Destination SkillQueue
Are We There Yet
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Posted - 2010.08.07 15:21:00 -
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After reading both books some time ago I would like to give my opinion about any future novels you decide release.
- A solid story should come first. Don't write a novel if you don't have a good story to tell. Keep the deus ex machina crap to a minimum. If you have to struggle with how you can get certain things to happen, it propably means it will be suspenceful and interesting for the reader to read too. Pulling things out of your ass and having people act like the plot requires just to keep your lazy ass story going in the direction you want is not entertaining to read.
A nice payoff at the end would be nice to have too. Just having resolution isn't always enough. After all the fuss and powerful factions backing your revenge seeker in TBL it ended with a whimper. Nice short story or chronicle material, but somewhat unsatisfying in a novel that made so much fuss about the (LOL)plan and the possible consequenses.
- Stop with the synopsis crap with the factions. I know you want to intoruduce people to it, but a story driven novel isn't a place to do it. Especially TBL reads at times like you had the revenge story worked out and were ordered to include introductions to many races and factions in the story. It made reading a very simple revenge story a pain in the ass and broke the flow of the book. Seriously, it ruins your books. Giving glimpses to them through your characters and the places they visit is fine, but don't keep forcing them in to the books in so blatantly and never at the expense of the storytelling.
- Write about EVE that we know. I'm not trying to say ignore what happens behind the curtains, especially with the limits gameplay puts on what you can show in the game. What I would like to see is things that are relevant to the players of the actual game. This is your core audience for the books and the outside people your books attract to the game(s) will propably want to see familiar things and events from the books in the games.
There is also the point, that writing about the unimportant people and events isn't normally done for a good reason. You can't get a good overview of any situation from their perspective and it usually is really boring to read or watch. It makes for good comedy and short story material, but bad story material for a novel.
I did enjoy reading empyrean age and to a lesser degree TBL too, although the sidetracking from the revenge story and constant faction/faction leader introductions should have been kept away from it. Both have big flaws but nothing you can't improve upon and fix in the writers future books. Just remember that you are supposed to write story driven novels instead of short stories and don't let the idiot who is forcing you to put all that faction inroduction crap in your stories anywhere near any of your future novels. Save that for chronicles and other short articles where it belongs.
Good luck on writing your next novel. 
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