“It’s finally here! It’s finally here!” – Me, running around my house this morning.
It seems like forever ago that I first announced Novel Boot Camp. I asked for topic ideas, your most common editing problems, and I spent hours upon hours (upon hours) writing and perfecting the course. Whew! It almost felt like Boot Camp was never going to arrive!
But here we are at the kickoff party – you with your manuscripts in hand and me ready to do nothing but eat, breathe, and sleep (or not sleep) Novel Boot Camp for the next month. It’s going to be a wild ride!
Before things get too crazy and some of you are inevitably reduced to tears with a bloody manuscript in your hands, let me say that the excitement and enthusiasm for Novel Boot Camp has reminded me of why I do what I do. It is the passion and dedication of writers like you that keeps me blogging, editing, and mentoring. You guys are the greatest!
To celebrate the kickoff party, keep meeting up with writing friends and critique partners (though I know some of you are at more than capacity in that department!) and let your friends and family know that you’ll be putting your pen where your passion is and might be a bit busier (and crazier) than usual. In order to keep the blog comments focused on the workshop, post your kickoff party excitement on Twitter and the FB group.
And now on to our first workshop!
Workshop #1: Genre Guessing Game
June 30 – July 6
For our first workshop, I want to focus on the most important aspect of editing – seeing your novel from the outside.
This is no easy task! You’ve toiled and slaved over your novel. You know it inside and out. If you’ve been editing it long enough, you can probably recite passages from heart. All of that is lovely and wonderful and passionate, but terrible for editing.
So for this first workshop, I want you to send your book out into the world – just a tiny piece of it – to see how it’s perceived by those outside yourself, by the people who know nothing about it.
Participants will submit the first 200 words of their manuscript. Guessers will attempt to identify the genre, tone, and basic plot of the novel. The objective is to have a bit of fun while exploring how your manuscript looks from the outside. Do people think your romantic comedy is a horror/thriller? Do readers expect your story of redemption to be a story of revenge?
Remember that how the Boot Campers perceive your novel is likely how agents and editors will perceive it too. We’ll be talking about why the reader’s perception of the first page is important in our first lecture tomorrow.
Warning: This is a new and totally untested workshop process. Please bare with me if there are any technical kinks or if things seem awkward. I wanted to do something unique so I hope it works!
How to Play the Genre Guessing Game
***Read the FULL directions and follow them or you will not be eligible to participate!***
Firstly, I understand that not all readers are comfortable sharing their work online. If you do not want to submit, you may still participate in the guessing.
How to Submit Your Opening
To streamline the process, decrease cheating, and increase participation, I will be posting all of the first pages anonymously (meaning that no one other than me will know whose first page is whose). If you attempt to submit your own first page, it will be deleted!
The submitted novel openings will be posted as quickly as possible, but since it must be done manually, there will likely be some delay.
Submit your novel’s opening in the form below. It will go to my email and I will manually post the first 200 words only (not your name, genre, tone, etc.) into the comments section.
Note that your novel’s opening is the very first 200 words. If you open with a prologue, use that rather than your first chapter.
How to Guess the Genre
In the comments section below this post, leave a reply to the novel openings submitted and post some or all of the following:
- Guess the Genre – Is it a contemporary romance? A YA paranormal? A horror/science fiction hybrid? Post your best guess. If you think it’s middle grade or young adult, please also include a genre (adventure, comedy, romance, etc.).
- Guess the Tone – What do you think the overall tone of this novel is? Is it creepy? Heartwarming? Spiritual? Disturbing? In other words, what adjective would you use to describe the book?
- Guess the Basic Plot – What do you think this novel is going to be about? What do you expect to happen?
- Do NOT post a critique of the opening or any comments about the writing quality or style. We will have a novel opening critique later in the month.
Please do not post your guesses anonymously unless you do not want to be eligible to win the prize for best guesser!
Sample comment/guess: I think this is a middle grade adventure story with a dark tone. I expect it to be about how the main character learns to overcome his fear of the water to defeat a sea monster.
