depends on how well it's written and marketed.

fwiw plot sounds potentially entertaining, in my shamelessly pleb opinion

>>7637577
I've been working on this idea for 3 years now, but I want to perfect my writing before anything gets finalized.
I have no idea how to market it though.

>>7637567
I assume you're familiar with The Night Land, William Hope Hodgson's influential and imaginative tale of a man searching through a hellish wasteland filled with Lovecraftian horrors for the only person he ever cared about (his wife, no homo)?

Unfortunately it's incredibly difficult to read. Nobody has ever figured out why Hodgson decided to write the whole thing in pseudo-Elizabethan prose, and Hodgson is too dead to answer.

Still, you must give it a shot. If you can't handle the prose, read John C. Wright's Awake in the Night Land short story about a man searching through a hellish wasteland filled with lovecraftian horrors for his best friend (no homo).

>>7637632
I have not read that, sounds like I should though. I've already read Roadside Picnic just because I felt that some themes from that book were too similar for me to write my book comfortably. It turned out my idea is nothing like roadside picnic, just the idea of going into a wasteland for otherworldly loot is the same.
No, the best friend isn't otherworldly loot, there's just artifacts and materials that are unnatural and only exist in this wasteland and are profitable outside of it.

>>7637586
>perfect my writing

like "commercially viable" perfect, or "great american novel" perfect?

and marketing's going to be up to the publisher. but (assuming it even gets picked up and you don't end up just putting it on amazon for 99 cents), as a first time author in a flooded genre filled with a wide range of quality expect a $6.99 trade paperback with little to no marketing push.

>>7637690
Eh, I guess I just want to get to a point where I'm comfortable with my writing, but I'm leaning more towards "great american novel".

If that'll be the case I guess I better make sure it's a damn good read.

>>7637676
It's honestly better to probably learn some Gamemaker or Unity and make your story into a plot focused vidya.

>>7637920
See, I'd love to do that, but with current gen engines I think it's impossible to make this idea into a caliber of game I'd be proud of. This 'wasteland' in my story is more of a gateway to other dimensions and universes that allows beings to traverse into earth that are complete killing machines evolved from much more hostile environments than our own, MC will also be traveling to these other dimensions and planets so translating that into a game seems pretty ambitious.

>>7637567
>no homo though
why? homo is patrish

>>7638113
Honestly.. maybe a little homo, MC does love his best friend, I mean he's risking his life and sanity to save him, but he's very clearly not gay.

>>7637567
Painfully cliche and unoriginal, could sell well if the writing is decent but it would have no literary value.

>>7638145
To be fair, I'm giving a vague view of the plot. I could go more in detail about the idea of you really want.

>>7638154
Go for it anon.

>>7638159
Alrighty, in about 100 years from now, earth suffers an impact that annihilates a third of its surface and makes it inhospitable due to horrific creatures spawning and seemingly random though dangerous anomalies in the area affected. The remainder of humankind decided to build a massive wall encircling the impact zone, stopping anything from escaping and keeping the people outside safe, but after losing a third of the surface and spending all those resources on the wall, the entire planet is sent into a third world state.
People begin to wander past the wall in search of otherworldly treasure, most die, but those that return become millionaires after a single successful find.
MC and his best friend wander past the wall as teens so they can find something and hopefully get themselves out of the slums.
They find an artifact but on the way back MC loses best friend and doesn't really know how. After manufacturing an artifact he found into a super weapon, MC goes back into the impact zone to find his friend, does this over and over for ten years.
This is where I'll actually start the narration of the story, probably from a first person perspective.
MC eventually finds a girl in the zone who seems to have lost her way and does not recal her past or where she has been (she's mostly in the story so MC can have some dialogue), eventually MC finds clues to his friends whereabouts, sacrifices girl on the way to find friend, friend turns out to have changed for the worse in the past ten years.
Best friend rants on and on about "uniting the physical realm into one" and after certain plot keys MC and Friend have final battle that results in the entire physical existence of the universe disappearing and everyone's minds are united in a spiritual realm, MC decides he wants the physical realm back and finds himself exploding on an infamiliar planets surface hearing thoughts from people like himself "Your friend rests in peaceful oblivion, however you must now live eternally in this hell that you created. Pray that insanity takes your mind, for that is your only possibility at freedom."
The end

>>7638247
>she's mostly in the story so MC can have some dialogue
shitty reason to have a primary character. especially one who has no definable interests or backstory. might as well just have him talk to himself. might be better that way, if you can avoid making him a cinematic lotr smeagol/gollum ripoff
>Best friend rants on and on about "uniting the physical realm into one" and after certain plot keys MC and Friend have final battle that results in the entire physical existence of the universe disappearing and everyone's minds are united in a spiritual realm,
plot keys better be big to explain that.
>MC decides he wants the physical realm back and finds himself exploding on an infamiliar planets surface hearing thoughts from people like himself "Your friend rests in peaceful oblivion, however you must now live eternally in this hell that you created. Pray that insanity takes your mind, for that is your only possibility at freedom."
blech. probably woulda been cool when i was 16, but pretty trite now.

>>7638247
>Alrighty, in about 100 years from now, earth suffers an impact that annihilates a third of its surface and makes it inhospitable due to horrific creatures spawning and seemingly random though dangerous anomalies in the area affected. The remainder of humankind decided to build a massive wall encircling the impact zone, stopping anything from escaping and keeping the people outside safe, but after losing a third of the surface and spending all those resources on the wall, the entire planet is sent into a third world state.
Sounds overdone.

>People begin to wander past the wall in search of otherworldly treasure, most die, but those that return become millionaires after a single successful find.
>MC and his best friend wander past the wall as teens so they can find something and hopefully get themselves out of the slums.
Sounds like it could be interesting.

>They find an artifact but on the way back MC loses best friend and doesn't really know how. After manufacturing an artifact he found into a super weapon, MC goes back into the impact zone to find his friend, does this over and over for ten years.
>This is where I'll actually start the narration of the story, probably from a first person perspective.
The superweapon part is kinda boring. Why don't you make it so it's just normal technology they are recovering, something that makes the survivors' life better? Also, you shouldn't skip on their bonding over the adventure.

>MC eventually finds a girl in the zone who seems to have lost her way and does not recal her past or where she has been (she's mostly in the story so MC can have some dialogue), eventually MC finds clues to his friends whereabouts, sacrifices girl on the way to find friend, friend turns out to have changed for the worse in the past ten years.
Sounds overdone. Rather than being amnesiac you could make her straight insane.

>Best friend rants on and on about "uniting the physical realm into one" and after certain plot keys MC and Friend have final battle that results in the entire physical existence of the universe disappearing and everyone's minds are united in a spiritual realm, MC decides he wants the physical realm back and finds himself exploding on an infamiliar planets surface hearing thoughts from people like himself "Your friend rests in peaceful oblivion, however you must now live eternally in this hell that you created. Pray that insanity takes your mind, for that is your only possibility at freedom."
That ending is hammy as hell.