Critique Request: partial story, now 15K words

[Grayson Morris]

I have a fantasy story that's at 15,000 words and not nearly finished. The problem I'm up against is that I see two or three ways to take the story, and I keep waffling and second-guessing what I've already got. I like what I've got, but I can't assess whether it works from my nose-against-the-page vantage point. Most of the time, I feel certain it's just an incoherent jumble -- and I need to know whether I'm right or wrong about that, so I can decide where to go with it.

What I desperately need is readers to simply tell me, big picture, whether the story works so far. Does it make you want to read on and find out what happens next? Do things flow logically, and do the characters act consistently?

I'm not looking for lower-level critting at this point ("too much internal monologue," "too little description," etc), just the big picture. I would be interested in hearing where you WOULDN'T want the story to go -- an ending you'd feel was a letdown -- and where the story MUST go to feel satisfying at the end, if you know either of those after reading.

Okay! If you're up for reading 15K words of unfinished fantasy and giving me your honest opinion about whether it works (and why not, if it doesn't), please PM me.

[josephk]

Just sent you a PM. I'd love to have a look at it.