What Should Writers Take Away?
The reader’s perception of your novel is more important than your own. Keep an eye on your novel’s opening this week to see how Boot Campers perceive your work. Is it right in line with your vision or way off?
Is the novel going to deliver what readers seem to expect? We’ll be talking about the importance of the first page’s promise in our first lecture tomorrow.
Prize – Free Edit of Your First 1,000 Words!
This workshop will have two winners! Due to the labor involved in posting, moderating, and then judging the posts, it may take me until after Novel Boot Camp to choose and notify the winners. How long it takes depends on the level of participation.
Award for the Best Guesser: This prize will go to the Novel Boot Camper with guessing power from the gods. In other words: the camper with the most correct guesses.
Award for the Best Opening: This prize will go to the opening that had its novel, genre, and basic plot guessed correctly the most often.
Both winners will receive a free edit of their first 1,000 words.
Connect with Other Novel Boot Camp Participants
Need a writing friend? Got a question? Need a shoulder to cry on? We’re there for you!
I will be answering writing and editing questions on our Twitter hashtag as time allows. Due to the insane volume of emails I’m receiving, I cannot provide free advice or assistance via email. Thank you!
What is Novel Boot Camp?
Novel Boot Camp is a free online novel writing course focused on identifying and correcting problems in your novel. Learn more about Novel Boot Camp and find past (and future) posts here.
Ellen Brock 
The moon and stars were hidden beneath the stormy clouds. Twenty year old Jessie knew it was a bad idea to walk home alone, especially when she didn’t know her way around a neighborhood that was new to her.
She and her mother had just moved to Los Angeles, and had only been there for about two months. The neighborhood in which she now lived was lined with small, square one level homes of various pastel colors. She remembered the musty smell when they had pulled in on her first day there. She had imagined this neighborhood 40 years ago, with children giggling as they ran barefoot through the streets. They were now littered with broken fences and tattered screen doors.
As she stepped forward, crunching a piece of garbage beneath her white sneakers, she swore she felt someone lingering. She cast a glance behind her and found nothing but a barren street lined with a few empty, rusted cars. She tried to think about other things. She thought about what her brother used to tell her when she was little, “Jessie, it’s only scary if you let it be.” She missed him so much. They’d been the closest
YA, period drama tone reflective and light
Suspense Thriller Dark, foreboding Her experience during the walk is quickly forgotten when she gets home safe and sound but the next day that feeling of something “lingering” behind her happens again, this time as she grocery shopping. She pushes her cart through the parking lot, someone’s broken out the light governing her section. She makes it to her car, gets the trunk open and is loading the groceries when the sound of a low voice startles her. She’s his next victim and the story is about how she manages to escape and maybe frees the other women he’s keeping in his dungeon.
Genre: New Adult
Tone: fearful/sad
Plot: A girl is transported to a new city after her brother’s death. She finds herself challenged with new problems in a strange new world and works to overcome her fears and grief.
G: Crime/Thriller
T: Serious
P: Jessie is about to be attacked by perpetrator. She manages to brake free but her life is changed forever, fear follows her everywhere she goes.
He’d been watching, planned it, seized his opportunity and followed her. The assault silent and quick though time chewed every second slowly. Tracey heard that girls who are attacked were out late at night. They wore figure hugging clothes to advertise their sexuality, not their femininity. This signaled to some their availability, they were asking for it. You may as well say carry a shopping bag – expect to be mugged. But it wasn’t late at night. Her clothes did not compromise her modesty. She was at work; in the middle of the day, her lunch break, a public place, Tracey had just left the Market toilets.
He grabbed her swiftly by the back of the neck and smashed her face into the wall. Terror bubbled as her forehead made contact with the cold ceramic tiles her eyebrow split and blood poured. So fast and frenzied Tracey didn’t have time to draw the breath to scream, and then the light slipped in like strips of tin foil spiraling and rotating in her peripheral vision. As she slid down the wall he grabbed her by the head his fingers leaving deep bruises under her chin as he dragged her across the vestibule, viciously smashing her head again against the floor. She didn’t even see his face.
