TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #107

It's been exactly a month since my last update, thanks mostly to the site going down for an extended period of time. During that time, quite a bit has changed with my writing. I'll get the small update out of the way first.

Novels:
Progress with my novels remains slow but steady. The fact that the whole thing hasn't imploded yet is a big win, and I'm taking that to mean I'm on the right track.

The magic system needs a bit of refinement, but the important parts are in place, and I know the basics of how the plot will unfold for the first story. Now that I know that, I can worldbuild for real, letting the setting develop naturally as the plot fleshes out in the background. Chat GPT is helping immensely in the speculation department of how the world would adapt to the magic system.

My plan for my novels is to write the first story as a standalone with series potential. Assuming...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #106

Concerning DoD:
Since my last update just over a month ago, I've only gotten approximately half way through the outline for Dawn of Darkness. This isn't due to a lack of interest or any problems. It's simply because the story is turning out far larger than I had anticipated.

I revisited a few things which I felt the outline needed, most notably a consistently ramping feeling of tension. I'm quite happy with the way the story gets progressively more and more tense now, and I feel that this story has really nailed that more than others.

DoD is also making use of light worldbuilding and side character development to feel far more full and realistic than some of my previous stories.

If everything turns out, DoD should be quite excellent. It's just taking a while to get there. I'd judge my actual progress to be closer to 60% than the 50% my signature shows, because the second half...

I have today finished The Way of Kings, and since I plan on diving straight into the second book, I wanted to go ahead and review it. Normally I would let my thoughts sit for a few days (or try to at least), but with TWOK, I've been writing this review in my head for a while now, helped no doubt by the lengthy nature of the story.

As usual, I will break the story down into areas I feel deserve mention, either because they were done well or poorly. I'll average the ratings of these sections out to get the final rating for the story as a whole. Keep in mind that this is of course my own personal take on the book, and certainly not indicative of any other reader.

Let's get on with the review.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the story.
1: Flawed, bring the movie down noticeably....

I had assumed that the fourth part of The Way of Kings was the final part, but now that I've finished it, it appears I was wrong. There is a final part five, which looks to be quite short, and feature everyone, including Szeth (which I'm definitely excited about). Since it's short, and since it's the end of the book, I will simply roll it into my review on the entire story. So stay tuned for that.

But now it's time to get onto the review for part four, which I finished yesterday.

Title: The Way of Kings (Part 4)
Author: Brandon Sanderson

Compared to the first three parts of this book, for each of which I had a strong idea of what was good and what was bad, part four seems mediocre. Not in a bad way. It had good and bad as well. It's just that I think the lines between the two started to blend in this part, and things started to level out.

I'll go over the bad first, then the good, then the in-between.

...

I've completed the third part of The Way of Kings today, meaning it's finally time to unleash the review. This part was pretty long, and I've been itching to review it for awhile.

Title: The Way of Kings (part 3)
Author: Brandon Sanderson

After my less-than-awed reviews of the first two parts for The Way of Kings, I was definitely hoping for a change. I've continued reading because I've heard praises sung over the Stomrlight Archive plenty of times, and I therefore assumed the story would eventually get up off of the pov shifts and finally give me something to get excited about.

And it did.

I waffled for a moment just now, wondering if I should indicate my renewed enthusiasm or surprise in that line above. But I can't, because Sanderson continues to shoot himself in the foot. Repeatedly. Every chapter. I AM interested. I AM eager to keep reading (finally). But my interest could be even higher if Brandon would just stick...