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That is an adorable tiara, I must say.

That really helps, njc. Thanks! I'm still working on a couple of Winston Churchill books, per your suggestion. I don't think I'll have much time for reading here soon, but I'll do my best.

-Elisheva

Probably, but I don't think it would work with the way I want to write it. At some point, Vierra is going to be the political side to Noi and Maya's "adventures" (can't think of another word right now). Right now is probably the most split-up my characters are going to be. Maya and Noi come together with some other yet-to-be-introduced characters, then some time after that, Dea wiggles her way into either Maya's or Vierra's storyline (I haven't decided which direction to go just yet). So, eventually, there will only be two storylines to follow and play off of each other.

I hope I'm making at least a little bit of sense.

Very intriguing, njc. Thanks!

So, I have a question. How do you decide what chapter comes next? At the moment, I have three different events to write and all of them are happening roughly around the same time. These events are centered around Maya, Vierra, and Dea, respectively, but now that I've broken the back and forth between Dragons and girls, I'm not sure what comes first.

I just wrote a chapter from Vierra's PoV, but I'm not sure if I should continue with her PoV or change to Maya or Dea? (Noi is out of the picture for a little bit, unfortunately)

-Elisheva

Chapter 7 has been posted. Yay! I've gotten quite a few comments on doing more show and less tell, so please let me know if there are improvements there.

I would imagine, living primarily in water and the sky, that Dragons have ears much like dolphins. I have also been thoroughly entertained by this earwax analogy. Thank you. lol

I have also been learning far too much German, apparently. I keep capitalizing my nouns.

This totally reminds me of Jack Sparr- I mean, Captain Jack Sparrow.

In a novel I read recently, there was a community of mages who could basically control you if they knew your name. So all non-mage denizens of the city either formulated nicknames for themselves or were called by their birth order. For instance, Eustace Jackson might be called Firstson Jackson or Mastersmith Jackson and only his closest friends would know him as Eustace.

Very good points and I love the Smurfs example. Maybe if I explain a little, that might help.

For the Elves in my story, their last name is a rite of passage. When an Elf is born, they are raised by the community. When they reach a certain age, they go out into the world to perform some good deed or bring some useful thing back to their community. This event or thing plays a large part when the Elders give this Elf his or her last name. Think of an Elf's second name as a badge of honor.

For the Fae, it's basically bloodlines, which are a huge deal in their community. It's slightly more complicated than that, but that's very far down the line as far as my story is concerned.

Dragons? To each their own. They are very independent and could care less who their mother or father was. Dragons earn titles, not names.

Humans? I have no idea. I know commoners are far less likely to carry a last name than nobles, but other than that, I'm pretty clueless. I'd like to be at least a little unique about it, but at the same time, I don't want to over-complicate things. To be honest, I am quite good at over-complicating things and do it far too often.

I was going to start from the beginning and even made it through the first 4 or 5 chapters, but you have some that aren't posted, so I decided to skip. I'll get familiar with it eventually.

Most of the time, when you're reading a novel, each chapter establishes the scene, even if it's the same scene as the previous chapter. In my mind, a chapter is a "stopping point". So, from a reader's perspective, could I read up to that stopping point, put the book down for a week, come back and continue right where I left off? Not so much. Of course, I'm an extremely forgetful person, but still...

The easiest way to insert some description would be to put a foundation at the beginning, where you're talking about the wolves, and elaborate on that foundation with little snippets in between the dialogue. One or two sentences won't interrupt the dialogue much at all. The best way I can describe this is by pointing you to my Colorless Dragons, chapter 6. You don't have to spend so much time on descriptions (I am a very descriptive writer. ), but in this instance, a decent-sized paragraph is spent in the beginning establishing where they are. Then, there are actions in between the dialogue. In this case, Merrin playing with an apple and annoying the hell out of Maya. (Hence my suggestion to pick a character's PoV, it helps give the reader an opinion or feeling to follow). In your case, it might be the fire that you've already established.

As always, IMO and YMMV.

-Elisheva

Muahaha! Totally just skipped about 60 chapters and reviewed one for you, njc. I hope I was at least a fraction as helpful as you've been on my chapters.

-Elisheva

I have recently been unable to continue about three different book series because all I can think about while reading is how to write it better. o.0 Is this normal?