Thriller Police Procedural Dark, gritty tone. He rapes and kills her. It’s his story, the crimes he commits and the many ways he avoids getting caught but it is also the story of the detective(s) who pursue and eventually bring him down.
Genre: Romance
Tone: Dark
Plot: A woman is brutally compromised and is taken in by a handsome stranger whom she falls in love with, but she finds out he’s the one that had her beaten up so he could find her fortune.
G: Crime
T: Serious sad
P: It’s a story about a serial killer who preys on young women. His urge to feel powerful and in control.
Sometimes, I say to my Granny, “You’re a great Granny!” and she smiles and winks at me. It’s been a family joke ever since I can remember. The joke is that she really is my Great Granny. Granny is my mum’s Gran. I used to love going to her house every weekend because I got to play with her dog, Missy. While Mum would take care of Granny, cleaning the house and cooking meals, and all that other boring stuff, I would take Missy on a long walk. Usually we’d stop at the park, and Missy would dig herself a little hollow in the sand and watch me while I played on the swing set. She never tried to run away, she was just so happy to be outside. Missy was my secret best friend. I told her all my secrets and all the nasty things Rachel from school had said about me that week. Missy was really good at listening. Afterwards, I would take her home, brush her, then rub her belly in her special tickle spot that made her legs twitch. I loved going to Granny’s on the weekend. Then everything changed.
Genre: Children’s fiction
Tone: Sad but heartwarming.
Plot: The main character will have to deal with the decline in health or death of her Granny.
Genre: YA (suspect fantasy link)
Tone: Reflective
Plot: Coming of age novel where protagonist discovers family secret that will turn their life upside down and bring many challenges that have to be accepted.
Young Adult Upbeat, playful tone . . . until that last sentence.
The story of a girl who loves her Great Gran and the little dog she gets to visit. The change may be Gr. Gran’s death and the girl has to adjust to this loss. Perhaps Gr. Gran left her a large inheritance or the debts she left behind forces the family to sell the home. Or maybe it’s just a sweet ghost story about a beloved elder who dies and comes back to guide the girl through life. It’s just the first page and the possibilities are endless.
Genre: YA Suspense
Tone: Melancholy
Plot: I think there may be some sort of murder mystery about how everything changed after Granny died or was kidnapped, or even found out her Granny was a serial killer.
I think this is a middle grade story with a dark tone. I expect it to be about how something has changed the main character’s life for the worse.
G: MG
T: sad
P: Granny dies and MC has to learn how to deal with her loss. Missy is been taken away as well as at the apartment she shared with her mom no animal were allowed. She feels lonely.
Genre: YA/crossover Magical Realism
Tone: coming of age
Plot: (This is a tough one – and since I like to be different…)
MC discovers a secret – Granny has magical powers and Missy is the MC’s ghostly guardian. Now the MC must learn to control the gift they’ve inherited from their Great Gran, a gift that has skipped a couple of generations. With no one to guide, and a dog only the MC can see, hilarious disaster awaits!
G – Pre-teen
T – Dealing with dying and/or death
P – Likely the child grows up experiencing the loss of loved ones; may go to what the experiences do to her or him.
genre: young adult/fiction
tone: heart warming
plot: A young girl who loves her grandmother very much, undergoes some sort of trauma or magical experience.
I’m thinking it’s a middle grade fiction with innocent tones? Plot guess would be that tragedy strikes at Granny’s house, either suddenly (ie. Missy dies a violent death) or her great granny dies of old age, and the rest of the novel is spent seeing how the MC deals with grief.
Genre: Middle grade fiction
T: Sad
P: Girl overcomes bully at school and granny dies.
Genre: MG Fiction
Tone: reminiscent, sad
Plot: Granny dies, Mom gets depressed, leaving MC and Missy to fix their broken family.
Genre: MG
Tone: Dramatic – due to the end
Basic plot: A little girl has a great childhood until her granny dies and the family falls apart.
