OvidLemma
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 150
- Points
- 83
So we set out to write our own.
Journey to Amoraketh
Arcadia the Sorceress wants nothing to do with her birthrights; neither wealth nor politics, or the title of Prince and the gender it comes with. Rectifying all of these in a single night, she embarks on a journey with her trusted bodyguard Rekka, a journey to explore her freedom and...www.scribblehub.com
Well... mission accomplished! Your story is great - I was hooked from the start and it's kept up the superb quality throughout. And I think it also has what needs to be present in niche stories for them to be really successful - it stands on its own even without the trans/gender changing aspect, and this aspect doesn't detract from it, either. It's a fully-realized fantasy with compelling characters, wonderful plotting, etc. that happens to feature niche elements. A few other authors on this site, such as QuietValerie also pull this off really well.
My story I'm currently releasing (Scions) is also a fantasy story with GB aspects. This is an earlier story of mine (released a bit over a year ago on other venues) that I'm reformatting and cleaning up for Scribble Hub. I won't be arrogant enough to pretend I've written it as well as some of my favorite stories here (and I think I'm a better writer now than I was then, in any case), but I always try to be novel and to never go for cheap and easy plot devices. For instance, in Scions, it takes seven chapters for Thea to fully change and some of it is awkward, embarrassing, or traumatic. And, once she finally reconnects with people in her home village, she finds her relationship with them inalterably changed, often in ways she doesn't care for. If you aren't at least trying to write a story that has emotional impact and that readers will connect with, then you aren't doing your job as a writer. There are lots of folks like that out there and, yes, when they write stories involving gender bending or gender swaps, it comes across as silly, superficial, and perhaps insensitive because those writers aren't making a good faith effort in humanizing the characters of their story.
Scions
Theo wasn't a bright man - far from it. But he had a good heart and an uncanny ability to see the supernatural. Perhaps that's why he was chosen. When ruthless invaders capture Theo's village, he flees into the ancient woods with several of the village youth. There, in the...
