I'm not 100% sure if I've posted this in the right place. Mods, feel free to move it if needed. As writers, it's usually interesting to see another person's take on our story, specifically when it comes to their predictions about what will happen next. (Especially when they're way off base: we don't want our plot twists easily guessed!) So here's the way the game works. Post the very first paragraph of your novel. Then, the person below you describes, based on the paragraph, their interpretation of what they think the story will be about overall, and/or what they think will happen next. After you post your prediction/analysis of the story of the person above you, you post your own first paragraph, so the person after you can do the same. This isn't intended to be a critique-oriented thread. We have the Workshop sections for that. Rather, this is a "What do I think will happen overall in the course of this story based on the info I got out of the first paragraph?" First paragraphs are important, and this will help us see how well we "set the stage" without being too predictable. If you think another paragraph would be better than the very 1st, you could use the first paragraph of a new chapter (not necessarily the 1st of the novel) or a paragraph where the situation changes in some kind of meaningful way. But, it would work better with a "stage-setting" paragraph as opposed to something more random. I also think this would be more meaningful if we, as the analyzers, stuck with genuine, thoughtful ideas as opposed to silly three-word responses. Here's my first paragraph: My bedroom in the Sanctuary is barely large enough to fit my narrow bed. I get up, moving slowly in the dark to avoid hitting the metal walls. The home I used to live in, the one in the government research building of Capital York, had bedrooms almost twice the size as here. But Capital York is gone now, reduced to nothing but ruins and the monsters that now dwell there.
My guess is, we have The Omega Man, pushed into an anonymous corner of a world that was once his, but is no more. The research building must have had something to do with the monsters, so the character must have had a hand in causing them to come into being...so, the story would be either trying to get to another, safer or un-monstered place, or to achieve destruction of the infestation. With that lame attempt at a guess, here's mine: Things are never what they seem in the wilds of deep space. It’s so well-known cyno-shaking events, or even interesting stories pass through filters that would dull the brightest sun. What if the news is true? How would that change my ore yield on the day? How would that improve the quality of targets creating sudden profits eclipsing the grind? The news could spell doom. Though we are all doomed, it’s but a matter of time, what story hasn’t been told to the point of white noise already? Even the flourishes are passé. So, the news and the story are like the rise and rattle of a hyper-jump. Not even particles remain to balefully fade away. And, it is indeed very cold in space.
I'm thinking you're setting up for some kind of space opera. The character uses metaphors in terms of a ship, so they are definitely on some mining vessel. They seem a bit jaded, so I'm guessing something will happened that will change that opinion. A wild adventure, perhaps, and maybe even finding out certain truths to their universe. My first paragraph: Kioless lurched awake, sweaty, alarmed in his confused state. Was he back at the prison? Was he—no, the hammock was threaded too neatly against his cocooned self. The sweltering heat from his hearth had slipped him into his usual nightmares, but then… when had he…? When had he fallen asleep? Only to awaken to the sound of that wretched labored breathing (how long had Roris been there?) Last he recalled, he had been too antsy to rest, far too excited for the coming day, such was his vindictive nature.
