My buddy the librarian called out my fantasy novel for being too generic

I was bragging about my cool elf kingdom and she just said 'you know elves have been done a thousand times right'. She handed me a book about a sentient library that eats bad stories and now I'm rethinking my whole outline. Has anyone else had a throwaway comment totally derail their writing plan?

2 comments

2 Comments

theagarcia1d ago

Picked up a blog post last week about how most fantasy books start with a map of a fake continent and a description of an ancient evil waking up. It basically said if your story could be summarized as "hero finds magic sword and kills dark lord" you're writing Mad Libs fantasy. That sentient library book sounds like something I'd actually read though.

robin7771d ago

Jumped into my writing group chat bragging about my werewolf pack and my buddy just said "werewolves are basically dogs with anger issues" and now I'm stuck reworking my entire second act. That sentient library book sounds amazing (I would totally read that instead of my current mess). Sometimes the best critique comes from a random offhand comment that hits you right in the creative gut.