Hello
I am new to the site and have just uploaded the opening to my novel. This has been evolving for at least 12 years and, despite having piles of papers and computer files lying around, I have just had my first burst of enthusiasm for actually sitting down and doing the hard work.

I hovered over the "be gentle with me" option but went for "not too harsh, not too soft"! I have always written, but this is the first time since I left university that I have actually put something important to me up for critique. If this book is a non-starter I would like to know.

The plot is difficult to summarise - I am hoping this is not a bad sign! I find it easier to write it than to write about it, if that makes sense. In brief, it is about Telemachus, son of Odysseus. I always felt a bit sorry for Telemachus, living in the shadow of his father. I remember reading Tennyson's poem in the voice of Odysseus and noticing how dismissively Odysseus speaks about Telemachus being the dutiful son and staying behind while he goes off on his ship again. The book is about how Telemachus finds that time has stopped running as it should in Ithaca while his father is on his way back from Troy. He realises that he is trapped by the legend of the Odyssey - he cannot grow and change while he is a bit-player. When is father returns, nothing changes as Odysseus the man cannot match up to Odysseus the legend.

The main part of the book is about what happens after he leaves Ithaca in search of a childhood friend who has disappeared.

I would appreciate feedback - general feedback on style and content, and whether this opening would interest you. Also specific, stylistic feedback.

Thanks
Anne

Hi, Anne and welcome to WriteWords.

I see you've posted your extract in the Archive. I'll pop a link here so people can find it:
http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/26476.asp

It's best to join one of the writing groups and move it there, as it can be overlooked if left in the Archive.

You'll find a list of Groups here:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/groups/

It's best to join one of the more active groups, eg, Womens Fiction or Intensive Critique, if it's adult fiction; Commercial Short Story, or Short Story groups if it's a story; or Childrens if it's aimed at Children or Teenaged readership.

Once you've joined a group, (and after the 'pending period' while your name is added), you can move your extract into the group by clicking on Owner Edit, scrolling down to 'Which Group?' and clicking in the circle in front of the Group, then Submit.
When you want to upload something else, the old work, with it's feedback, will automatically move into your personal archive for safe keeping.

You can join more than one group if you wish, and move around until you find a group you're comfortable with. The site works best with reciprocal feedback so don't be shy on commenting on your fellow group members' work - it's a good way of training oyur gut as to what works and what doesn't work in a piece of writing, and oyu can feed that knowledge back into oyur own writing.

If you need any help navigating the site just give us a shout.

- NaomiM

Hi Naomi
Thanks for that - I didn't realise it had gone in the archive. I just uploaded it to my homepage.

Is the intensive critique group suitable for a beginning novelist? I did look at it but the word "intensive" panicked me a little!

I was glad when I saw the nature of your reply to my post - after uploading last night I went to bed and had a dream that I got up and found two pages of comments from people all telling me I was an idiot!

On second thoughts Womans Fiction might be better , but Gaius, in Intensive Critique, is very good at spurring people on. It depends on how much feedback you're after. Some of the Groups are a bit quite this month, with members concentrating on Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month).

- NaomiM

<Added>

oops, typo '...quiet this month'

<Added>

Just to add, The home page and archive are sort of the same. If you've set a piece to be viewed by other WW members then the title will show up on the central archive list - here
http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/
-as well as your personal profile.
If you reset it to be visible to you only, then you can make it private (which is a good way of backing up your work).

Hi Anne, and welcome to WW. That sounds a fascinating premise for a story - best of luck with it!

Emma