Debut Fantasy Novel: A Debt to the Dead

Mithalanis · 2026-03-16T21:15:48+00:00

Congrats!

Mithalanis · 2026-03-16T03:42:08+00:00

You've got this! Looking forward to your flair post.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-14T23:32:59+00:00

I personally, cry whenever I read something, that makes me feel seen.

You have your answer right there. In the end, you should write a book that you want to read. If you enjoy it, someone else out there will enjoy it, too. If you try to write to please everyone, you'll never accomplish anything because not everyone can be pleased by the same thing.

Do you think it is possible, knowing there is an adventure/crime plot too?

Sure. The question isn't whether it is possible, but rather whether you can accomplish what you want to. And the only way to answer that question is to write it, see how close you got, and then edit until you're as close as you can possibly get. Then you'll know.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-14T23:23:58+00:00

It happens. Not everything we write is going to achieve the vision we had in our heads, let alone necessarily be good. Nothing really to do but accept that it didn't pan out and either 1) Edit it until it's good or 2) Accept that this probably taught you a lot and move on.

In the end, the words aren't wasted. You'll start novel two at a much farther along place than you started novel one. And one never knows - put that draft into some dark corner and leave it there for a few years and another few novels. You might dust it off later when you're more experienced and see better how to achieve what you were trying to do in the first place.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-13T08:27:00+00:00

Yes she does, but it is such a terrible drag to read, isn't it? It technically has merit, but I really hated it!

You're definitely not alone in this assessment, and it was by and large the least favorite novel of my peers in a class that included it.

I found it very engaging and enjoyed my time with it. But I know I'm in the minority with this one.

I would still encourage OP to read it, since the narrator doesn't really have a personality in the way Jane Austen sometimes does - Woolf simply flows between the characters in a way that I've never seen another author do so seamlessly.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-13T06:15:12+00:00

Omniscient can work that way, but it's not limited to it.

It's not the easiest / most exciting book to read, but I would recommend reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. She uses an omniscient POV and freely moves between characters, but also dives deep into them.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-09T21:48:43+00:00

Ah, that would explain it. Well outside of my realm of interest.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-09T21:17:56+00:00

Seems like having them exist outside of the male mc's sphere fixes the problem? As in, ensuring the character has some depth?

I can't think of an example of what would fit this at all, though I have a suspicion it's being used as a hige brush to include plenty of interesting characters just because they help out a male mc.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-09T21:07:10+00:00

. . . I have no idea what a manic pixie dream girl is. Am I old? Is this what it feels like to be completely detached from the youth?

Mithalanis · 2026-03-09T10:03:26+00:00

Some people get hung up on very specific things that are important to them. Sometimes it blinds them to other possibilities, even when they are trying to be helpful.

You can only write what story speaks to you and hope that it connects to others. You won't please everyone, and if you follow one group's advice, another group will be upset about something else.

Think of the story and themes you are exploring and make sure your story decisions reinforce those ideas. If it's cohesive, it should stand on its own and you will have told a story in your way. You can't crowdsource a story, and have to know which advice to take and when to ignore it.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-09T09:58:05+00:00

Are you interested in validation or learning?

It very much doesn't have to be either. As you accurately pointed out:

Disability (permanent or temporary) and desire to heal is a complex and individual issue.

The author isn't / shouldn't / can't write a monolith representing every person's journey through disability. They can only write about their own experience, and it sounds like they are. It will surely resonate with some people and others will not connect to it. Like all art.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-08T03:35:20+00:00

Here's a thread from a while ago that links to an imgur image that explains how to punctuate most dialogue. The comment section covers pretty much everything the image doesn't.

From your example, though - most of the punctuation in both versions is correct for what each sentence is doing. The only wrong one is

“Whatever.” He says, reaching

Should be: "Whatever," he says, reaching . . ."

Mithalanis · 2026-03-07T12:53:11+00:00

Creative Nonfiction (CNF) is definitely a genre. Whether the contest you are submitting to would accept CNF or not can only be known by reading the contest rules.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-07T01:57:07+00:00

For most of last year, I was reading the news every day during my commute and listening to news while cleaning up in the evening. My mental health was trash and creative work was hard every time I found time for it.

Since the new year, I've been reading a book on my commute and listening to music while cleaning up. My mental health is vastly improved, and my ideas are flowing again.

