Young Writers Society

Right...

So I'm in the process of writing a six-novel series. Here I post the Reader's Digest Condensed and/or Maimed synopsis of the FIRST book. While it lacks specific details, tell me what you think.

Not that I'm likely to listen. *Wink*

The first book, long story short, is about a short struggle between six nations on a continent. Note that this is your classic fantasy setting - an interesting magic system, etc. Now these six nations are each rather unique:
-Two of the nations, the largest, are your basic humans with horses and mages and ugly children and such. They are also on opposite sides.
-One nation is a desert region inhabited by semi-nomadic people who ride giant insects.
-Another rides oversized crocodiles. They also have large turtles to which they bolt heavy cannons for use as mobile siege weapons.
-One nation is comprised entirely of minotaurs - not as they're usually depicted, however. They are intelligent, rational, and not at all prone to battle rage.
-The last nation is a mountainous region inhabited by a people who ride large, dragon-esque creatures. They also hate the bugger out of the minotaur. Hooray them.

There is also another nation, on a small island, known as the Brae'amin. They are very powerful shadowmancers (a magical aptitude unseen anywhere else) and are completely isolationist.

Now, as this war unfolds (the story is written from multiple perspectives on both sides), something charmingly unusual happens: large stone portals appear within each of these nations. And it's time for more back story.

You see, these races were not always on the continent. A few millennia ago, in fact, the continent didn't even exist. Seven heroes (each a representative of his/her nation) traveled deep into a small island in search of a Sword. This Sword is unique: the one who wields it can control or do anything imaginable. One of the seven (it is unknown who) used it to create the continent.

So. Back to the stone portal thingies. These portals allow one SPECIFIC person from each nation to enter. Very sword-and-the-stone-like, if you prefer to think of it that way. As the war rages on the surface, these new Swordseekers must unite against droves of horrific shapeshifting guardians - and try not to kill each other.

I have some good characters, I think.

-A minotaur senior officer in the army who tries to hold back the flying-lizard buggers to the north.

-The leader of the 'evil' nation (the nation isn't evil, just he is).

-A young minotaur officer who finds himself fighting through darkness for the Sword.

-A Dagerynn (the dragony-people) soldier who makes Hannibal Lecter look like a basket of kittens (unfortunately also going after the Sword).

And many, many others (disclaimer: 'many' means seven. There are eleven viewpoint characters total).

So hoorah. Lots of people die, everything's dandy, and, in the end, one person will wield the Sword of Ages - though how, why, and for how long are anyone's guess (and all of your guesses are completely wrong).

So that's it, then. That's the first book.

But now I've got a problem. A problem of scale.

-The first book details a small, short war on a not-very-large continent.

-The second book appears to be totally unrelated in every way and takes place across space.

-The third book is a battle among a few different UNIVERSES.

-The fourth book is a battle among a few HUNDRED universes.

-The fifth book is nice. A few universes, no big battles. Very relaxing.

-THE SIXTH DAMN BOOK is a massive battle over a mind-bogglingly large planet in a massive universe. It takes place between TRILLIONS of people, BILLIONS of ships. And when the good guys finally GET to the darn planet, and the actual SOLDIERS start fighting, they're flickering through OTHER universes faster than a set of traffic lights on cocaine!

So. Have I got a problem, here? Do you think I can pull off this kind of book-to-book widening of scale? I can't believe I'm even posting this...I'm in chapter TWO of book ONE, for crying out loud. Even if you tell me I should check myself into a home and take a brown-pill-no-stripe (ignore the reference), I'll still write it.

But I still want some FEEDBACK.

As they say in the Dark Tower: 'Thankee-sai.'

I think you're planning too far ahead. Concentrate on finishing book one before you plan the plots for the others because you might just find that it doesn't turn out how you expected it. Stories tend to pick up a life of their own and you'll make many changes in characters and plots before you reach the end.

What you've outlined so far sounds like a very high fantasy plot that could become quite complex, especially with so many view points and different races. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that you're going to have to put a lot of work into it.

Don't worry about my planning too far ahead. I've already thought out the first four novels perfectly, and have but details remaining for the last two.