber said, welcome to Book Country!

Once you review another member's book here on Book Country, you should definitely post your stories for review and get some help on fleshing out these ideas!

Let us know if you need any help finding your way around the site.

Lucy

Ideas, sad to say, are the easy part—though fully fleshing them out does take time and thought.But before they can be given life on the page there are other issues to take into consideration.

 The reader, as they begin to read, have no idea of your wonderful plot, or what the characters are like. They only know if they find the writing entertaining enough to continue turning pages. They arrive with mild curiosity, which will quickly fade, unless you change that to active interest, not through the events you report, but through making the character experiencing those events compelling, as a person.

It takes no special skill to tell the reader that the character felt terror. But to terrorize the reader takes a very different appoach from reporting events and feelings. That takes a set of skills very different from those we were given in our school writing. If we're to write a scene that will entertain—and readers come to us to be entertained—we must first know what entertains, and what the structure and elements of a scene are. Readers don't want to read the words of a storyteller they can neither see nor hear, they want to be made to experience the events in real-time, as a participant. So we need to know the nuances of presenting a point of view so real that when someone throws a punch at our protagonist the reader ducks. The writer needs to know why a line like, "Selene couldn't keep from smiling when Harold came through the doorway," is a break in point of view, and to be avoided—something else not given us in school or an undergrad CW course.

I'm not trying to be discouraging, just to help you prepare for the task of organizing and writing it, because the single most common cause of rejection is that like all of us on high school graduation, the writer was still unaware that fiction for the printed word, like any other profession, has techniques imposed by the medium that are not obvious to those who haven't been exposed to them.

The good news is that a good many of those techniques are of the kind that, when pointed out, will make you say, "Why didn't I see that for myself?" Making them work for you is a matter of practice, of course, and it's neither simple nor quick; but knowledge of, and proficiency with the techniques the pros take for granted is pretty much a necessity.

More good news is that it's not expensive. In fact, the local library's fiction writing section makes it free. For the best books on the subject that I've found look for the names Dwight Swain, Jack Bickham, or Debra Dixon on the book's spine.

For a sort of overview of what you'll find in those books you might poke around in the writing section of my blog.

Hang in there, and keep on writing.

Hey Rojack! 

First off, good for you on waiting to put pen to paper until the ideas have simmered for some time. Ideas that are hurried are sometimes poorly developed and lack the rich detail that you'll need for a trilogy. 

The trilogy idea, while big right now, is the only one that I'd encourage you to maybe sit on. Trilogies are, I get it, popular and for good reason. Here's my issue: why lock yourself in? Unless you've got the arc already really developed, you shoot yourself in the foot by saying that it WILL BE  trilogy. especially as someone who's not under contract with a publisher, you don't have to put that kind of stress on yourself. Or your characters. How many series have we all read that start out with a bang and end up feeling forced, formulaic, and, worst of all, mercenary?  On the other end, what if you realize that you've got not three, but five novels in this world? What if you don't feel closure after three? The word trilogy sets you u for certain expectations that are not needed! Trace out your ideas, sketch out your plot, get a ton (and I'm talking a boatload) of potential characters. Get that first novel really well designed and leave yourself some loose ends. If you decide to pick it up and revisit your work to tie them up, great. 

I really bought into the third idea. The other two are good, but there are lots of hero-saves-the-day books out there. Creating a villain that has enough resonance to keep the reader invested is hard - if you can do it that's a great book!

Best of luck to you!

While I'm at it, I'll comment here. Ideas mean little. It's what you do with them that counts. Post your work, that's the way to go about it. And, do something about your very odd use of apostrophes. It's distracting.

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The fantasy pieces tend to be awfully alike. Create a character we care about, write him/her/it with the intimate knowledge you would have to draw on if you were writing about a family member, and it may be a story I can get into. I am not beguiled by the high-concept thing. Your people have got to come first.

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I better add, if the style is gorgeous, I'll read anything. I've read things at work that I wouldn't ordinarily touch, economics, I read a chapter of a book on insurance once, because the prose style was very fine. When you get me muttering - this phrasing, what can I steal of it? - then I am in your pocket. I'll put up with almost any nonsense in the way of plot.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 1/30/2015, 9:36 PM--

Give it a try and see how it feels after you put the words together.  It will give you practice in writing even if you don't keep the concept. You can play with the theme and characters as you go.  That's the great thing about writing!

No fear!  Go for it!

-DRW-

Hey guy's can i pass a new idea by you? I was really having trouble keeping track of all the idea's going on in my head and so i decided to start from scratch with my story. Here's the Idea so far, The story starts out as a portal fantasy with the main character named Axle using a “shooting star” to get from our world to the world of Aitheria. Once he get’s there he must learn to live his life according to his new home considering he can’t get back to earth. 5 year’s pass by with Axle living amongst the people of Aitheria with his adopted family. He make’s a living by mapping the unexplored land surrounding his village. One day while he is out in the forest he find’s a magic sword that turns him into the black knight a famous hero of olden time’s. He go's home to his family to tell them the exsiting new's. Over the next few month's Axle help's defend his village from numerous threat's from monster's to bandit's. However word of his deed's soon get's to the knight's of the round table and they don't take kindly to anyone with the power's of the black knight. They soon show up and demand that Axle hand himself over to them for inquisition. He agree's when the knight's threaten to kill his family. When they reach the Inquisitor's Tower Axle is tortured by the grand inquisitor until he tell's them were he got his power's from. They take his sword, strip him of his armor and leave him in a cell. During the night he is visited by a priest who offer's him a way to live and save his soul, all's he has to do is serve the knight's on there quest to find a fabled artifact that king arthur want's. He agree's to the request. The next day Axle and Sir Gawain along with gawain's squire and his men at arm's begin there journey to the Fallen Star. Axle know's that he must use this star to get home. Along the way to the Fallen Star's location he interact's with other fairy tale character's. 

P.S. This is the story that i will be writing from now on. I've made the choice to not let go of this story idea no matter what "new idea's" come my way.

--edited by Rojack79 on 8/29/2015, 8:59 PM--