Taking pieces of fantasy novel and making it interesting

lrose20 said:

It's what makes publisher rejections so frustrating, when all they say is: we're not interested at this time. An even brief explanation could help me understand if the problem with my story is simply that it doesn't have a good hook, or if the problems are far greater than that. I know I'm struggling with giving my story a hook, despite how much I've brain stormed how to do so.

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I feel your pain. The problem with agents and publishers is that they get so many submissions that they only have a few minutes to assess your work, and so they judge it much like a reader would if they picked up your book in a store for the first time. They look for a good hook and read the opening paragraphs, and base their decision on that. Your book could be amazing, but if the opening is weak or a little cliched and there isn't a strong enough hook, they probably will never discover the gem that is hidden further inside.

Often the marketing department can override an editor when it comes to their decision on whether to purchase a novel or not, which is exactly why one of my novels was rejected. Instead of following the usual 3 act structure- inciting incident, confrontation, resolution, I went with a more of a "Lost" structure, where the characters are thrown into a strange situation that unfolds (and only makes sense) over the length of the novel. Unfortunately I was told that, without a high concept they simply didn't know how to market it.

Fortunately your writing is an asset and usually doesn't have an expiration date, so it doesn't matter if you have to tuck the novel away for a season and bring it out once you have built relationships in the industry who are then willing to give it a fair chance, but forcing a hook where there isn't one can break your story, and come of as contrived.

Consider what your beta readers have to say, but don't second guess yourself if they like it and publishers don't.
And if you get some distance from it and come back in a few months and decide your story is great as it is, then you can always consider self publishing.


As a side note, there are also companies that will look at your work with a critical eye and offer valuable feedback. Just do a search on Absolute Write and you should find something. hell, I'm sure you could pay most freelance editors to do that.

What zanzjan said is pretty much exactly my advice. The only thing I would add is the story's background; for me (and many fantasy readers), the background is very important. You may want to come up with an interesting world for the "new version" before you start writing, regardless of whether you are outlining or going with the flow, and regardless of whether it shows up on either list.

I'd also second the advice of letting the story sit for awhile and come back to it in a few months. For me, that has been a successful tactic when I get stuck. Write something else, read other stuff, heck, even buy a few video games or watch several seasons of TV shows on Netflix. Whatever you want that takes you away from the story for awhile.

Some great advice here.

There is no reason why you can't write a cracking novel within these tropes. Sure, there are a lot of greybeards (I'm one!) who grumble about yet another chosen one. But for every cynical old fart like me there are a dozen fresh-faced whippersnappers for whom the story would be new and interesting.

Make it zing and no-one will care that some of us have read it all before. Hunger Games? Isn't that that just a remake of Battle Royale?

Not to the teens who have never seen Battle Royale.

Or you can take the standard tropes and give them a little tweak on the nose. Hero finds the magical item, but it turns out to be a fake. There is more than one chosen one, with conflicting destinies. The hero decides to do his own thang rather than follow his own destiny.

But whatever you do, write the book. It may or may not be a bestseller. You may win fortune and glory with your third or fourth books. But to get to that point you need to have finished book one. And then book two.

We can worry about winning the Man Booker later.

Reinvent the trope. I did.

Young naïve young man, the chosen one? I've been there. I have a character who started at just such a point in my mind. I took my trope and I wrote those stories. I put a life together around him, behind him, things he did, people he met. Then I set them all aside.

The book I am currently writing picks up with him later in life, not in the beginning, but in the middle. He is older and he is chosen, he just doesn't know yet for what. As far as he knows he's the only elf in a world that doesn't care for elves. He's special. He's just not that special. He has a role and he is a hero, just not THE Hero. Which isn't what everyone else thinks, including himself when he starts out on his new adventure.

Try imagining your character 20 years older after he has already saved the world in his twenties. Now what? That's a long time with nothing nearly as exciting happening again. I would imagine from that point on he would be bored with life. Imagine peaking at that age. That's it! What now? That maiden who fell in love with him along the way when he was saving her from one peril or another? How does she feel now that he's back to being just a turnip farmer? Would she grow bored and restless? Craving the excitement that calamity threw them into and bonded them over? Would she leave him for a someone who provided that rush for her again? Oh, now that would be a swift kick in the turnips if she did that.

But things like that happen to real people every day in the real world. Fantasy glosses over the reality of humans just being human sometimes.

Embrace the trope and whisper sweet nothings in its ear I say!