I have a friend whose life goal is to be an accomplished author and live solely off of his writings...

Gurmshit ie. like ASOIAF

I suppose that if what he has written can be translated in to a niche mini-series format, there's hope. Perhaps he can sell the rights to Netflix, Amazon or HBO. Think of "The Man in the High Castle" which is based on a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Of course, there's little chance that your friend is such a good writer, but if that crap "The Girl on the Train" was translated into a big budget movie, anything can.

Is just a matter of finding a good agent, etc ie things I have no clue about.

Thanks to GoT fantasy is big again, and fantasy books are a dime a dozen. But YA fantasy has always been massive, so even if he fails he can dumb it down a bit, make it appeal to a female audience and swim in cash for the rest of his life

Just post a paragraph or something

>Is there something else that he could do instead of Amazon that might give him more chance of success? Or is he mostly hopeless because he's such a newbie writer?
Send a query to a decent publisher. On the slim chance they accept a first time author's unsolicited fantasy trash they will sculpt it into something readable and market it so that it actually sells. It's comically unlikely anything will come of his efforts, to the point I suspect you're shitposting.

Can you post a page if he lets you read it?

fleshing out a sci fi universe and writing a book are different, worldbuilding doesnt make a good book

This, if a master of prose wrote a story in generic fantasy land #18 then it'd be better than the most meticulously worldbuilt book out there

This is true.

But if your purpose if to make money, it doesn't matter how good is a book, but rather how much you can squeeze out of the fantasy world you've created.

oh. no. I think I remember him saying that he hates George R.R. Martin's stuff so I doubt he would try to emulate it. I only ever watched the show so I couldn't tell you how similar his book is to the GoT books.

not shitposting. I'll post a few paragraphs. I don't think you'll want to read much more.

>Dawn had come. The violet alpenglow on Mt Obrus had
ignited into a crimson halo and for a moment the
mountain looked like a black spike framed by fire. As the sun continued to rise, its light touched the walls of a small hide tent.

>Inside the tent, the figure of a sturdy young man had
been laying in deep sleep. Sensing the subtle rise in temperature, his eyes snapped open and right away his hands gripped his knife and his bow while his feet found their way into his down lined boots. In another instant he was standing and ready.

>Reaching instinctively into the pocket of the heavy tanned coat he had slept in, he found a few pieces of dried meat that he promptly threw in his mouth. Next he strapped a bone framed pack over his shoulders and stepped outside his tent.

well ctrl+v greentexting doesn't turn out too good. Who woulda thunk it?

That's actually amazing... Post more

Holy.....I want more.....

Not bad desu

True, I wrote 200+ pages of this story and barely even scratched the beginning of what I had in mind

Here's an alien design I drew for your viewing pleasure

Guys seriously stop fucking with me.

I'm no great writer but that does seem horrendously dull as soon as he gets to describing the character. In fact there is no description. There's no indication for why he would do any of that, so for these few paragraphs I have absolutely no buy in to what's happening. The events he's trying to portray doesn't really mesh with the narrative style well. Plus he says "he" way too often and doesn't diversify sentence structure enough.

heh, it's actually solid

Would cuddle

Reads like a parody of clumsy pulp writing. I don't see it selling.

cont... without greentext. i realize there wasn't much to that last bit.

Jagged ridges of rock rose up from freshly fallen sheets of snow and the sun glared down from above. All at once he shaded his eyes with one hand while dropping to his knee. He then thrust his free hand into the deep powder and produced a long hunting spear. His eyes narrowed into slits as he scanned the land ahead and before fear and discomfort had a chance to set in, he began his march.

He had been ascending the mountain for several days and was nearing its summit. Obrus distinguished itself by appearance as much as size, its peak taking the form of a fearsome brow glaring down at the world. This made it difficult for climbers as the long path up the back of the brow seemed an never ending trail to the sky, earning Obrus the nickname "Ladder to the Moon".

This hunter had enough saavy to use the frozen bodies of less hardy adventurers that littered the trail as a marker for his altitude. Spying the corpse of an old mentor, he turned sharply to the west to take the shortcut he had once encouraged, the shortcut that could have saved his mentor's life. Unfortunately an avalanche had blocked this route and he was forced to choose between the path that lead to deceptively higher heights and less oxygen, or brave a long spine of rock that dropped over a thousand feet on either side. He chose the spine.

It sounds like, from what you said, he is pretty well convinced that his way is the right way. Even before the whole massive fantasy first book self publishing bullshit, if he won't really listen to criticism, he's fucked. No writer is that good. No one. None.

And then he talks a lot about world building? Does he talk as much about characters? Plot? Who lives and who dies as if it were some kind of emotional journey instead of marketable deep lore you would read on the back of an action figure? Because all of that is kind of important as well.

Also, make sure he has a good cover artist at least. If he's going to charge ahead and do this bullshit, at least make sure the thing is as marketable as possible. Spend some money. Hire someone good. People actually do judge books by their covers.

>And then he talks a lot about world building?
That's the bulk of our conversations
> Does he talk as much about characters? Plot?
These things yes.
>Who lives and who dies as if it were some kind of emotional journey instead of marketable deep lore you would read on the back of an action figure?
I don't remember him talking about what characters die. I think he's mentioned a love plot.

It's legit. I mean the black spike framed by fire simile sucks, but otherwise it's pretty comfy. Would read if I was a fantasy fiction fag/10

I thought your friend might have been a delusional idiot but this is gold. I love it. "He chose the spine" that is badass.

