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Author Topic: Prologue to'The Keeper' - Fantasy novel
AmiraDay
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This is the first paragraph of the prologue of the story I'm writing.
I have the first ten thousand words to this novel down, and I am aiming for about a hundred to hundred-fifty thousand words.
This is the prologue, tell me what you think, if it makes you curious, anything that comes to mind! Thanks for the help!

Many times I wondered about the moral behind my actions. Behind our actions. I wondered if it was foolish to keep living this life, just because it was life.
What is life really? Few humans can say they really made something of their time on this water planet, that they made a difference.
When I was born I lived for honour. To do what is right for my country. Disaster struck in the midst of it all. The Caesar at the time, commanded a priest to set up a strike force. A group of brave men, warriors. These men would be trained, with the sole purpose of protecting the king. There was a special ritual, referred to as the God treatment. It was a mere rumour, it wasn’t real. And even if it were, nobody would dare perform


[This message has been edited by AmiraDay (edited July 29, 2010).]

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited July 29, 2010).]


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WouldBe
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It seems okay...beginning with a philosophical rant. I have a few, minor comments. The most confusing thing to me was that the narrator seems at first to be a guilt-ridden insider to something...the guard perhaps, but then seems to be an outsider, since he doesn't know for sure about the special ritual. (I didn't see the post before it was cut, so maybe it was clearer then.)

If the narrator's self-examination was over a long period, perhaps it should begin with 'Many times I have wondered....' And perhaps you meant 'morality' in that sentence. The 'moral' would refer to a lesson learned.

The 'What is life[,] really?' sentence doesn't seem to fit and is a bit put-offish. The philosophizing seems focused on morality, rather than a sky-high view of life.

Good luck with it.


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AmiraDay
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Hey WouldBe,
Actually, you got it exactly right! He is in a guard, but the outsider of that team of guards. So yeah, you got the vibe!
He is a couple thousand years old, so he has in fact, a lot to think about.
Thankyou!

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Osiris
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I feel like its somewhat flat in general. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. One reason is efficiency. Ideas and details carry more power when they are not diluted by too many words. The second reason is the lack of descriptive detail, and where it is descriptive, the words selected to carry much punch.

This passage is illustrative of the first issue:

"The Caesar at the time, commanded a priest to set up a strike force. A group of brave men, warriors." (20 words)

There is a lack of efficiency here. This would be more efficient:

"Caesar commanded a priest to assemble a strike force selected from his bravest warriors." (14 words)

Notice that two words were eliminated by changing "set up" to "assemble". The word assemble also more formal than the phrase "set up" and lends a little gravity to the sentence. Similarly, we eliminated "group" because the phrase "strike force" implies a group, so we do not need that word. Similarly, you don't need to say "brave men, warriors". By replacing this with "bravest warriors" we accomplish the same meaning, cut a word, and indicate that these are not just brave men, but the cream of the Caesars crop. I cut "the Caesar at the time" because that weakens the power of that Caesar by telling us he is no longer in power. You can tell us this later if its important to the plot. And since Caesar in Roman times was adopted as title, you can use it without necessarily referring to THE Julius Caesar.

There are several other sentences with the same problem. I'd love to see you work on this, and perhaps you can work in some more imagery. Sometimes I will reference a thesaurus when I have a weak word in mind and want to use something more evocative.

[This message has been edited by Osiris (edited July 31, 2010).]


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AmiraDay
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Osiris,
Thanks for the advice, I will definitely work on the prologue, and incorporate your suggestions!
Oh yeah, the prologue is a little less visual, because the whole thing is someone's thought. It's the storyteller, trying to explain why he is telling you this story. It's hard to explain, but I hope you understand..

[This message has been edited by AmiraDay (edited July 31, 2010).]


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