Hello, AnonymousTodd .
I just finished reading "Kite Chasing" and I would like to share my observations and feedback with you. This review was done to fulfill a class requirement, so it may be longer and more intensive than others you receive. Remember, I am a fellow writer looking to improve my craft. Your piece provided me the opportunity to analyze my own writing with a more calculating eye. Thanks for making your work available to me. I hope you find this review helpful.
I found this piece while perusing the Review Request Page. The title grabbed my attention. The description sealed the deal. I was hooked from the first line. I like the kite analogy. It brings to mind idyllic, iconic images of childhood and youth. The kite is light, airy and beautiful. It is a nice symbol for our morals. We fly them for all to see. We hang on tight to fragile strands that connect us. The wind tugs and pulls the kite higher and higher - almost out of our sight, but we keep hanging on. Each day, we reel in our kites and see a little more damage, but we keep flying them. One day, a swift gust snaps the cord or rips it from our grip. Just like that, our kite is gone. When we are young, we cannot fathom an event that might make us lose sight of our morals.
The opening paragraph grabs the reader by the collar and tells him, "Listen! I need to tell you something important." You tell us we cannot hold onto our youth. This is scary to those who haven't lost it yet. Those of us who waved goodbye a while ago are nodding in agreement. Good job getting our attention.
Your re-work of the traditional slippery-slope argument has great imagery. I like the visual of seeing a person trying to hold onto a thrashing fish. My concern is it does not fit in the first paragraph. The kite analogy has us looking up in the sky, feeling the tug of the wind trying to yank away our kite. You are asking us to let go of the kite and hold onto a fish. Is it possible to work it in elsewhere?
Your style is conversational right from the beginning. As a first person account, this story lends itself to this style of narrative. It is a good, solid choice. I caution you about being too casual. Too many small phrases separated by commas can muddle the narrative making it harder to follow.
For example, "Youth is an easy answer, if you’re looking for easy answers. But there are other things, less tangible things – that is, if you can believe there are things less tangible than youth – which disappear as quickly. Morals, I think, can fit into this category."
I suggest removing "that is" and "I think" to tighten up the thoughts a little without losing the overall tone and feeling of the writing.
In keeping with the theme of clarity in the informal style, another sentence had me pausing to re-read a few times. It is the repetition of the word "do" that makes it hard to follow. I would suggest re-working this for clarity, while still keeping the feeling of resignation from the character.
Example:
"The thing is, once you do what you do to lose your morals, your morality, you’ll do pretty much anything to protect yourself. That’s all I did, really."
My suggestion:
The thing is, once you do something to lose your morals - your morality - you will protect yourself any way you can. That’s all I did, really.
I was watching an episode of Criminal Minds the other day with my youngest daughter. (We love crime dramas!) The Behavioral Sciences team was analyzing dialogue and something they said resonated with me. The word "just" diminishes the impact of what we are trying to say. It is like a hesitation cut made by a person afraid of his first kill. (Please forgive the serial killer analogy!) Since then, I have been trying to use the word with more care. I observed I have a habit of using it like a written "uh." Do you feel a difference when I remove the "just?"
Yours:
"That’s the slippery slope, to me. My morals, when they went, flew off like kite too loosely held. They just got ripped away."
Mine:
That’s the slippery slope, to me. My morals, when they went, flew off like a kite too loosely held. They got ripped away.
I also added the article "a" - I think it was a small typo.
I like the short, staccato style sentences you use to reveal that your character killed someone. They have a dramatic flair, couched between longer, more complex sentences.
"I didn’t kill Carly. Not entirely. She helped; started it really. I didn’t have a choice."
The cat analogy is a perfect vehicle to describe the moral quandary your main character faced. The imagery is horrific, and many people can relate on some level. This section is filled with horror and dread, as I believe you intend. I suggest re-working it a bit to tighten up the writing, using the "less is more" philosophy. I encourage you to resist typical phrases, even if they are common to the everyday spoken language style your character uses.
Example:
"Let’s say you run over a cat on the road and break his back, so that half of him is dragging behind, just useless baggage really, while the front keeps going, or trying to anyway. What do you do? It happened to me once; some lady in front of me ran right over the poor thing. She didn’t try to, slammed on her brakes so fast that I nearly ran into her. But she did it, nonetheless. Intentions don’t mean anything in this life, if you ask me, and this pretty much proves it in my book. Anyway, this poor lady jumps out of her car, hysterical you know, and is just screaming and sobbing and throwing a fit. “Oh my God, Oh my God, what did I do?” Over and over again, like saying it enough would solicit an answer."
Let’s say you run over a cat and break his back. Half of him is dragging behind like useless baggage while the front tries to keep going. What do you do? It happened to me once. Some lady ran right over the poor thing. I almost hit her when she slammed on her brakes to avoid it. But she hit it. Intentions don’t mean anything in this life, if you ask me. Anyway, this poor lady jumps out of her car, hysterical. She's screaming and sobbing - throwing a a real fit. “Oh my God, Oh my God, what did I do?” Over and over again, like saying it enough would solicit an answer.
The first sentence is a run-on that needs to be broken apart to emphasize the individual thoughts. The phrase "in my book" confused me on the first read through. I thought he was referring to an actual book. Could be just me, given the context of being on WDC, but I think it is an over-used idiom.
“We have to kill him,”I said, as gently as I could. This sentence gave me chills. The contrast between "kill" and "gently" got my attention. “We can’t let him suffer,” I added, hoping that would clarify it for her. This sentence made me feel so sorry for him. He is stuck in a horrible situation trying to help this cat and this lady, knowing that no one is looking out for him.
I assume you are a baseball fan. I don't think anyone with only a passing interest in the game knows this much detail. I like the analogy, and it is in keeping with feeling that this man is more typical and average than we, the readers, might like to believe. He could be any one us. I got lost in the detail. Admittedly, I am not a fan, but I believe only the most hard-core baseball fan would not lose you. Despite not knowing the full definition of "pitcher of record," your usage gave me a good indication and it reads well. I believe you could skip the next paragraph and get right to the real story your character is trying to tell.
In the next paragraph, you bring us to the heart of the story. It is a gut wrenching place to be. There are some great visuals, like his wife laying on the bed with foam coming out of her mouth "like she was a can of beer that had been shaken up." This is a good, realistic simile for this character. I encourage you to limit the baseball references here, as well. A smattering is good.
Your character is in a dark, hopeless place we all pray we will never be. There is a lot of cynicism and resignation in his dialogue, which you would expect to find. Some sentences that stood out to me as creative were:
"Carly and I both went to the doctor for depression, and both of us got pills for it, but Carly put hers – and mine – to better use."
"...just spend an eternity suffering for the sin of not being able to take an eternity and a half of suffering here."
The ending brings us full-circle. You did a nice job of taking us on the roller coaster with you. When we got strapped in beside you, you told us about kites and morals. As we climbed that first hill, you told us a story about a cat and we started to regret getting on this ride with you. Each twist and turn was worse than the one before. The final plummet had us losing our lunch with the vision of you holding that pillow over your wife's face. As we roll back to where it all began, we leave you, thinking again about kites, regrets, what we would do for someone we loved so much, and hope.
I really liked this story. Thanks for the opportunity to read your work.
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