On 27 January 08 I participated in the Review Marathon. The purpose was to review as many people as possible during a 24 hour period (within the marathon's rules for acceptable reviews). As a group, we accumulated 291 reviews of other peoples' stories. Interested in trying it out? Check out the review game forum for updates on the next one, which should be even bigger and better.
I created a new C2 to recognize those people who give truly outstanding critiques in terms of constructive criticism and depth. It's basically my way of thanking those people out there who take the time to help out other authors, by advertising their stories in hopes that they'll get some more readers in turn. If you've had a really great, constructive review from someone, please let me know and I'll consider putting them up on there. There's bound to be some great reviewers I'm going to miss, especially if they review a genre I don't normally read.
23 Jan 08: Chapter seventeen of Roanoke posted.
21 Jan 08: Chapter sixteen of Roanoke posted.
20 Jan 08: Added a new 'Narc's Law' entitled 'You are not Miss Snark'.
19 Jan 08: I put Roanoke's songs up on a playlist, which can be found here
17 Jan 08: Chapter fifteen of Roanoke posted. The novel has reached about the halfway point, now.
13 Jan 08: Chapter fourteen of Roanoke posted.
8 Jan 08: Chapter thirteen of Roanoke posted.
7 Jan 08: Roanoke is one year old. It's kind of hard to believe I've been working on the same story for a year now. Reworded the summary slightly because people kept getting the impression until the end of the first chapter that it was set in space.
27 Dec 07: I bought a car. It's beautiful.
For those who I reviewed: If I came across as a little harsh, don't be offended. I'm not going to bother reading a single page if it doesn't look promising. When I spend several paragraphs telling you everything you did wrong, take it as a sign that I liked your work. I'm not going to gush over a story and gloss over the constructive parts of my review just to sound nice.
I will happily return reviews if asked. Let me know which story you'd like reviewed and if there's anything in particular you'd like me to focus on. I don't often do detailed, nitpicky critiques on here, because I do a lot of that on another site, but I will give more general suggestions when I see repeating problems and overall plot and storyline comments.
If you would like to exchange detailed critiques, let me know. I can't make any promises, but if I get a good critiquer I always like to return the favor. Again, if I give a long critique, it means I liked your story enough to tear at the details
Name: Jessie
Age: 23
Occupation: Currently an aerospace engineering major. In May, I commission as a second lieutenant and go on active duty as an Army engineer. Hooah.
Hobbies: Fencing, writing, shooting, running, crossword puzzles, coffee (yes, that is a hobby), and watching football and basketball.
Music I like to listen to while writing: Delta Goodrem, U2, Natalie Merchant, Tracy Chapman, Dixie Chicks, Rusted Root, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Vienna Teng, Imogen Heap, Josh Groban, Jimmy Eat World, Pink, and whatever happens to be on the radio.
Every year I take part in something called National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel within the month of November. It's pretty fun, and thousands of people do it all over the world. Most regions even have get-togethers at local coffee shops. The forums are very busy and if you need suggestions or help on something, there's almost always at least ten people who are willing to give their input. I highly suggest trying it out if you're like me and have always had trouble finishing a novel-length story. You can read my nano novel 'Too Far Gone' here.
Stories:
If you're looking for one story in particular to read, I recommend Roanoke.
Roanoke: This is my most recent story and one of the ones I'm currently working on. It's also probaby my best of the three that I have on fictionpress and I'm having a lot of fun writing it. It's a steampunk fantasy about a woman named Riley Tucker who has been sentenced to life in prison for murder and treason. She's rescued by the crew of the Roanoke, one of the largest battleships in the fleet of Sanctia, a small kingdom trying to rebel against the Empire. They offer her freedom in exchange for joining their cause. However, her history is deeply tangled in Imperial politics, much more so than they think, and in a fight against the Empire there's no way she can avoid her past.
Progress:
Expected Length: 100,000 words (35 chapters) Written: 53,000 words (17 chapters complete) Posted: 17 chapters
Too Far Gone: This was my NaNoWriMo 2006 novel, and although I reached 50,000 words, it's not yet done. I'm posting new chapters of what I have finished every week or so. Be warned, however, that because this is a nano novel, it was rather hastily written. I'm proud of it, but I have no intention of ever trying to get it published. This is a science fantasy about a young mother who discovers that she's telepathic after her daughter supposedly dies in a gas line explosion. She becomes convinced that her daughter is alive and sets out to find her, even though doing so may cost her her own life. Jack, her husband, is just trying to deal with his daughter's death and is struggling to be supportive of his wife when he thinks she's going crazy.
Somewhere Home: A modern fantasy I started a while ago which I recently started rewriting. I'm not going to add to what is already there, so if you choose to read the first three chapters be forewarned that the rewrite is taking on a very different direction. It's about Olivia, a girl who is kidnapped by a sorceress who wipes everyone's memories of her existence.
If none of the stories here interest you, I suggest taking a look at the fictionpress authors and stories under my favorites. There's some great fiction out there.
Notes:
I do all of my story planning on a free online wiki site called PBwiki. I've found it very useful because I have everything related to my story in one place and I can access it anywhere that I have internet access. I highly recommend it, if you're like me and like to do a lot of planning. You can make seperate pages that link to each other. So, for instance, for each story I have a page for my general storyline, my characters, and my random info.
I often select particular songs for each chapter I write. They may or may not have lyrics that have anything to do with the chapter. In case anyone's curious, here's what I have for Roanoke:
Chapter 1: "Evacuating London" - Narnia Soundtrack
Chapter 2: "Revolution" - Tracy Chapman
Chapter 4: "Hope on Fire" - Vienna Teng
Chapter 6: "Everything Burns" - Bed Moody
Chapter 7: "Eileen's Song" - Burlap to Cashmere
Chapter 8: "The Walk" - Imogen Heap
Chapter 9: "Dreaming" - BT
Chapter 10: "More Than This" - Peter Gabriel
Chapter 11: "One of These Mornings" - Moby
Chapter 12: "An End Has a Start" - The Editors
Chapter 13: "Bling (Confessions of a King)" - The Killers
Chapter 14: "In the Deep" - Bird York
Chapter 15: "In the End" - Linkin Park
Chapter 16: "I'm Not Dead" - Pink and "Left Outside Alone" - Anastacia
Chapter 17: "Recessional" - Vienna Teng
Songs picked for later chapters (and I won't tell you which ones, because some of them are all-too fitting):
"Take Me Home" - Delta Goodrem
"Extreme Ways" - Moby
"Hide and Seek" - Imogen Heap
Have a song that you think would really fit a chapter I wrote? If I agree, I'll even credit you with finding it.
Looking for a good forum on fictionpress? Looking for a way to get good, detailed reviews? Check out the Review Game. The main purpose of the forum is a kind of review tag, but it's mostly frequented by some good writers who like to have serious discussions about writing.
FictionPress.com - let the words flow
