u/AspiringFailure7789

Hello All,

I apologize if this has been asked or if it’s a bit too vague. But have any of you dealt with a sense of losing your voice as you improve your technical skill in writing? I don’t my voice is inherently bad and I’m just learning not to suck. I hope. And maybe these feelings are normal or unwarranted. But much of what I end up changing in edits are things I think might be unique to the way I write. This could be a product of me almost solely writing poetry for years and only turning heavily into stories in the past few years, but the feelings there and I wanted to see if others have also felt this.

Hello! This is my first time posting, actually made an account for this. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to review! Please be ruthless.

I am pleased to submit for your consideration A DOG'S DREAM AND A BROKEN PROPHECY, a reality-bending contemporary fantasy that blends the character-driven snark of Dungeon Crawler Carl with the mind-bending cosmic stakes of Everything Everywhere All at Once

Twenty-something Jeff is a mess: snarky, deeply insecure, and thoroughly unable to put his life in order. His one constant is Lily, the fiercely loyal dog who helped him survive a brutal childhood. His other constant is considerably less helpful: “dream spills,” blackouts in which he experiences lifetimes as anything from a tree, to a ghost, to echo of an ancient god. Jeff never remembers them afterward. He certainly doesn’t remember that, in every existence, Lily is there too.

Then a crew of obtuse, perpetually drunk spirits crashes into Jeff's life and informs him that a prophecy has named him essential to repairing the Weave, the hidden structure holding reality together. Jeff assumes they’re another hallucination right up until they drag him into a series of impossible trials involving bioluminescent giant roaches, a mountain town where the air itself is broken, in order to obtain an absurdly ornate knife capable of freezing time.

Unfortunately for reality, its chosen savior is still Jeff.

His missions grow increasingly dangerous, sending him through a billionaire’s desert biodome, displaced cities, and a luxury space station, while Jack—a rigid espionage agent whose selflessness throws Jeff’s worst qualities into sharp relief—tries to keep him alive and on task. But then Jeff discovers that while he’s been suffering through the spirits’ incompetence and cruelty, Chad, his best friend, has taken his girlfriend. In a moment of petty rage, Jeff uses his newfound power to write a curse directly into the Weave.

Then Chad kills himself.

Consumed by guilt and furious at the spirits who seem disturbingly unconcerned with the human cost of their prophecy, Jeff turns to Elios, an exiled spirit who claims Jeff has been serving the wrong side all along. Jeff gives him the time-stopping knife and tears open the Weave, determined to undo Chad’s death himself.

Instead, he destroys the barrier protecting reality.

Elios invades the spirit realm, seizes control of the knife, and begins dismantling existence itself.

As the universe fractures, Jeff falls through one reality after another with Lily beside him—and finally understands what his dream spills have always been: memories of the two of them tumbling through broken worlds together. Lily has followed him through every lifetime, every catastrophe, every version of himself.

Now, in order to save a dissolving reality, Jeff must choose to let go of the one loyal companion who who's always been by his side.

BIO: TBD

Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be delighted to send the full manuscript.

Best