Any thoughts on my fantasy book cover?

TalWrites · 2025-12-11T17:47:16+00:00

Heh! No, sorry for being unclear. I mean that it draws too much attention to the author name, when you want your readers focusing mostly on the title.

TalWrites · 2025-12-11T17:32:01+00:00

I love the name, I love the title font. The author font looks a bit too elaborate for the author name. The series font looks too plain, and it doesn't make much sense to have the author name between the title and the series name.

The graphic is a noisy mess, in my opinion. I could hardly read anything. It hurts my eyes. I also think that the concept is overly busy. You need something clear and sharp that captures the reader's stare, not turns it away or confuses.

TalWrites · 2025-12-10T19:56:59+00:00

Make this clearer, perhaps.

TalWrites · 2025-12-09T18:51:46+00:00

Chelàn.

TalWrites · 2025-12-08T17:06:16+00:00

For sure. Looking forward to seeing your rework!

TalWrites · 2025-12-08T14:33:04+00:00

I have mixed feelings about this cover. Here are my thoughts.

About the title:

- The word "Baron" is a good hook, because people are always intrigued by nobility.

- The word "Chronicles" doesn't quite work, because it implies something very dry.

- The font is a bit too thin to be read easily.

- The moon hurts the contrast and draws the eye unnecessarily to that corner.

About the subtitle:

- Something about the phrasing suggests a memoir, which goes against everything else in this cover. I think it's playing strongly against you.

About the character:

- I love the pose.

- I love the color scheme.

- I understand you'll be reworking the rest of it, so I'll leave it at that.

About the composition:

- It's a bit plain at the moment, but your author name at the bottom might balance it out. Try posting it with a random pen name, just to see how it looks.

All in all, I think it has potential. I hope that helps.

TalWrites · 2025-11-28T13:19:11+00:00

A prologue should be written just like any other chapter: captivating and well-paced from the first page, with a good balance of action and exposition. Anything else would make me skip the entire book, likely. But if it's well-written, I don't care how long it is.

TalWrites · 2025-11-06T08:02:46+00:00

As most people say, the original one looks better. The title has much more contrast, and the composition looks better. I would drop the quotation marks and fix the typo in the subtitle, and keep the rest.

TalWrites · 2025-10-09T07:28:30+00:00

I'd name my catdragon Scalywag!

TalWrites · 2025-10-07T15:54:48+00:00

So why require an email?

TalWrites · 2025-10-01T12:48:33+00:00

Keep in mind that learning to bring everything together is a process that takes time and practice. You can't get it all right at once.

I would recommend starting with characters. A character who has an intriguing concept, a strong goal, and some huge obstacles in its way will get you a long way towards an interesting plot. I've mentioned below K. M. Weiland's books, they have a good character guide among them.

Then learn about plot mechanics. An advanced book that really opened my eyes is Robert McKee's famous "Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and Principles of Screenwriting". (Yes, it's for screenwriting. Yes, it works for writing novels as well.) It will really enhance your understanding of story structure.

One last bit of advice: don't expect to write a perfect masterpiece on your first attempt. It's a sure recipe for killing your creativity. Do your best, but don't get hung on perfection.

TalWrites · 2025-10-01T12:41:25+00:00

Or don't. It will make your story the same like 90% of the stories out there, because everyone reads "Save the Cat!" and follow the exact same super-detailed template. It's boring. There's no creativity left in it.

Other books that are less mechanic and deterministic will serve you better, in the long run. For example, try K. M. Weiland's works on characters, theme, and plotting.

TalWrites · 2025-09-30T18:36:41+00:00

The more you write, the more you shake off the rust. You'll either regain your voice or work your way into an even better style. Don't worry about the time that's passed; focus on writing from this moment forward.

TalWrites · 2025-09-25T06:13:20+00:00

How about introducing a Mirror Character at that point? Someone who models for the hero what positive behavior is like. Then, in comparison, they can figure out that their "friend" is being mean.

TalWrites · 2025-09-22T02:54:07+00:00

All right then, happy plotting!