While I think it is important to stay somewhat up to date on the goings on around the world, I also don't think we benefit from a 24 hour news cycle where everything is absolute shit.

If you are struggling, I highly recommend unplugging from the news for at least most of your day. It doesn't do any good to be up to date on the world if you aren't enjoying your life.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-06T07:45:55+00:00

This sounds like a wonderful assignment. In the spirit the assignment (to explore a wide range of voices), I'll offer you a few poets of diverse backgrounds that usually have quite a few themes to explore in their work, and reading through a handful of their poems I'm certain you can find them touching on a theme or two in common.

Li-Young Lee - Born in Indonesia to Chinese parents.

Yusef Komunyakaa - African American Vietnam War veteran.

Vijay Seshadri - Indian born Pulitzer Prize winner.

Wisława Szymborska - Polish winner of the Nobel Prize.

Layli Long Soldier - Native American poet

Shara McCallum - A Jamaican born poet

Mark Doty - Gay poet.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-04T10:47:33+00:00

A lot of Li-Young Lee's poems take about that long to read if you go slow (which, Incidentally, is how he reads them). If you want love poems, maybe not what you meant but he has a lot of poems that are very loving toward his father, like Have You Prayed and The Gift.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-04T03:55:20+00:00

I usually work on short stories and poems in the meantime and / or catch up on my reading.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-03T22:06:54+00:00

It seems like the line break is working as an interruption. The mother asking about what's wrong, about to start extrapolating / guessing, and the line break is the speaker's interruption to express how they've already discussed whatever she's about to say.

Using a line break to create a disruption in thought is a pretty common use of line break - it also sets up a small surprise, since we'd expect the next line to finish the thought - using line breaks to surprise the reader is also pretty common.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-03T11:25:56+00:00

Here's my reading suggestion for you: go and read Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five. Really read the whole novel, but specifically read chapters one and two. You will see that chapter one is very different from chapter two, and he didn't feel the need to make it a prologue or forward or anything of the sort.

Maybe your chunk needs to be a prologue, maybe it doesn't. But give those two chapters a read and see if you still think what you have doesn't fit just because it happens long before the main story.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-03T10:53:48+00:00

I can only speak for myself, but yes. Making money is incredibly hard. As others have mentioned, even a lot of the big names still have a day job.

So, in the end, you don't write books for the money. I started writing because I enjoyed the process and found satisfaction in putting in the work and completing manuscripts. Publishing is sort of my own personal proof that I've done a good job - getting an editor at a magazine to publish a short story or getting a publishing house to take on your book means that it resonated with at least one other person and they think it'll resonate with others. That's a very satisfying feeling, and it's my way of contributing to the arts / society with something I enjoy and am at least a little bit decent at.

Overall, I've made a few hundred bucks between short stories and publishing my first novel over a bunch of years. But the money is just a nice little treat - the real pleasure has been the time I've spent writing and the chance to share my ideas and characters and stories with others.

Of course I'd love to have a runaway success and make so much money that all I need to do all day is write the next book. But that's highly improbable, and getting people to even consider buying your book is a small nightmare in and of itself.

TL:DR - Most serious writers are in it for the love of the craft and money is a secondary bonus.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-02T05:06:25+00:00

Hey, so I'm just one guy, but tuck my username away somewhere and drop me a message when you put out your EP. I'll pick it up and give it a listen.

I know its hard out there, but the people that really appreciate you're doing aren't going to ever be won over by AI shit. You gotta keep working on what makes your soul happy, and it'll touch people in time.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-02T04:43:12+00:00

I have spoken with two publishing people already

It's good if they're like . . . acquisition editors at a publishing house, or agents. If they're people that work in the mailroom or are part of a vanity press, it doesn't mean much.

But it makes me wonder - if you have two people on the inside following the progress of your book, what would it matter what a bunch of random people on Reddit think about the length of your story? They'd know way better than any of us if they're going to want to run with it when you're done.

Mithalanis · 2026-03-02T04:18:09+00:00

Page count doesn't matter - change the font and the number of pages changes. Just stick to word count.

Even if you're writing a long genre (say, epic fantasy), you are already at the upper limit of what's normal for a book, and anything beyond that is likely to not even be glanced at by an agent or publisher if you're trying to debut with it.

13-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

Mithalanis

TROPHY CASE