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Alright! It is TIME! Let's DO THIS! Oh, wait, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Last year, I came up with a cool idea for a book. and I decided to write it. And never got started. But then I decided to really apply myself and actually write it. Aaaaaand I never got past the prologue. But now, on my third attempt, I finished the prologue, and the first two chapters, and I'm still going strong. So I decided to share it with the amazing and supportive Shard community. I'm very bad at writing, so I'd appreciate feedback. I hope that you enjoy my crummy novel skills! Chapters will hopefully be posted on Thursdays. My goal is to write two chapters a week, but I might only post one due to revision and stuff. We're starting out with the (very bad) prologue, so tune in this Thursday to see the (revised) chapters One and Two. So yes! Welcome to... Heroes of Home Peak By NerdyAarakocra That blurb on the back of the book that explains stuff Prologue Chapter One Canil Chapter Two El'nar Chapter Three Canil Chapter Four El'nar What will happen to El'nar? Will Canil's plotline actually start? What about the magic system? Find out next time in NERDY WRITES BAD FANTASY! *Outro music*

This is a bit of the first chapter to a book I'm working on. Any advice/help is welcome. Do you understand what's going on? I'm a new (I've been writing for years though) writer and would welcome opinions from anyone. Also. I've written quite a freaking bit on this. If anyone wants the google doc, I might put the link here. I don't think I'll end up publishing it since I'll probably be gone for 2 years soon. I'd like to share what I've done though and get some constructive criticism on my bad habits and stuff.

I hid my old topic and decided to make a new one here is the place where all of the updates for my experimental story will go. The first entry for Chapter 2 is now complete. Enjoy! Diary.docx

Welcome back, everyone, to the next installment of my ongoing space fantasy saga Realm of the Stars! For those just joining us, this is the third volume of a series I pitch as "Star Wars meets King Arthur meets Dune" and is the ending of the initial trilogy I have in mind (though I still have plans for more works in this universe!) - if you're looking for the Arthurian parallels, then this story's events would roughly correspond to Arthur's war with Rome. If you're interested in checking out the previous installments of this series, then Volume I is here, Volume II is here and some character portraits are here. And here we go! Prologue and Dramatis Personae:

I was wondering if anyone could provide some input on the magic system in my novel. It's not fully fleshed out yet and I need some help developing it. The wizards in my novel have certain types of magic that they are born good at, and others that can be developed over time. There are also aspects of it that they can never master (example: A character who is born exceptional at influencing the elements. They struggle with telepathy, but they can still perform it to some degree. However, they are never able to shapeshift). My question is: What could be a determining factor of the magic they can and can't do? My friend had the idea that it could depend on genetics and ancestry, say someone who's ancestors were from Antarctica had power over heat and fire. Or we had an idea that maybe wizards with different powers came together in clans a long time ago and they all migrated to different places, meaning that where you're from could determine your power set. I'm just trying to come up with a better plan for my magic system, since it's not very together at the moment. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I'm just another passing through this part of the internet. I prefer the audiobooks but find them excellent. I have currently read Through Oathbringer in the SLA I need to read bands of morning on the mistborne series. and I'm currently ticking through Elantris Nothing special

Sequel to Realm of the Stars Volume I: The Unclaimed Crown, which may be found here: Feedback welcome on both stories!

Hey everyone. NaNoWriMo 2017 has arrived and I'm participating this year. Some of you will remember two years ago, when I posted my entire NaNo project every single day. I had a lot of fun with that, and intend to repeat the performance this year. The catch is that I'm doing a complete rewrite of the book, taking it in a different direction. Sam and Hewn are coming back, but they will be joined by different friends, contest some different enemies, and some of the rules have changed. Even the original short story is somewhat different - and hopefully better. Of that short story, only 310 words were actually written today and count for NaNo. I will hopefully do another post later today, or catch up tomorrow.

Hey, guys. Excited to be here. And surrounded by cool people. I took Sanderson's class in Winter 2012. That's my claim to fame. I'm currently working on my second novel, SONG OF LOCKE, which was inspired by LEGEND OF ZELDA. It's on Kickstarter right now. (Because I'm an indie author, which is like being an indie band, but with more groupies.) Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jwashburn/song-of-locke Not sure what else to say. Oh, this: Brandon is a real inspiration to me. I admire his hard work and his brilliance. And I hope to be like him when I grow up. I'm also grateful he writes so much so we have so many worlds and magics to enjoy! It's good to be here and to mingle with all of you! — J

This is Chapter 9 from Shrouds, a fantasy mystery. This chapter closes act 1. Brief recap: Mahau, a god of vengeance, and his priestess Neda have been asked to investigate three gods disappearances which turned into murder investigations. The third body is yet to be found when other gods disappear, menacing the balance of the whole pantheon. I intend to stop submitting the book there. I might submit the synopsis later. If you have special comments on this last installment, or questions about where the book goes from here, don't hesitate to ask.

