u/TLac1

Before I start my description, I want to let you know that this novel is a sort-of mess for a reason, and it’s part of the concept I am going for. If you prefer novels that are polished and professional, you probably won’t enjoy trying to read this. On the other hand, if you enjoy unserious novels, you might like this. Right now, I am both adding more and lightly editing as I go, and I’ll probably have about 70k words by the end. Feedback right now will help me adjust the story as I go.

Now here is the concept of the novel and why it exists (sorry for how long this is):

While this novel (first part of a series) follows a clear plot of adventure and has an end goal like many MG adventure novels, I wanted to add my own spin to this.

In this novel, the main character, Logan (eighth grade), attempts to adventure and complete quests with his friends to “save the dream realm,” which is basically where people's imaginations combine to form an entirely new world filled with magic, and really anything you could possibly imagine or dream of (hence, “dream realm"). The main antagonists, The Shadows, are the negative side of imagination: worries and fears.

I can tell you about the main plot in specific, but the most important part is how I plan to make this novel special. In many parts of this novel, things just seem to not have any value to the plot, or maybe they seem to but end up not, and I wanted this to reflect our lives.

In our lives, we simply cannot determine what happens, and I fear that the randomness (or slightly cringy parts) of the novel is something that many people are going to dislike.

In many scenarios, we can see the uncertainties that Logan has to think through. Sometimes, we don’t even know if they even happened, or if he made them all up, as this is written from his point of view. Oftentimes, what we see is just what we believe, so the "red herrings" thrown everywhere are reflective of that. There are many times when we are lead to believe that something is going to happen or someone is going to turn on us, when in reality nothing will really happen.

And I hope that this “fear of the unknown” has some sort of marketability that allows me to keep this novel as unserious as I can (because I’m unserious, and this novel is sort of about me).

I’m not looking for any sort of of sales or people even looking at this novel; I just want it to be finished and something that I am genuinely proud of. In fact, once I finish this novel, I highly doubt that I’ll even continue the series. (I want to write a adult/YA mystery or even a biography type of book)

I am currently in eighth grade, and I started this in seventh grade. So much has changed within me, especially my writing style. I’ve matured a ton with what I read and how I write, but I want to keep this novel “child-friendly,” so I’m kinda stuck writing like this.

If you decide you want to take up this task, I want to let you know that the entire (slightly edited) draft will not be done for a while (because I'm a student athlete with way to many extracurricular activities). However, the first half should be pretty much done within the next week, so you can still look through it and let me know how you want it to progress.

The feedback I am looking for is:

Does the concept work, or is it simply a messy blob of text?

If it’s messy, how could I improve on it without spending another year on editing?

What things would you like to see different (“Oh, I wish that __ happened instead of ___”)?

Would this appeal at all to middle schoolers or anybody in general, or am I just delusional (because I’ve thought about giving this up many times already)?

As a middle school student, would this novel have stood out to you, or is it something generic that you’ve read about many times?

And any other feedback you might have!

Thank you for so much reading this and considering beta reading!