A First Writer

Patience.
Determination.
and Stubbornness.
That is what can get me through a book...that isn't much to my liking.


Not that the current series isn't to my liking,
but that its not to the liking of others.


For Christmas I received books. :D
Yay!
One of those books was Inheritance. (I have no idea if this is the last book in Paolini's series or not)
And as is custom for me when I get a new book in a series....
I reread the previous books so I know who everyone is, get to read favorite scenes of mine, and know what the situation is like when I finally start the newest book.
So, yesterday I spent the day reading Eragon, today Eldest. Most likely I will start Brisinger tomorrow and get to Inheritance the day after tomorrow.


Now...I've had alot of friends complain about this series.
I think part of it was from the bad hack job the movie Eragon made of the first book.
But a few of my friends mentioned that they found it hard to reread Eragon again.
They just couldn't get into it the second time.


I can understand the sentiments. As good as Terry Brook's Shannara series are...I couldn't get through a reread of those books. Perhaps I'll try again in a couple of years lol. :)


I hadn't read Eragon since the 3rd book came out 4 years ago while I was in High School.
So it had been a while.
But still...I remembered the book being pretty good.
Others....disagreed. But they had tried to read the book more recently then I.


Still Stubbornly I decided to re read the books.
After all....I do like to remember what is going on.
And I could see why others found it hard to reread.


I think most of it was....the flowery descriptions. There was too much detail.
It didn't bother me much.
lol
I read the Wheel of Time series. And I love having detail. :)
but I could see that where the detail was put in was a bit....like being hit in the head with a hammer. It was a bit much too soon.
Personally I feel that its good to not describe everyone to the fullest extent when you first meet them. Especially if alot of new characters are being introduced.
Its better to stick with a key feature. A prominent scar, a hooked nose, something that differentiates that person from another.


Others have complained that this series is similar to Star Wars.
Sure...say that. Don't most authors get their ideas from other Authors?
I'm not aware of any law that says authors can't use similar elements to other authors.
(I never got into Star Wars *gasp* So I don't really care. The movie reminded me more of Star Wars then the books do. The Master concept is about the only 'similar' concept I see...)


Anyway...I reread Eragon in a day.
And I have to say...
Its a beginning book.
Not just the first in the series.
But its the 'first book' a person writes.
That doesn't meant that the story is bad.
Contrary I still enjoyed reading the book.
It just meant that....there could have been room for improvement.
Having written a bit myself and critiqued other writers.
I can say that many beginning writers...try to put in too much description and detail too soon. They try to put as much 'background' in the beginning of the story as possible.
Which bogs down the story and makes the first few chapters hard to get through.
I did the same thing myself. I wanted too much information to be shown in the first couple of chapters.
It took me a couple of rewrites to realize. "Hey! I don't have to say ALL of this here."
It was a exhilarating feeling, and I still have to stop myself every now and then and say "Wait...does this need to be known now....or can it wait? Can it be said simpler?"
Things like that.


Another element that shows its a beginning story is the 'play by play'
-I don't like play by play when the stuff is not battles.
Basically the writer tries to account for every single aspect of the day from waking up to going to sleep, while trying to make it look like a lot of days are passing. In Eragon they were the 'Journey' scenes.
And they seemed to me to be....well...trying to get from point A to point B. Epic stuff happens at A and B, but in between...there's bits of this and that.
I haven't tried to write any 'journey scenes' yet. So I'm not sure how to get through this obstacle of point A and point B....others have managed to do the journey scenes without it being tedious. Again Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books has great examples of this. His characters are always journeying from some place to another place, but it never was tedious to have to read about the travel.
I think its because RJ avoids play by play elements.


-Play by play elements can be seen if the word "Then" shows up alot. That usually shows that the author has gone into step by step process instead of....well not doing that.
And I saw alot of Thens.


Speaking of Showing....another element of a beginning writer is:
They Tell the story. They don't show the story. Phrases like "started, and decided" mean that the author is telling what their character is doing, when it could be made to flow more if the author went more into the character's thoughts.
Like a friend of mine from a writer's group said. "If they're always starting something...do they ever finish it?"
lol. We don't just sit around and think. "Huh. I'm going to go start the fire...now I'm walking over...bending down...lighting a match...and I started a fire!" its more like "I grabbed the match and with a little difficulty lit the stupid fire burning my thumb thrice in the process."
I still have a little bit of trouble with this as well in my own writing. I'm trying to avoid 'telling'


So...Eragon was a beginning book.
I think with a bit more patience, a bit of editing, and some rewriting to get rid of the 'excess fat' the book could have turned out far better.