This is chapter 8 from Shrouds, a fantasy mystery. In the previous chapters, Mahau - a god of vengeance - was asked to investigate three gods disappearances. After visiting two temples and uncovering two gods bodies, he concludes someone is killing off gods. The whereabouts of the third disappeared god are still unknown. Arlon - a disinherited god - joined forces with Mahau in order to prove his own innocence. In the last chapter, he barely escaped a murder attempt made against him. In this chapter, Mahau goes to report his lack of findings to his superiors. I hope you'll enjoy it. All comments are welcome.

This is chapter 7 from SHROUDS, a fantasy mystery. In the previous chapters, Mahau - a god of vengeance - was asked to investigate three gods disappearances. After visiting two temples and uncovering two gods bodies, he concludes someone is killing off gods. Arlon - a disinherited god - joined forces with Mahau in order to prove his own innocence. In the last chapter, he barely escaped a murder attempt made against him. In this chapter, Mahau goes to visit the third and last temple, expecting to find another body. I hope you'll enjoy it. All comments are welcome.

Hi, This is the sixth chapter from Shrouds, a fantasy mystery. What happened so far : gods have been disappearing and Mahau was asked to investigate. So far, he found two murdered gods. Arlon joined forces with Mahau in order to prove he wasn't involved with the disappearances. I'm interested as always in any comments you might have.

Hi, This is chapter 4, second part from Shrouds, a fantasy mystery. Mahau, god of vengeance was asked to investigate three gods disappearances. In the previous chapter, he uncovered the first body. Arlon, a mostly dishinherited regional god asked Mahau to prove he didn't have anything to do with the disappearances. In Chapter 5, first part, Mahau and Arlon met before going to the second crime scene and Arlon almost strangled Mahau. Now, they're going together to the next crime scene. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Hi, This is chapter 5, first part from Shrouds, a fantasy mystery. Mahau, god of vengeance was asked to investigate three gods disappearances. In the previous chapter, he uncovered the first body. Arlon, a mostly dishinherited regional god asked Mahau to prove he didn't have anything to do with the disappearances. In Chapter 5, Mahau and Arlon meet before going to the second crime scene. I hope you'll enjoy it.

This is chapter 2 for Shrouds. Last time, I introduced two gods : Mahau and Arlon. Now, I'm getting into the priesthood with the third POV Character Neda. I'd love to have your thoughts on her character and relationship with her god.

Hi, This is the first chapter from my second novel SHROUDS (2nd draft). SHROUDS is an adult fantasy mystery with lots of dead bodies and other occasional adult themes. In this first chapter, I'm introducing the magic system and two main characters : Mahau and Arlon. I am primarily interested in comments about worldbuilding and characters, not so much about grammar for now, but really any comment is helpful. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Hey everybody, A lot of you might not remember me but my handle on 17th shard was Acharles78 (psednoym Austin Charles). I think---if my memory can handle the fuzziness---that I joined this site back in 2011. I joined this site because I wanted to get feedback on a fantasy book series I was writing called the Incarni---I think most of if not everyone on here now is new and wouldn't even remember me or that story because I haven't been on here for a very long time. I just wanted to write because I remained on the emailing list and loved being a part of this community and reading all your great stories and I thought I'd share some encouraing news. I'm going to be a published author on september 1st 2013, and not for the Incarni at all. In fact I hit a serious wall with that story when I realized that although I had spent well over two years world building and writing the first book in the series not once but twice, I dreadfully saw that the story I was trying to tell had been told before over and over. The infamous peasant boy--girl in this case, with an enchanted lineage and yada yada yada---Luke, Harry, et cetera. But like I've heard a lot of other authors say in the past that sometimes you just have a story that won't work and that its better to cut your losses. So I dropped it and started writing other books. The longest of which I'm about two thirds of the way through that's not fantasy at all, but a dystopian world-at-war epic with people with powers, fighting tournament, drugs, very not fantasy. I quit fantasy for the most part because I got discourgaged, but I just started writing other things. The book that's getting published is a novella called Sheeple which is going to be published by Damnation books on September 1st. It's about 28,000 words long and came at a time when I was inbetween two huge novels and needed something that I could finish relatively quickly. I found a niche in the weird tale genre and a lot of my shorter novel works tend to be that. I did a complete 180 and published something I wrote on pretty much a whim, which usually those stories end up being disasters for me. I wanted to add that I accredit a lot of my success writing through the last few years to this site, the community, as well as all of your feedback on things that I submitted. Not only did posting help me out but reading your stories helped me out as well. This is a really nice writing community on the internet. Lastly, I just wanted to ask if any of you guys here on this site have any similar stories you'd like to share, published or not, or anything else years of pounding your head against the wall on something that hasn't been working has taught you. Hope everyone is still writing and thanks for reading. Austin,