I too appreciate silence. Unfortunately it is rare to find in my house. Due to abuse in her childhood my wife always has music or tv playing in the background even when we are sleeping. Earplugs are my saving grace. It isn't that I don't enjoy music, but there is something to be said for silence.
It flows really well. We're you going for poetry or prose? It could easily wander down either path. More details on what is intoxicating about the smell would be good. Make us smell it and make us feel the way they make your heart beat. What is the sound of them that you most long for? Their voice? Their breath? Their heartbeat beneath your ear on their chest?
It is a cool word search, but civilware should be silverware. I got the first ten really easily but the last six were killer for me and civilware was one of them because it isn't a word I was expecting. Recliner was the last one I found. I liked it it was just the right level of difficulty.
You glazed over his training. I think describing anecdotes from it would add something. Perhaps the next chapter could somehow involve the vixen again. It could develop into a subplot perhaps a romance that ends in a kill or be killed situation where the vixen loses.
Good dialog. The descriptions illuminated the characters in my mind. At some point you could mention rexx is a wolf. Then you would not need the awkward prolog. He seems awfully eager to join an organization that should be blowing his mind more. Is the organization government mandated or a secret society?
This is an interesting start to the story. But I found there was a lot of telling rather than showing. I realize that from this point of view it is hard to avoid. I think if you could engage more of the senses it would draw the reader into the story further and engage more of the reader's imagination.
I find reading second person perspective stories difficult. It feels like I am being wedged into a story sideways as opposed to being comfortably immersed in a new reality. The descriptions were good but I wonder if you have to mention he's a wolf so many separate times. Once perhaps then just some description of his characteristics.
I love this gratitude list. There are a lot of things in this world to be grateful for. I think you picked some of the top ones for me. I would have added family and friends in there somewhere. The world would be awfully lonely without them. I also would have added in being thankful for writing.com. then again you sort of added that one in by way of contests to enter. It is a neat little poem it flows together well. I hope you win the contest. I have not read any of the other entries but I think you have a pretty good chance. I think my favorite part is cats to chase. I have cats I do end up chasing them a lot. I might have worded it cats to herd. It references the difficulty of wrangling them a bit better than just chasing them, but like I said it was my favorite line so it works pretty well as it is. I like the priority levevel of cats to chase implied by its high placement in the list, by food, shelter and modern conveniences like electricity and water. I also admire the fact that you can be thankful for nanowrimo in the middle of the stress of it.
Cool idea. I like the story and the idea of an eclipse having that kind of effect. Is it aliens? did they somehow give the tech to humanity for mass kidnapping or mass murder? great story written very well. I feel really bad for alex and everyone else that didn't disappear I have a feeling that very little can be accomplished without the headset and they all have disappeared.
Your word count in the forum is incorrect by a thousand words. I was expecting something long but didn't get it. I am pleased with what I did get but I hoped for more. The story is an interesting start to something. What game are they playing though? Poker? Blackjack? A game specific to this situation. What are the rules? How do they die? Is it the magic of the ring? Is the ring magic? Or is it power like a mafia don? SOrrry to bombard you with questions but this story really got my juices going and it would be worthwhile to see how far you could take this story. I know the contest is just for the introductory chapter but this is a really cool idea. How do you find out about the game? Is it an urban myth? How do people find out about it if one of the people dies and the other gets untold power. I would think the survivor wouldn't want to advertise. Unless having the opponent die is what powers the ring. Does it suck in the souls of the loser? What power does it give the winner? I want to know so much more.
Ooh, creepy! I want to know more about the history of these prisoners. How do they die originally? Are they zombies? Are they vampires? Are they simply undead? What might they do to their captors. Eating them comes to mind. Are they indigenous people? Are they cursed or blessed with this state?
That is short but sweet. Absolutely hilarious! Nice twist. I love this. That said this story seems awfully familiar. Like you got it from a meme or a joke.
Nice twist though I knew something was coming. I like that she was going to feel better. One suggestion though. To link an item it is easier to place a link by typing {bitem:xxxxxxxx} where the xs are the item number the item number can be found under item info on a mobile device and at the top by the title on your desktop browser. Often if you fill in {bitem: it will bring up a pop up menu of recently edited items and you can click on the title and it will finish the link for you.
This is a nice almost vanilla story up until they go for drinks. Then it gets spicy. I like that those two hook up they seem a better fit. One thing are the initial couple married or just dating so seriously that they share a bank account. They seem to be far more than casually connected for him to just say it's over and have that be it.
This is creepy. It reminds me of the pitcher plants that lure in insects and start digesting them alive. I wish there were some way to stop the house from eating people and trapping them inside. I wouldn't want to be the real estate agent for this house.