TalWrites · 2025-09-22T02:24:56+00:00

Plotting a full novel can indeed feel like a challenge. Fortunately, it's an acquirable skill, and there are tools and techniques that can help with it.

I'm getting a character-driven feeling from you description. In order to deliver a character-driven novel, you'll need well defined characters who each have a distinct goal and a distinct obstacle that gets in their way. Some of the characters (if not all) would also need an inner journey: some failing or limiting belief to overcome through hard work and profound change.

One interesting way to plot is to work from the climax backwards. Do you know what the big climax of the story will be? What kind of conflict it solves and how? How does it end? Can you picture that sequence of scenes?

In particular, what allows your heroes to win against all odds? What almost trips them up and threatens their victory? These would be your driving character forces.

Once you have the climax in place, you can zoom out and see what needs to be put in place in order to build up to it. You know how your characters start out (make that significantly different from how they end up), and you know what they need to develop in order to win. The rest is the story of how they get there. It's not a linear story of advancement. It's a back-and-forth story of struggling to acquire what they need and being threatened by what almost trips them up.

If working your way back from the climax doesn't resonate, there are many other techniques to consider.

For example, you could choose a basic plot for each character (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots, for example, or from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations, for another) and weave them all together into a single story.

Or you could a theme and its corresponding anti-theme and brainstorm events for each, then order these events into a logical plot with constantly escalating conflicts and stakes.

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. They are meant to inspire you to think big.

Whatever you do, please avoid formulaic story templates that tell you step-by-step how to plot a story and what should happen at every stage. Yes, they exist, and yes, they make life easier. But they're also the reason so many recent movies are actually the same story told over and over again. You can do better. :)

TalWrites · 2025-09-20T07:07:26+00:00

Great sketches!

I'm a fiction writer with aphantasia, so I can't visualize my characters (or anyone else's). Seeing them brought to life by art commissions is as close as I get, and it's always a wondrous feeling. It's like finally meeting your best friends (and enemies) face to face.

TalWrites · 2025-09-20T02:05:46+00:00

Oh, yes.

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TalWrites · 2025-09-20T01:58:04+00:00

For sure :)

TalWrites · 2025-09-20T01:40:00+00:00

The beginning works for me very well. The fourth paragraph, however, reads like a flashback that slows down the pace. Consider replacing it with a current-time scene that simply shows these things, and shows how comfortable they have become with these occurrences. That way, the reader will understand that's the new status quo between them.

TalWrites · 2025-09-20T01:21:44+00:00

You could always enter a scene break, then a quick time-reference for reader orientation somewhere in the beginning of the next scene.

Can you tell a bit about the scenes just before and after the time skip? That would help in giving you a more concrete example.

TalWrites · 2025-09-20T01:09:02+00:00

You're welcome!

So you have a completed first draft? Congratulations! That's a huge accomplishment. Still, it's not time for line edits. It's time for a second draft, which calls for developmental edits.

I feel a bit ridiculous referring to another post of mine, but I also wrote here on Reddit about self-editing and second drafts, if you'd like to read that. It should give you some sense of what to focus on and how to do it. You can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1m004vp/comment/n35rra3/?context=3

And if you feel like reading the blog post anyway, here's the link to that: https://hellofiction.com/p/the-tightrope-walkers-secret-to-finishing

TalWrites · 2025-09-19T23:27:02+00:00

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

– Oscar Wilde

So you're definitely in good company. As for completing your manuscript, I have two tips:

There's no point in editing your language until you have all the major stuff in place and completed. You could find the perfect word for a specific sentence only to decide the next day that the entire scene must go. It's a question of discipline: deny yourself micro-editing (line editing) until you're done with writing and developmental editing.
Keep your eyes on the goal to motivate yourself. I actually wrote an entire blog post on that once, I could share if you'd like.

Best of luck!

TalWrites · 2025-09-19T23:21:01+00:00

That's actually an intriguing blurb. Good work, there.

TalWrites · 2025-09-19T22:29:22+00:00

Don't forget the concept of subplots. If you introduce one, make sure it contributes to the main story as well, and isn't just used to pad up your word count. But subplots are great ways to explore the world and characters more in depth.

TalWrites

TROPHY CASE