Martyr: A Novel (in full)

Lawsuit in the making. Hey, if I testify against Chuck, will you buy me some ice cream? I'm really in the mood for some ice cream. That said, it's pretty cool you're tossing a novel up in the air for all of us to read. If I wasn't busy off my face then I'd read it for sure.

Fair play. I give it eight hours before this turns up on Limewire as The Zarour Files by Palahniuk. I read the first page and it doesn't seem too bad at all. I wish I had more time to go through it a little more.

I just spent some moments skimming through this, and I have to say, despite its overzealous emulation of Chuck's style, it's written with confidence. We may yet see you in print sometime soon.

hey... it's really great that you wrote a novel. I wrote one, too, but the assholes in romanian publishing houses are not willing to give a chance to a debutant writer unless he/she has some fucking degree from some famous european university. 3 publishing houses turned down my novel, so far, and something tells me that this is not Fight Club situation, where I'll be telling fans how their favourite novel almost didn't make it to the public. That woun't happen, at least not in this country.

[QUOTE=Runner Down;1013615]Maybe it's really because you spell "favorite," as "favourite?"

Haha, just kidding.

You don't have to live in a country to get it published there, why don't you pick up a Writer's Market for the U.S. and try your luck over here?

Unless, of course, if it's written in Romanian.[/QUOTE]
it's in romanian

On seeing how easily replicated Palahniuk's style is, it almost makes a man sad.

Trust me, it makes me more sad, haha.

If a few more people ask about printing I'll unlock it.

definately cool that you're looking to get your work out there more than anything. I'll save it and read a little bit at a time, but from what I did see it looks like a worthwhile read. Keep it up...maybe you'll get published or something equally as exciting

I dont have time to read this.

I got[I] published [/I]authors to read!

[QUOTE=Runner Down;1013428]Seriously, I don't have an official copyright on this, so I probably couldn't even sue someone if I wanted to.[/QUOTE]
Just so you know, you actually do have a copyright on this just by writing it and saving it on your hard disk or punching the keys on a typewriter. Copyright is attached automatically to all your original work once it is recorded to some tangible medium.

That being said, your ability to sue is indeed limited until you "register" the work, which might be what you meant by "official".

The exception would be if you really did plagiarize it, but I take your use of the term here as modest self-deprecation, and not as a legal disclaimer.

Registering your copyright is not required to secure your rights, but it has legal advantages:
[QUOTE] * If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.

* If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.[/QUOTE]
[URL=http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#cr]More info here[/URL].

Good luck with your writing.

Please enable the printing option, then I will certainy read it. Pretty please?

[QUOTE=Runner Down;1013361]In 2004 I wrote a novel titled "Martyr," and it is attatched to this post.

I was, and still am, a young writer. The voices of my influences speak more strongly in my work than does my own voice. After passing several copies of the book to my friends, the unanimous consensus was that it was too much like Chuck's work for me to publish - aside from the fact that it was my sophomore effort at a novel-length piece, and suffers from many noobish errors.

I'm not looking for money, criticism, or least of all, praise. I have no hope or firm desire of ever publishing this work. Several years have passed, and I'm no longer the same writer as I was when I first put this together.

My only purpose for posting it here is to serve it up for whoever's interested in reading it. Some of you might actually like it, once you get past the fact that it's an almost blatant plagiarization of Chuck's work.

Have fun.

Bye the way, this was written before Rant, so it's interesting to note their similarities, especially with regard to the themes of salesmanship and plagues.[/QUOTE]

Read the first chapter. Liked it.

And yes, it sounds like Chuck, style-wise, but you know how to fix that, right?...

Take it out of 2nd person. Just about as simple as that.

Put it in 1st or 3rd and take out the stuff that sounds like "Think Sodom and Gomorrah" and sentences that begin with "Then what you're supposed to is [U]insert snappy, somewhat shocking action here[/U]," but honestly, simply rewriting it in another POV should take care of most of it naturally. Anything you write in 2nd person with quick, stabbing prose is going to look like it's aping Chuck's style, mainly because he's a very popular author, atm, and he writes almost exlusively in 2nd person.

Has anyone suggested this to you before?

Benny - I appreciate the advice. It does sound like a quick and easy fix, but really, it's not. My earlier noted reasons for not publishing were a bit simplified, though true enough. Stylistically, the prose does sound wayyy too much like Chuck's work for me to be comfortable publishing it. The deeper reason, though, is that the story itself parallels Fight Club and Survivor too closely. That's a bit tougher to get away from.

[QUOTE=Runner Down;1013931]Printable file is attatched to this post. Just for you, Barca.

MrIcpx - Thanks! Glad you liked it. Tell your friends. Then they'll tell their friends...[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much Runner Down. I have a few books to finish and then Im going to read yours. I appreciate it.

[QUOTE=Benny P.;1013882]Read the first chapter. Liked it.
and he writes almost exlusively in 2nd person.
[/QUOTE]
You mean 1st person? He has moments of 2nd, but definitely not enough to be considered exclusive.

[QUOTE=Benny P.;1016035]which is rare enough to really stand out in the modern literary landscape, which means that if you're combining terse prose, written in the 1st person, with some 2nd person stuff interspersed here and there, you're running the risk of sounding a lot like Chuck. [/QUOTE]
Agreed, especially with people who know Chuck's work as intimately as we do.

Runner Down AKA Joshua Blair. I just finished your book, finally - I'm a dyslexicly slow reader and have little time to dedicate to things I enjoy. Your book definatly sounds like Chuck, and I'm not going to try and give you ways to "fix" it to make it not. And I can see what you mean about not wanting to get it published because you don't want to be labeled a knock off.
What makes this unfortunate, is your book is very, very good. I enjoyed it more then any book I've read for a long time. I think I read that you are 22? If that is the case, shit. I'm 22 also, and after reading something writen by someone my age, actually younger because you said you wrote this in 04, it makes me want to stop writing because I will never be that good. (Not saying I'm going to, just saying) Well done. Good ideas. Very intelligent.
As you write more stuff keep me updated when some of it is available to read.

The guy went ansd posted a link for me to read his novel and I still havent printed it out yet. Dang!

As I told to Mr.Amazing in another thread, reading a pdf is damn hard.

Have you ever thought of publishing it on a blog? A part of it, each day.

Mr. Amazing took the advice. See: www.deleondemicoli.blogspot.com or www.weblogtale.blogspot.com (from wordsphantom) or GoogleBlogSearch some else.

you have a strange fascination with blog novels.