Genre: MG Drama
Tone: sad
Plot: Granny died, learning to overcome grief.
The boy is sixteen years old, privileged, pampered, rebellious, and still jazzin’ on the best rock candy Slammin’ Sammy has to offer. His vintage ’97 Corvette, a recent birthday present from dear old dad, waits for him in the parking lot of his pusher’s apartment complex. Hands buried in his pockets, he starts the short journey across the poorly lit asphalt. The brittle January wind barely registers against his meth-fevered skin. He doesn’t hear the footsteps behind him until it was too late.
He turns around just in time to see the silver glint of the knife as it makes its downward arc. His cry turns to a muffled grunt as he watches the knife bury itself deep into his chest.
Still unable to grasp his predicament, he looks up at the huge shadow standing in front of him and tries to ask it a question. He’s annoyed when the only sound he can make is a watery gurgle. One hand flaps upward toward the handle of the knife sticking out of his chest but it’s useless.
The shadow grasps his shoulder, spins him around and draws him up close and personal. A large rough hand slides over his mouth from behind
Genre: Murder mystery.
Tone: Violent callousness.
Plot: There’s someone murdering people who breeze through life getting away with the small stuff.
Genre: Paranormal suspense
Tone: Fear/dark
Plot: A young boy dies which spurs the protagonist to find out about the ghosts/demons that are murdering people.
Genre: Mystery/Thriller (Detective book)
Tone: Fear/Dark
Plot: Young boys are being killed in a quiet town and it’s up to a detective to solve the mystery and discover the link.
G: paranormal crime
T: serious
P: The boy dies but does not cross over. He now is on a mission to haunt his killer and eventually bring him to justice.
YA, dark anti drugs theme, the shadow could be the drugs stealing his life
genre: horror/suspense
tone: dark/supernatural
plot: A boy gets murdered which spurs a detective to investigate a string of crimes
Suspense/thriller with dark tones. Character seen here is either the MC, who is kidnapped and has to try to get back to safety, or perhaps killed, making the novel more of a murder mystery type scenario.
Genre: Crime / Thriller
Tone: Suspense.
Plot: A pair of serial killers who tag-team their kills, escalating in violence until it becomes apparent that one of them will need to take the other out to survive
Genre: Murder
T: Gritty
P: Someone is killing rich kids who do drugs.
G:thriller
T: dark, crime-ridden
P: this gives us insight into the lives of people living lives controlled by drugs and addictions. Maybe this was a deal gone wrong
Genre: YA Paranormal
Tone: dark, gritty
Plot: Boy comes back as a ghost, and tries to solve his own murder.
Genre: Crime Drama or Police Procedural
Tone: Serious, Tense
Basic plot: A privileged boy goes missing and is later found brutally stabbed. It’s up to a detective to discover the killer before he strikes again.
Genre: YA Paranormal
Tone: serious, dark
Plot: Young lad survives but is disabled and re-evaluates his privileged life. During this process he finds out that his father dabbled in supernatural magic and so embarks on a journey of truth and healing.
The letter in Doctor Christopher Whalley’s hands was not addressed to him, in fact it belonged to a patient. He hadn’t been able to resist picking it up from the floor as Madeline Tailor was sleeping. He planned to place it on her bedside cabinet, but as his patient shifted he was afraid he might wake her and he crept out of the room with the envelope in his pocket instead.
Now he was in his office tapping his fingers on his desk trying to convince himself not to read it. His gut told him to open it but, given recent circumstances he had to question this. He couldn’t afford another run in with the board. Yet, everything Madeline Tailor had said since her arrival a few hours before strengthened his desire to help her.
“I’ll have none of your sympathy, doctor,” she had instructed when he introduced himself.
“We try to offer support, not sympathy, here at Dove Break,” he replied.
She was only thirty-eight, much younger than the other patients at the palliative care unit. Here, though, age did not matter. Madeline had single cell lung carcinoma, a disease that would kill her no more than three weeks from now.
Genre: Romance.
Tone: Tragedy with propriety.
