I actually almost entered this particular version of the Flash Fiction Challenge, but my story would have been a lot different, lol. Tower totally meant mini-battle! I've read too much fantasy, I think.
Anyway, this is cute little piece of fiction. It has a clear beginning, middle, and end, which is hard to do in 300 words. Beth is a discernible character and not just a cypher meant to fill a role; she has clear motivations, even if they do change. I will say the "who she sat next to in biology" should be a "whom".
The only thing that was a bit off was that "Biology" read to me like a high school class, whereas getting drinks obviously implies being over 21, so there was a bit of a weird clash there. Maybe changing the class to something obviously college-y (like O-Chem or Polynomials, or something) or the drinks to food would help clear up that weirdness.
Other than that, I really enjoyed your story! Best of luck in Flash Fiction and in I Write!
-Quaddy
Hello, fellow Prepper! Isn't it wonderful that we get to use Prep as part of I Write? I dunno if I could handle both. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when this contest and NaNo actually overlap! Eek.
Anyway...
First off, thank you for your grammar. I know Prep is all about collecting our thoughts and our ideas for next month, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine when people don't take the opportunity to polish anything that's being entered as a contest piece. You have absolutely taken the time to present your story in a grammatically correct format. Heck, just getting the whole 'loath' versus 'loathe' thing correct is...thank you.
Moving on. I'd have to say the biggest area for improvement is in your repetitious use of 'he' as the lead-off word in your sentences. It's not necessarily incorrect, but it can ruin the flow of a piece if so many sentences begin in the same way. In a smaller piece like this, it's not horribly bothersome because it contributes to a not-terribly-intellectual feel for your character, but in the longer form of a novel it can become a weakness. Just something to be mindful of as you prepare to write your piece.
But really, the mild repetition issues are nothing compared to the fact that you've managed to fulfill the requirements of the Contest Round for Antagonists: I understand and empathize with your antagonist. It's clear that he has become as controlling as his father and is quite probably the real source of his problems with women. We often do reflect our parents no matter how we might try to move on from that. So, in that sense, you definitely nailed this round. Great job!
Best of luck in Prep, NaNo itself, and I Write!
-Quaddy
Greetings! I'm reviewing this because it appears I'm next in line for "I Write", so let's go...
I do wish I had gotten to see the moon last night. It was a rainy evening here, so the lady was unfortunately obscured by cloud as well as by the Earth itself. So I shall have to console myself with the pictures my friends in clearer places took, and by reading poems such as yours!
First off, well done in following the rules of the contest. No use of the forbidden words, you used all the words necessary, had the right amount of lines. I know I'm not a judge in the contest, but I figure a good review points out when someone has missed something. You missed nothing, so woo!
Secondly, the poem is well-written. You have good word choice, evocative imagery, and a clear narrative purpose evident throughout your poem. I wish I could say our reaction to the blood moon has completely come away from thoughts of apocalypse, but there were plenty of people convinced that some sort of prophesy regarding the people of Israel was going to come true, so...perhaps not, lol. But I know I definitely wish I could have seen it.
OK, this is where it gets real. Your lack of punctuation is taking away from everything I said above. All poetry, but especially free verse (because it doesn't have scansion or rhyme scheme to direct the reader), is still subject to grammar. Unless you're deliberately evoking e.e. cummings, but it doesn't look as though that is the case here. There are occasional commas scattered about, and each stanza ends with a period, but, for the most part, your poem reads like four run-on sentences. If you were to stretch them out in sentence format, you would see where punctuation is necessary; it is necessary here, too. Dashes, semi-colons, and periods can appear throughout your stanzas and very much should in order to direct the flow and rhythm of your poem. Doing that will organize your ideas more effectively and make your poem much stronger.
All right, that's all I got for you today! Best of luck in this contest and in "I Write"!
-Quaddy
Forget the number I gave you. I only rated it to review it. And I'm one of those writers who will go back and change the rating as you edit this story. So it's just a starting off point.
This is a good beginning, but it is a skeleton. There is a real lack of depth to the emotion. You describe the world very quickly without allowing it to sink into the reader's psyche. It's very topical, basically. Remember in school when all the teachers used to say "show, don't tell"? Well, you've got to do both to make things any good. Develop what you want to say, don't just say it and be done with it. Make it longer, using literary devices (similes, metaphors, etc) and descriptive word choice. Paint a picture with everything. Make the readers sense everything you want them to sense and understand what it is like to be in this world.
As far as the scene with the Empath, I figure that it'll have a big impact in the story, right? If so, make sure it's something that the reader will remember. Make it have impact in the moment and for the rest of the story. You can do that by expanding the feelings instead of just actually saying what happened. It's the same for the rest of the story. You put so much emphasis on the action of the story that you lose the description and the human element. Make the demons ferocious, make the humans heroic. Don't just throw a detail out there like Tiberius got immortality. What does a demon have to do to be immortal? Is it horrendous? Does he have to eat the still-beating hearts of children as they watch him?
I must say that I really like the plot you have set up here. It's really imaginative and I think it'll make a great novel, which I am presuming is what you want to do with it. And is actually what is best suited to the storyline that you've got going. Something this big is not meant to be a short story or a novella. So, basically, what I say this, before you write any more plot...go in and develop the feelings, the setting, and history of your world. Actually, what I *really* recommend is developing your world and your characters in separate entities, something that you can turn to at a later date. Because what I've found to be the most true (for me, anyway) is that knowing your characters and your setting is pretty much 80% of writing a novel. Just let the characters free in their world and they'll know what they want to do. Don't plan any plot until you *know* the characters like you grew up with them and the world like you were born there.
Let me know when you have worked in this again and I'll come back and review it again! I think you've got a great idea working here!
-Quaddy
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