Potential Chapter 1 (~1.5k words)

[Ambriel]

My fiancée convinced me to sign up for a “write your own novel” course on Coursera. It’s from Michigan State University and it’s supposed to provide the end result of a 50,000 word novel.

 

[THX1138]

I have taken a few writing courses myself too. Helped me out in the mechanics of story writing.
Still, I get the most out of having my writing critiqued.

To tell you the truth, @Ambriel, I had one of my flash fictions critiqued a few years ago when I first got into Chrons, and the best and most helpful response to my wonderful little story was, 'Why did you even waste your time entering this? It's terrible.'

It was, the best critique I ever had, and I learned a lot from it.

 

[Toby Frost]

To be honest, that does teach two valuable lessons: (1) you can't please everyone and (2) criticism that isn't given politely isn't worth following.

 

[Ambriel]

To tell you the truth, @Ambriel, I had one of my flash fictions critiqued a few years ago when I first got into Chrons, and the best and most helpful response to my wonderful little story was, 'Why did you even waste your time entering this? It's terrible.'

It was, the best critique I ever had, and I learned a lot from it.

I haven’t gotten anything that harsh, but the judge definitely made me do some introspection with his interpretation of my character in my first post. Lol

 

[Bowler1]

For description and how characters are introduced etc simply go back to your favourite book(s) and study how this was done. Picking the books you liked best might mean these are close to how you might write, or might like to write. See whats been done before and then try and use this yourself.

I find it hard to get through books these days as I keep seeing lazy writing, bad plot loops or other problems so my tolerance for writing that doesn't do it for me is very low. On the plus side, when I find a book that is really well put together then I can have a wonderful time reading the said book. So be warned, the more you learn about how to write the more you see in other peoples writing good and bad, and you might well end up where I am as a super fussy reader.

As to first lines, paragraphs and page, these should be the best you can do to try and grab the reader by the scruff of the neck and beat them into submission for the next few pages. Hopefully by then, they'll stay to finish your book.

 

[Ambriel]

I have that trouble having been in the military and having worked as a medical professional. I can hardly sit through a war movie or action movie without calling out the numerous issues. What’s one more thing to add to that. Lol

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

My fiancée convinced me to sign up for a “write your own novel” course on Coursera. It’s from Michigan State University and it’s supposed to provide the end result of a 50,000 word novel.

I just looked up The Hobbit word count as a reference - 95k words.

This sounds like an absolutely achievable goal. Good Luck.

 

[THX1138]

I have that trouble having been in the military and having worked as a medical professional. I can hardly sit through a war movie or action movie without calling out the numerous issues. What’s one more thing to add to that. Lol

I'm the same with the medical too.

 

[Oligonicella]

I have that trouble having been in the military and having worked as a medical professional. I can hardly sit through a war movie or action movie without calling out the numerous issues. What’s one more thing to add to that. Lol

Same. I was good friends with one of the VPs at the bank. We shared a lot of interests, particularly European history and he would call my office and tell me he had 'business' he needed to discuss. I'd go down, he'd shut the door and we'd talk about stuff for an hour or so.

One time he was telling me about going to a Chiefs game with a friend who was a retired Chief's qtr. His friend would tell him what was about to happen by how they lined up, shifted, where the qtrback looked and such. He was torn between being fascinated his friend could do that and being irritated.

He fell silent for a few and then said he thought going to see a sword and armor movie with me would be a whole 'nother experience.

He was right. One of the guys in my troop took me to see Time Cop and when that insipid scene where von Dammme had a knife fight I cracked up - loudly and prolonged. The two were fencing with 6" buck knives. You know, left hand back, right forward and the thrusts, cuts and slashes were short and blocked saber style by the other. Friggin' hilarious in an unmeant way.

Overall there are a scant few fight scenes, especially bladed, that I find at all satisfactory. This of course includes one-ten pound women kicking a two-twenty-five pound man's butt, throwing them across the room, etc.

Two I can recommend for authenticity are:

"The Duelists" for some realistic sword work of various types. The duel with cavalry sabers is quite nice.

"Atomic Blonde" where the lead Charlize Theron shows what it would really look like for a highly trained woman to fight much larger men. Unlike Johansson, she gets and looks beat the crap out of and has a hard time of it and, of course, never jumps up and grabs them by the neck with her thighs.

Aside, the fight scene starting at 1:10:50 (I just rewatched) is a single, uncut shot ala Ron Howard of her fighting up and down stairwells followed by a car chase and it's TEN DAMN MINUTES LONG and was done with ONE FRIGGIN' TAKE. It's amazing to watch. Theron did her stunt work.