Plot: Dr. Whalley falls in love with his terminally ill patient, resulting in a bittersweet story where Madeline Tailor gets to experience love before she passes away.
Medical Romance Sad tone The strength she exhibits in the face of her impending doom overcomes the doctor’s better instincts and he falls in love with her. Together they live the two and a half weeks of either of their lives because they live them together. The last few days are sad but after she passes he walks out of the hospital into the bright sunshine of a new day resolved to meet each new day with the same courage and fierce determination he saw in her.
Genre: Paranormal romance
Tone: Sadness
Plot: A woman is dying but a vampire saves her by making her eternal.
I think this is a medical romance or possibly a medical thriller or maybe even a murder mystery with a dark tone. I expect it to be about how the main character overcomes a terminal illness to solve the story’s problems.
Genre: Adult Fiction
Tone: Hopeful
Plot: A dying woman has carried a letter with her for years, too afraid to open it. The doctor takes the decision to read the letter and discovers that it is from her long lost child, given up for adoption 20+ years earlier. Now that she is dying, the doctor does everything in his power to bring the two back together before it’s too late.
G: Romans paranormal
T: sad
P: as Chris does his best to help Madeline he falls in love with her and watching her die is to much to handle. When she dies he kills himself to join her in afterlife.
Adult fiction, centred on the karma, righting your wrongs. Uplifting
genre: adult contemporary
tone: romantic
plot: Doctor learns about a mysterious patient and helps to heal her with unconventional medicine.
G: Love Story
T: Romantic
P: Doctor agrees to help Madeline’s son when she dies.
Genre: romance
Tone: desperate, tragic
Plot: Dr falls in love with his patient, and helps her fight the illness for the little time they have together.
Genre: Medical Romance
Tone: Somber
Basic plot: The doctor falls for Madeline and manages to get her on the lung transplant list to save her life.
Chapter 1 — Accidental Alterbeasting
“This is a curse, not a blessing.” Jude’s first impulse was to crumple the parchment and pitch it into the parlor’s marble hearth. Instead, he flung it on the sculpted tea table facing him and Alexa.
“It is not. You should be concerned that my Opening Marriage Bid Ceremony is tomorrow. I don’t understand you.”
“All our lives, we’ve known your name would be entered into our planet’s Marriage Match, but mine wouldn’t. We’ve had seventeen years to get used to it.”
“You act as if you don’t care.” Alexa’s plump lower lip trembled, and her brunette hair darkened.
He unfolded her arms and held her soft hands in his. “I love you, but we can only be friends.” He pounded the parchment with his index finger. “I did not prepare for this.”
“I love you to, but you should be thrilled I am that one out of one hundred million females who inherited the TFDR pattern, but didn’t die before birth. You and I can’t be together, but Papa said this will help me attract a landed Aristocrat with excellent genetics.”
Genre: YA romance
Tone: disappointment
Plot: This reminds me a lot of another book called Match by Ally Condie: They are friends but now must be match for marriage. They end up finding matches but eventually go against this dystopian society.
I think this is a YA romance dystopia adventure story with a dark tone. I expect it to be about how the main character finds love in a future of prearranged marriages.
Genre: YA Sci-fi/dystopian romance
Tone: hopeful – star crossed lovers
Plot: Alexa is supposed to marry someone she’s never met, someone that she doesn’t love. Someone that isn’t Jude. But this is what their society believe in. This is the way it’s supposed to be.
Until Jude and Alexa run away. Now they are wanted!
G: Sci fi romance
T: sad
one another as now after shes a married woman they are not allowed to see each other. It is a love story of two people who are not suppose to be together but in their harts they know that they are destined to spend their lives together. They will find a way to reconnect.
YA, set in the future, romance triumph over the system, tone, suspense
genre: YA Fiction
tone: romance
plot: star crossed lovers, find a way to be together against impossible odds
G: YA Science Fiction
T: Rebellious
P: Girl convinces guy to go against society rules and runaway to have a life together.