Post more

Tell him to just DM an RPG instead Jesus Christ

I take it ALL back, it's shit

After a few revision it might be passable. It could even be compared to a lot of published fantasy novels. Published novels can be just as awkward and stilted, and really lame, but they still seem to find a measure of success.

I'd never like it though.

It looks good world-building wise, but again, it reads at such a sophomoric level that you would need to provide photographic evidence for me to believe this man is not in high school. Nobody can look at this and think the prose is anywhere near sellable.

Don't believe the lies OP, I second

It doesn't make sense that the mentor tor is there dead right where this shortcut begins. Wouldn't he be away up the wrong path?

As for the quality of the writing, it's a little concerning that he had an opportunity to add some emotional depth with this meeting but passed over it with the same dull plainly- descriptive style as the rest.

Yeah this

>oh hey the rotting corpse of my father figure...
>welp, see ya! Gotta climb this fucking mountain for some reason

i see what youre doing. It's funny.

He's in his thirties.

We've played tabletops from time to time, but he almost never DMs. The one time he tried, he didn't really nail it.

and to be clear that was a reaction image. It wasn't an attempt to trick you into thinking that was a picture of him

>opportunity to add some emotional depth with this meeting but passed over it with the same dull plainly- descriptive style as the rest.
That just adds to the elements of survivalism and badassery. No time to bust out the tissues, this fucker is on a m i s s i o n.

Post the whole goddamn thing I'm sold.

Hello OP's friend, how's the writing coming along

Does your friend have a day job?
If so he should quit it and write full time. This is seriously brilliant and I guarantee you that he's going to become rich off of this.

>i'm aksing for a friend
o k man

Here's how you pull off fantasy in the year of our lord 2017:

1. Outline a universe. Worldbuild but don't build yourself into a corner, people get too autistic with this shit. Establish baselines. Is magic real? How do you handle magic, how do you handle religion, gods, ect, do this for your benefit and do not explain it to the reader. You don't want to give readers all of the details, that's stupid and it drains the whimsy from your fantasy.

2. Outline a monomythic narrative. You don't need to be totally cut and paste at all, but create characters and whatnot. It can be subversive towards the classical narrative in some ways but this is fantasy, you don't shoot for some Finnegan's wake tier shit. Your readership will be mostly teenage boys and the adult men with the minds of teenage boys.

3. Write short stories about these characters. Lots of short stories, around 15-25 pages. Offer a few up for free then sell some for 99 cents. Start building interest. People are quite liberal with their money when it comes to 99 cent stories.

4. Once you've built an audience you can actually approach publishers. Publishers see ALL KINDS of fucking autists with their fantasy worlds approach them these days. This is how you set yourself apart. You have sales, if you're decent you should be able to get a few hundred readers. Even a few hundred readers puts you like in the top 1% of autists trying to push your fantasy world.

where do you sell short stories for 99 cents?

Put them in a collection and put that on amazon

I'm being genuine. No idea how I can prove it but I did not write this stuff.

Or, and this is shocking to even think about, I know, how about creating something original?

Moar.

>he still thinks originality is possible

basically every notable work of literature or cultural event that has occurred since antiquity has been a remix of previously existing work.

I don't really want to sit here posting his whole novel all night long. There is a LOT. I have his 'revised' section up right now which isn't even the full book and it's 200 pages. over 100k words.

Put it in a google doc

every post with a laughing reaction gif on this board is made in support of a stupid opinion

But remixes are used all the time to create original music.

Yes, but has anyone written a 1000 page tome on a fart fetish?

Check and mate

Ehhhhh. I'd rather not leak the whole damn thing.

While halfway across the spine, the young hunstman chanced a look downward. The Sholai Glacier, an iconic feature of Obrus, snaked its way from the brow to the foothills, but was only visible at a few sparse and hard to reach points. This young man had survived by learning from mistakes, his own or those of others, and rarely took any risks in his ventures to the upper reaches of the mountain. This however, was a moment he could not pass up. Sucking in as much air as he could, he looked down.

White snow was all he could see until a long wall of black and brown rock jutted out of the mountainside. Just beyond the border of this stony growth was a river of solid blue over a mile wide. From the height of the hunter's view it seemed no more than an inch or two, but the richness of Sholai's royal hue was vivid as if he were bathing in it. Mesmerized by the deep blue glow of the glacier the hunter closed his eyes and revelled in the feeling of rising wind blasting against his face. With a quiet sigh he then turned and continued his march.

The air was now rapidly growing thinner and he began using his spear as a walking stick to conserve his energy. Despite the mountain's calm appearance, he was being assailed by the blinding glare of sun on the snow and pelting fragments of rock blown by the frigid mountain wind. He lifted his mask from his collar, put on his hood and lowered his snow goggles over his eyes. His identity being so hidden invigorated him somehow.

"Just another predator." he thought. Quickening his pace he reached the end of his treacherous detour and found wider ground to tread.

The cold was now as ferocious as the game he sought and his lungs burned with every breath. His arms and fingers, strong as they were, became difficult to bend. Not looking forward to spearing a large animal in these conditions, he hoped to find his prey above ground and land a killing shot.

"Not going to happen." he reminded himself, "Snow lions hunt at night, and sleep at day. Going to be spear work."

>has anyone written a 1000 page tome on a fart fetish?

I know just the guy you need

Decent desu

>characters? Plot?
>2016

kek

Epic

>quotation marks when nobody is talking

jesus I forgot how bad third person could be.

Maybe it's just me, but it sounds cartoonishly comical to me. Maybe that's the intention.