Please be as harsh as you like! I hate this but don't know why. Tysm

A cacophony of excited roars born from beasts and men alike encompassed what seemed to be the entire world. Dragons thrashed against their harness and archers poised, strings taught, ready. Harva glared across at the variety of foul villains that dared to challenge t him. Towering Dragonborns with brutish horns and amber eyes, skyborn with talons and clipped wings and other vile animalistic races occupied the front lines constructing a close knit shield wall. Armed with pitchforks and various other farming equipment they stood no chance against imperial armoury and equipment. Quivering cowardly behind them hid the mages, their eyes burned with fire and fury no match for his men who had changed and honed their craft. These were stupid villagers who for whatever daft reason opposed the Weitan but soon they'd become a warning to whomever else wanted to rebel. Any moment now the calvary would come charging around encircling their wall and setting things right. It would be a massacre. Harva grinned at the thought. He allowed the adrenaline fulled atmosphere flow through him. The atmosphere pre battle was always intoxicatingly glorious but this time it was almost alive with a kind of magic fueled electricity. He made eye contact with Castello next to him, a long time comrade, advisor and friend. He gave him a serious nod and turned back to the battle. Any moment now... The tension was exhilarating, it surged in the air around him, his knew he knew his men could feel it too. Any moment now. Their cries became even louder and more intense waiting for the release the catalyst one move and everything would set off. Any moment now. The hostility, anticipation, nerves, stress, passion, glory regret and a multitude of other emotion seemed to fuse and gather in one place becoming something volatile and angry. Harva could taste blood in his mouth even before a drop was drawn, he looked to Castello. The air felt like it had been drawn back, like the moment before a big wave coles crashing into shore. Suddenly, as if provoked the unstable mass exploded. Castello threw himself in front of Harva, he could see him beginning to channel his energy! He reached out and felt for him as the battle field enveloped in a putrid orange haze. He eventually grabbed on to his arm on instinct as the men around him toppled like dominos. He felt the electricity in the air course through his arm into his whole body. It caused excruciating pain as if he was swarmed by Hornets. Overcome by the pain the world crumbled away around him until there was nothing left

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First off, this is a massive block of text. And while that can be the correct structure for some styles, it's usually not the case for genre fiction.

Paragraph breaks aren't arbitrary, and they don't exist just to make the text easier to read. Separate paragraphs structure thoughts in the same way that separate sentences do. Just as a sentence usually consists of a single complete idea, a paragraph usually consists of the development of a discrete series of closely related ideas. A new paragraph indicates the transition to a new concept. You avoid "run on paragraphs" for the same reason you avoid "run on sentences."

Second, we need to talk about the proper way to introduce and structure information. While you can start a scene or paragraph any way you want, it's important to give the reader a solid foundation by which they can understand what is going on. They don't need to be told everything immediately--withholding information is a great way to provoke curiosity and to avoid bloated prose--but they need at least a general understanding of the shape of the scene. If you go too long without establishing this (or if you give them too many details without establishing an underlying foundation so that they can all be placed in context), the reader will feel disoriented and irritated.

Anyways, lets do a breakdown:

A cacophony of excited roars born from beasts and men alike encompassed what seemed to be the entire world.

Couple points here.

Overall, this sentence is trying too hard to establish an "epic" tone. It's more complex than it needs to be to convey the information it is conveying. As a result it backfires, and feels weak instead of strong.

The fix here is to simplify. Ask yourself what needs to be included, and what value each of the words is providing.

Consider:

A cacophony of excited roars born from beasts and men alike encompassed what seemed to be the entire world.

Roars from beasts and men encompassed what seemed to be the entire world.

Removing those words change the sentence's meaning (maybe you lose a bit of detail with "excited," but not much).

I'm not saying that all of this should be cut--maybe the sentence feels too sparse now--But I'm saying when can remove a word without alerting a sentence's meaning, you should at least consider doing so. And when you have a sentence with A LOT of words that don't add much meaning, it's a good indication your prose is bloated.

If it helps, try to imagine that each costs you something. Ask yourself what you're getting in return.

....encompassed what seemed to be the entire world.

Now lets look at this part. A couple things stand out:

- "encompassed" is a pretty grandiose word.

- This is a lot of words to spend on saying "it was loud." Especially when "cacophony of roars" already established that.

- Saying "the entire world" is a missed opportunity to establish the setting. And while it's fine to withhold information to provoke curiosity, I don't feel like this actually does that.

So consider this:

The roars of beasts and men resounded across the battlefield.

I'm not saying this is the right way to write the sentence, or the only way. But it's crisp, direct, and (I think) that cutting all those words makes it more impactful, rather than less.

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Dragons thrashed against their harness and archers poised, strings taught, ready.

This is a good sentence. That said, I'd eliminate the "and." It's limiting, almost makes it feel like those are the only two things going on.

Harva glared across at the variety of foul villains that dared to challenge t him.

Two things:

First, we're now three sentence in and you haven't given the reader a clear glimpse of the bigger picture. As I mentioned above, that can be disorienting.

Second, you're introducing a character in the third sentence of a massive block of text. It's often a good idea to avoid that sort of thing. The beginnings and ends of paragraphs have the most impact. The middle risks burying key information, particularly introductions.

/r/fantasywriters Thread