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi/Romance
Tone: dystopian
Plot: MC must accept that his love will marry another and find happiness elsewhere.
I feel queasy. A Don La Pardoughi haircut is going to cost me a good chunk of my very first paycheck, but I have to do something about my bald spot. It’s been two whole months since my stitches came out. But so far there’s still no hair, just an ugly red scar. The doctor insists it will grow back. But what if it doesn’t? Every time I think of going through life with a glaring bald spot on back of my head I get a little panicky, and my mouth goes dry.
“Excuse me, is there a drinking fountain around here somewhere?” I ask the receptionist.
“No, but I can get you some cucumber water if you’d like.”
“Cucumber water?” Come to think of it I haven’t had any vegetables today. “Yes, I’ll take some cucumber water.”
I pick up a hair-styling magazine and sit back on the zebra-print couch. A attractive woman on the cover is staring out into space. She has a self-satisfied look, like she just climbed Mount Everest in three-inch heels. Her red hair is attractively windswept (perhaps by a last-minute storm near the summit?) causing her curls to organize themselves around her face in casual perfection.
Genre: Chick-lit
Tone: humorous
Plot: young woman has survived a brain tumour and is on the road to recovery – knowing that every look she receives is one of sympathy. Until ‘HE’ shows up. He doesn’t look at her and see the scars. He shows her how to live again!
G: fantasy romance
T: humorous
P: she’s an attractive woman with a great sense of humor. Recently she went through operation performed on her brain. She’s happy to be alive but has to make sure that she looks the part. A new hair style that would cover bold spot on her head will give her the confidence that she needs. She wants to talk to that guy at work. He didn’t noticed her yet but not to worry she just started and now she will make great first impression.
Adult fiction, humour the tone is light
Genre: Chick-Lit
Tone: funny, sarcastic
Plot: young girl deals with stresses in her life with new job and recovering from brain surgery and dealing with continuing treatment. Falls in love with young doc from her office.
Genre: Chic Lit
Tone: Light / hopeful
Plot: Trying to put her life back together after major surgery – time to move on.
Genre: Romance/Mystery
Tone: humorous, human
Plot: MC survived an attack and wants to forget about it. She finally gets a chance at love when her attacker comes back into her life. She must now find a way to catch the criminal, and stay alive – without scaring off her new guy.
Chapter 1
DISCOVERY
Thrajan studied the skittering beetle closely. There seemed no apparent pattern to its frenetic attempts to escape the glass box imprisoning it. Had it been alive, anyone would have mistaken its random movements for those of a living bug flitting about a candle on a swamp rat’s porch.
But there was no light, and the beetle had been dead for three years.
Thrajan checked the glowing compass in his left hand for the hundredth time. The charmed crystal pointer glowed a dull red as it swung back and forth in a tight arc. He held the compass just above the glass box so he could watch both the pointer and the beetle.
‘THERE!’ His mind cried in triumph as the beetle twitched and danced the same as the pointer. The synchronization only lasted a few seconds, but Thrajan had been watching the two in the bottom of his little skiff for years.
His patience had paid off. The young necromancer controlled his breathing, willing his heart to stop pounding. Now was not the moment to throw away years of training. Quickly he tossed a small anchor into the murky delta water to keep the boat from drifting.
Genre: Fantasy
Tone: Dark/Macabre
Plot: Thrajan has been training for years, and isn’t doing particularly well. After stumbling across an old manuscript, Thrajan sets off in pursuit of a secret place, and an item that will make him the most powerful Necromancer of all history.
G: Urban fantasy
T: mysterious
P: Thrajan is practicing his powers as necromancer for years. He’s hoping that after he masters the art of bringing death to life he will be able to kiss his girlfriend again. He missis her so much. Being with her is his only concern.
YA wizards and warlocks fantasy, light tone, suspense
I think this is a science fiction novel and the tone is dark and foreboding. Now that the main character has perfected the ultimate secret of life and death, he will use it to achieve his very special goal.
Genre: Fantasy
Tone: slightly dark
Plot: The start of an epic fantasy and our introduction to our studious young hero who later turns out to be quite clumsy and reckless.
