Fantasy Novelist's Exam

[Froggie4ever]

http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/

What do you think? What score did you get?

I got a 1. It says at the beginning "Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once", so I guess I fail. I think this would be a good quiz to go by if you could answer say, seven before you failed (although that may be me just trying to get off the hook )

 

[Kokopelli]

http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/

What do you think? What score did you get?

I got a 1. It says at the beginning "Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once", so I guess I fail. I think this would be a good quiz to go by if you could answer say, seven before you failed (although that may be me just trying to get off the hook )

I really do not write fantasy anymore, though the stuff I did write many years ago, passed. However, I ran my dystopic/sci-fi through the questions that applied to it, and it passed.

 

[Tariel]

My novel is a perfect pass

 

[sunstruckdream]

I'm not really a fantasy writer, but I pass. The only one I lost on was having a character with a name longer than three syllables. And I'm okay with that. After all, it's not fantasy, and there are no apostrophes or dashes in there either XD XD

 

[Froggie4ever]

The only one that got me was when they asked if I have any elves in my story.

 

[Froggie4ever]

^ But they're not normal elves. They eat meat. And they like it.

 

[Tariel]

Elves still carry a degree of cliche-ity.

 

[Paladin Dave]

My girlfriend's and my collaborative passed. We DO have Elves, but they're a bit closer to Dryads than the usual Tolkienesque elves. Other than that, the creatures are all of our own creation. I'm a bit self-conscious about the fact that our main characters meet in the beginning and fall in love part of the way through, but that'll be more of a "Umm... I know you'll surely hate me for saying this, but I can't hide my feelings any longer. I lo--" "WAIT! Before you say any more, let me say this; for it is YOU who are likely to hate ME! I'm so sorry, but... I love you!" "...I was... just about to say that." "Oh, really? Wow... that's.... awkward. Convenient, but awkward." "Yeah. Wow. What do we do now?" Er... roughly.

Ok, so we modelled our MC's after ourselves. But HA, they're still significantly different, AND the test didn't say anything about that!

 

[Tariel]

Hehe....yeah, the stuff I'm self-conscious about isn't mentioned in the exam. But that's ok

 

[sunstruckdream]

Hehe....yeah, the stuff I'm self-conscious about isn't mentioned in the exam. But that's ok

Ditto. But I'm okay with it XD

 

[CelticRose]

I got all the way through. Does that mean I'm not really writing fantasy?

 

[Lessien]

Here are some of the questions and my answers to them:
37. Do any of your characters have names longer than three syllables?
Do surnames count? Because I have a character named Alek Dyachenko....
46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
My world contains hotels, and if people had brawls in them, the Front Desk Guy would kick them out.
47. Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don't?
That described me for a while, but after I did some research and learned more about feudalism, I decided I didn't want to use a medieval setting in my book. Life back then was nasty, brutish and short. Besides, 1930s Europe was far more interesting.
58. Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
No, but somebody toys with the idea of stabbing someone with a letter opener.
74. Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
My original idea was, but now it's not.

 

[Froggie4ever]

I got all the way through. Does that mean I'm not really writing fantasy?

No, it just means your work is very original

 

[Lessien]

Ha! If Paolini took that test, he'd fail on the second question! (Or whichever one says Is your character a poor farmboy with a mysterious heritage?)

 

[Tariel]

I got all the way through. Does that mean I'm not really writing fantasy?

No - it means you're being original. I got all the way through, and I'm a fantasy writer

 

[Doubtless]

Seriously, since when did Tokien and Lewis invent three-syllable (I think I slaughtered that word) names?!?! Ever heard of Frederic?!

That was a good list of what I'm sure you could find any day in the CF anti-guide, but it seemed like someone probably just got finished reading Eragon and was still fuming while they wrote that.

Anyways, though, I passed all the ones that made sense (meaning, yes, two MCs in my book have names longer than two sylables (still slaughtering it! )). There was one, though...About magical artifacts that can save the world. But, it's not really the artifact that saves the world. And, seriously, since when did Tolkien or Lewis invent that?! Apparently, the guy who wrote that has never heard of mythology. Or, maybe I just don't like it when people insult my writing...

~ Doubtless

 

[Tariel]

Seriously, since when did Tokien and Lewis invent three-syllable (I think I slaughtered that word) names?!?! Ever heard of Frederic?!

That was a good list of what I'm sure you could find any day in the CF anti-guide, but it seemed like someone probably just got finished reading Eragon and was still fuming while they wrote that.

Anyways, though, I passed all the ones that made sense (meaning, yes, two MCs in my book have names longer than two sylables (still slaughtering it! )). There was one, though...About magical artifacts that can save the world. But, it's not really the artifact that saves the world. And, seriously, since when did Tolkien or Lewis invent that?! Apparently, the guy who wrote that has never heard of mythology. Or, maybe I just don't like it when people insult my writing...

~ Doubtless

Nobody ever SAID that Tolkien and Lewis invented the stuff. It's simply a list of common cliches in fantasy writing. Pretty much any inexperienced kid who wants to write fantasy is going to start with quite a few of these things in her novel, because they're the things that we believe good fantasy should have based on what we've read. As we get older and begin to put more faith in our own inventions, we don't need cliches anymore. Whether it was Lewis, Tolkien, or people who lived thousands of years ago who invented it, some things have been done before. Repeatedly. That's all the test is trying to get you to see.

Oh, and go re-read the syllable question, "Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?" In case you forgot what "longer than" means, you only have a problem if your characters names contain four or more syllables.

 

[Lessien]

Nobody ever SAID that Tolkien and Lewis invented the stuff. It's simply a list of common cliches in fantasy writing. Pretty much any inexperienced kid who wants to write fantasy is going to start with quite a few of these things in her novel, because they're the things that we believe good fantasy should have based on what we've read. As we get older and begin to put more faith in our own inventions, we don't need cliches anymore. Whether it was Lewis, Tolkien, or people who lived thousands of years ago who invented it, some things have been done before. Repeatedly. That's all the test is trying to get you to see.

Oh, and go re-read the syllable question, "Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?" In case you forgot what "longer than" means, you only have a problem if your characters names contain four or more syllables.

Exactly. It's taking common cliches of fantasy and putting them in a test to see if you're using your own inventions or if you're falling back on those cliches. That's all. And if you feel like it's insulting your work....well, don't take this the wrong way, but it's probably because you're relying too much on the common cliches of fantasy. Have a little faith in your own imagination!

 

[Peace Eternal]

I passed with my story as it is now, but when I first started writing my story, I would've failed almost 1/2 the test.

 

[Lessien]

Oh, same here. It was borderline copyright infringement and the plot had so many holes in it that if it were a coat, the Salvation Army wouldn't accept it.