I wouldn’t agree that holyknight should practice on short stories rather than a novel. Sure, he’s more likely to finish a short story – but does that necessarily make it better for practice? If what he loves are novels, he should start a novel.
I started writing novels at 11 or so. Never finished one. But if I’d finished a short story at that age, it wouldn’t be any more publishable now – and it would still have been really derivative of what I was reading at the time (the Silmarillion, then Raymond Feist, Forgotten Realms novels, Robert Jordan… depending on what stage of Jr High/High School you’d checked in at).
I enjoy telling long stories… and writing novels is practice for writing novels. I’ve got nothing against short stories; I’ve written one and enjoyed it. But it turned into the prologue for another novel. It’s just not my form.
Holyknight – as long as your summary is essentially the same as a summary of Eragon, you’ll take crap for it. If you want to make a CoG Eragon fanfic where you are essentially Eragon, you’ll find an audience, and as long as you don’t try selling it you’re not likely to get into legal trouble. But if you can think of some significant ways to distinguish your story from its inspiration, you’ll take a lot less crap.
In support of everything Havenstone said, I truly believe that the best way to learn to write is to write. Write what you want, and write a lot of it. It’s also important to read a lot, and spend some time thinking about exactly what you like in other people’s books. (Reading a lot will also help improve your grammar without you even needing to think about it!)
My own history is very much like Havenstone’s. I started writing novels in middle school, and they were mostly just terrible Lord of the Rings ripoffs with no discernible plot. I never got very far with any of them. But some of the ideas I had then stuck with me, and I learned a lot. Now I’ve finished my first two novels and am working on the third, with a clear outline for a series of eight.
Writing is like art or music or any skill; you have to be willing to suck at it for a while before you can produce something other people will like. So my advice is, go forth and suck at it. A lot. If you want to build a super-detailed fantasy world and plot out a complicated twelve-novel series, if that’s the kind of storytelling you’re passionate about, then just do it. Even if the grammar is terrible, or it starts out sounding like an Eragon ripoff, you’ll learn by doing.
(and side note @Havenstone, I kinda wish I had known you in middle school. )
@holyknight124 I think you can write a novel or game about dragons without making it an Eragon ripoff, as long as the themes, storylines and characters are differnt. Think Battle Royale and Hunger Games. It would help if you’d explain what would make your novel different from Eragon
@Havenstone is this short story available somewhere?
To clarify, I didn’t mean that I agreed with Darkner about how Holyknight shouldn’t write his novel. I just meant I agreed with the other points. I think that practice is definitely the best way of improving as a writer (I would know xD)
You people know what yous are on about and my grammar and punctuation is terrible but I prefer getting ideas or whatever down first then fixing the others afterwards, I love reading I could stay up weeks on ends reading and I have an imagination I cant explain, I want write a book because when I read eragon I wanted more of it I read the series and wanted christopher paollini (sorry if spelt name wrong) to make more but he never did and still hasnt and well I thought if he isnt i’ll make my own storys so I started and enjoyed letting out all my trapped feelings of being bullied, hated, disliked for no possible reason whilat im nice to everyone else and I put all those feelings into my imagination and then onto paper, I wouldnt make a ripoff of eragon ever its a beyond brilliant book and well I wanted to change and combine ideas adding my own twist to them. My life is misery, I sound like a prat but its true you might be thinking this kids a welp and doesnt know what hes saying and well I dont know what im saying but I just want my life more and since my real life is never getting better maybe I could put someone elses life into happiness with my books sorry if im a disappointment
Holyknight – I’m guessing a lot of us on here have been bullied, and it sucks. No two ways around it. All I can offer is that it gets better. Kids are often awful to each other, but hang in there, get through it however you can – and odds are you’ll find adult life a lot better. (Maybe after a little counseling).
Meanwhile, write what you enjoy, and write lots of it. If what you enjoy is straight-up Eragon, write the sequel Paolini should have written, and see how it feels coming from you. As an exercise for a young writer, you’re in excellent company writing fanfic (just ask the Bronte sisters). And absolutely, give it as much of your own twist as you can; just get advice from an outside eye before you try publishing it as to whether the twists distinguish it sufficiently from Paolini’s work for it to be publishable. But the important thing is to not let any negative feedback stop you writing. Ignore it, or take it on and try to write differently… but whatever you do, just don’t stop writing, because that’s how you get better.
But if I’d finished a short story at that age, it wouldn’t be any more publishable now – and it would still have been really derivative of what I was reading at the time (the Silmarillion, then Raymond Feist, Forgotten Realms novels, Robert Jordan… depending on what stage of Jr High/High School you’d checked in at).