But it wasn't a bad book.
It has an awesome concept.
And I like it enough that I'll probably reread it in the furture...at some point.


No...there were only a couple of things that bugged me about this book.
1. Almost every character gets philosophical and wise and gives very deep advice at some point. Which..in my opinion makes it hard to tell characters apart. Their identities aren't clear, and I have to wonder "Why do you need to say this here now and in this way when this persons character would have said it better in this way based on what I've read of their personality." I find long explanations wordy and a bit pointless...the reader gets lost especially if its too philosophical or too much like a travel guide.
2. Stop. Having. The. Boys. Cry. If the main character was a girl...sure I could see them crying and such...but....having the main guy character...wake up and cry in mourning, or fall asleep crying...No...it doesn't work for me. (and yet, I'm pretty sure that I'm doing that in my own story hmmm) If there is meaning behind it. I'll believe that the guy would cry....but because the story mostly told things...and didn't delve into thinking or conversations...it was hard for me to believe that he would cry.

Otherwise....I think Eragon is a good book. It has its flaws. But what book doesn't? That's what revisions are for. What good critiquers are for. 
And besides. I see improvement in the writing style of the author. So its worth sludging through the first book to get to the rest of them.
Chris Heimerdinger's first Tennis Shoes book was the same way. The first book told more of a story through memories, while the rest of his books take place in the moment. The books do get better.

Soo its worth it to read Eragon again for me. There are still awesome elements in Paolini's story that inspires me to create other stories based off of a concept I find in his books.
I like them. :) ;) and all their description.

So for those readers out there who are inspired to write.
Write.
Tell the story that is meant to be told through your hands.
But....do revisions. (don't get stuck in revisions though.) Let others read your work. Let people critique your work.
And...keep writing. Write more stories.
My sister Kikay says that a person should write at least three books...to get the hang of writing. It was on her third book that she finally found the 'writing groove' and things meshed much easier.

I don't know....lol. My advice....don't get caught in revisions...and at times you need to step back from the narrow field of writing the story...and see why its not working. But...getting stuck in revisions...really stinks and the first 3 chapters end up being the most hated because their the most reworked to try and make them work better.

I know from experience...and I'm finally glad to be free from those 3 chapters. I know from critiques that I need to go back and fix a couple of snags. But for now...I'm flying free. ;) On dragon wings. lol :)

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

P.S. For those of you curious. I haven't yet written a full book. But yes I write, and yes I've come up with more than a few story ideas. :) (alot of what I said above is gleaned from reading alot of books, and my sister Kikay's experiences writing books, as well as the critique writing group I'm in now.) 
My first attempt at writing got me 21 chapters into the story before I decided that I needed to fix the beginning sequences to add in things I had as background later in the story. And I got bogged down in my second draft of it trying to rework the beginning chapters. Which got me to my third draft where I'm currently on Chapter 8. :)
I may...in the future, once the book is finished decide to put it up on my blog. But who knows. :) Its going to be a long book....and I don't know who would be willing to read one chapter at a time...when the book is destined to be over 50 chapters long. ;) lol.
The Dream


I was traveling on the road with my family.
When we came across....a devastating scene...
Hundreds of deer laid dead on a hill.
We couldn't believe our eyes.
So we climbed over the fence to investigate.
We basically had to climb down one side of the cliff and up another to get to the deer...
I don't recall seeing them closer,
but I went back to the car, using the river to guide me. At some places i had to swim in the cold clear water.
And then I went back to my family to help them,
and I realized that I had taken a different path from them.
They hadn't followed the path I took. But a different one.
We were walking along the road side, headed back to our car -and to others that had stopped because of all the deer.
And there were a bunch of crystals on the ground. Alot of them were crystal/stone hearts. Some of them had pieces cut out of them, circular so many of the different colored hearts had crescents in their shape. But I also found more delicate pieces which I picked up and took back to a roadside stand so that they wouldn't be crushed by passing cars.


Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)


-S.N.D