G: Fantasy
T: playful, magical
P: Thrajan is learning to use his powers. They will be needed to defend his home.
Genre: YA Fantasy
Tone: Macabre, dark
Plot: Thrajan has been studying the art of life and death and is finally ready to apply it. He sets out on a mission to bring back a loved one who wasn’t so lucky before.
TOWER OF BLOOD
It was late afternoon when Elric’s horse turned a bend in the dusty road along a dense ridgetop. In the hazy distance, below in the valley to his left, he spied a curious, tall tower with an odd shape to it. He was high enough above it to tell that if he were astride a dragon from the air, it would have the appearance of a teardrop. The waning sun glinted off the top with twinkles of light separating into shards of rainbow colors. Squinting his eyes he could see there was some sort of dome on the top – perhaps glass or crystal of some sort.
Suddenly the world exploded in motion as Elric was thrown from his squealing horse. He cursed, realizing the beast had stepped into a covered hole on the trail. The leg had gone down up to the knee. Bone pierced the struggling foreleg as it screamed. Elric struggled to right himself when he heard a thrashing noise that carried even above the sound of the dying animal. His turning head barely had a split-second to glimpse the violent motion of a gnarled tree branch rushing at his head.
Genre: Fantasy
Tone: alternative history/myth (Got/LotR style)
Plot: In his quest to find answers, Elric is attacked on the borders of a sacred city. A captive, he must do all in his power to escape, but a woman makes it harder for him to leave.
G: Adventure
T: serious
P: Elric ducks at the last second and avoids being decapitated but his horse wasn’t so lucky. Elric decides to get closer to the tower. Now he knows there’s something there that someone doesn’t want anyone to see.
YA, middle earth type story, fantasy, black and white tone, good over evil
I think this is a fantasy adventure novel where the main character is on a quest to find a mythical lost city and retrieve something he has lost, but evil forces are working against him at every turn. The tone is serious.
G: Fantasy
T: exciting, action-packed
Plot: Elric needs to find and save his sister from the warring clans who have stolen her.
Genre: Fantasy
Tone: Dramatic
Basic plot: Elric is captured by marauders and gets into many misadventures as he finds his way out.
Prologue
June, 1986
A flash of lightening welcomed her to the new world. Her screams became the thunder as her bones broke. Her blood became the rain as he tore her flesh to ribbons.
Then she fell still.
Below them, the derelict church roof stood out like an exposed ribcage. Shards of stained glass sparkled on the floor of the aisle more than a hundred foot below. The ruinous bell tower trembled beneath them as thunder rolled across the city. The hideous gargoyles looked on, witness to the terrible crime.
There was nothing holy about this place.
“Her punishment is just, Vesper.” Nathanael stood over her broken body as rain trickled down his bare muscular torso, cleansing him of her blood, revealing the wonder of him. The golden script that spoke messages of mercy, pity, peace. Divine words that moved and sparkled under his dark skin like sunlight on water. “There can be no atonement for what she has done.”
Wiping the rain from his eyes, Vesper stepped carefully, crouching beside Nathanael’s victim. She was lying precariously close to the edge, her left hand stretched over her head as though she had been reaching for help.
Reaching for you .
G: Fantasy Thriller
T: dark/ mysterious
P: MC is on a mission to punish the ones who have wronged his belief system. She wasn’t the first to experience his unforgivable ways and she wont be the last.
Adult fantasy, religious and dark in tone
Genre: Fantasy
Tone: dark
Plot: the realm of angels try to recover after a revolution led by the companion of Nathanael against God. It is Nathanael, Vesper and the remaining angels to punish the fallen angels and restore order to the realm.
G: Sci-fi
T: intense
Plot: Vesper works to save future women from the fate of Nathanael’s punishment.
Genre: Historical fantasy
Tone: Tense; tragic
Basic plot: Vesper loses his sister when she sins against the edicts of the place and spends his travels trying to determine if his he’s following the correct path.