This fit the prompt. It is written in a stiffly formal way. That caused me to detach from the emotional impact of it. I did not and could not feel the love and adoration that is clearly there. That reduced my personal enjoyment of this poem. I appreciate it in an almost mathematical way. It puts a virtual score on each element of the lost love. It adds up to a heart felt piece of writing. Although for me it left the heart somewhere to the side. It is not a bad poem it works for the way it was written, but i personally think that a different tone would have suited the subject better. Of course this is my opinion other people could read it entirely differently. I could be completely off the mark. The tone of the poem could be reflecting an aspect of the relationship I do not know about. Or it could reflect something about the man. I do not know enough about things to really call the formal tone wrong in any way. All I can do is talk about how the poem reached out to me. It was like someone trying to wrestle in a business suit it just does not feel right.
I am not familiar with this activity. But I do not do many music inspired prompts beyond the occasional 72hr media challenge. I am not much into music really at least not popular vocal music. I prefer instrumental music where people do not and can not murder the lyrics. I appreciate music but it must always be sung the first way I heard it or it is wrong. That is not always possible even for the same artists, think Hanson. I found these thoughts on music by someone who is much more into music than me very illuminating. I very much appreciate the way this site and the brave artists on it expose me to a wide variety of attitudes and beliefs. It helps me grow as a person and helps me write about characters with different experiences than my own. I love the insights in this piece and the easy style in which it was written. It was a very positive read for me. Thank you for sharing I just wish I had some helpful suggestions to improve it, but I think it easily stands as what it wants to be. Nice job.
I did this contest last week. I found the prompt entertaining and inspiring, with so many cool directions it could be taken. This story is one of those cool directions. I thought about the you will miss me when I am gone direction. It is a funny one. I like that you made the voice of the virus female. Though you could have made that clearer earlier in the story. It gave me a giggle to think of the voice commenting on his male behaviors in a female voice but male mannerisms. You did not show that but it would have been funny. It also would have been funny if she gave him an overly cute pet name. I do have to say there is nothing harmless about a voice that talks incessantly not even allowing sleep. I guess there is no permanent harm. Is Vera the type of virus you can only catch once or might she come back? Is there only one infection that goes from person to person or is she one of a community of viruses? How is the virus transmitted? Okay those questions are not fair to you I did not answer them in my story either.
I can not see the inspiration here but that is my fault I do not think I know the song well. The story of the poem is interesting. There are definitely characters. The setting feel like the seventeen hundreds to me. Probably because of the free time to brush her hair for an hour and the idea of a party. There is a plot basically a girl systematically getting ready for said party. We discover that her primping has resulted in a well described prize that she takes home to her parents. So it has most of what is needed to be a story poem. The trouble is that none of the characters have any development. We do not really know the cost of the win for the character or the value of the win to her. Is she trying to prove something to her parents? Her friends? Herself? There just are not any real stakes for the character in doing this. How old is she? Is she a child just showing off her looks? Or is she a young woman who is beginning the socially necessary task of finding a mate to support her? Because a girl who feels good about brushing her hair for hours really is not likely to be able to support herself.
Thank you for sharing this little poem it is cute and really made me think.
Some of this review references part one of this story because it took reading this part to realize the importance of unimportance.
Okay, I was a little disoriented when I started reading this half I didn't understand how Matt had gotten to the alien world. I also didn't understand how the supreme high one got into the situation he did.
I think this story would benefit from being made into a book item which would allow you to put each chapter into a separately accessible segment then it would be easier to flip back and forth when reading and it would also make it more likely that someone would try reading at least a part of it.
As for the story, the quality of the dialog and immersion in the story has improved all through the story.
I feel like this story was going somewhere with the UN scene and the leader's last student.
I was extremely disappointed at the ending though. It was like Matt threw up his hands and said he was done so the story ended. Then you tell us jaz has been promoted to leader and the leader permanently demoted.
One of the potential threads I would loved to see developed is eternity her father should be sent to her and she could help him deal with being cut off. Otherwise what really was the point of mentioning her.
Matt's apartment or house or whatever is left vacant for months and no one so much as does a welfare check on him, including the police who know him to be the victim of a violent mugging.
Why did jaz react to the high one's birthname like he was a war criminal. Why even mention that name if you aren't going to make it significant.
The three ladies that found Matt after the mugging don't need to be named or given as much attention as they were they just don't matter to the rest of the story.
The story of the odd one confused me I thought it was the leader taking on yet another identity. If he was part of one of the parables the leader was telling them the latter discussion of tay and her mentor was unnecessary because the leader would have known. The prior mention of the odd one is unnecessary to the overall story and complicates things for me it is another section you could leave out in favor of having room to better develop the ending.
I like the way the aliens see and describe colors that is one of the best bits about them.
This story is full of great potential. The characters, the world's and cultures are vivid. Some of them don't need to be as vivid so as to contrast with the characters at the center of the action.
It is a good story at its core about 90% of what it wants to be. Compared to the work already obviously put in there is just a little reshaping and shaving to do. It could benefit if it had fewer words but only because it would bring the focus even tighter. Remember this isn't an essay where you have to pay the length for the sake of your grade. If a word, sentence, character or chapter that doesn't carry your story forward it doesn't need to be there at best it is a distraction from the focus.
Please consider finishing the process and editing because I have seen how far you've come and I want to see you cross the finish line.
These characters are strong.their relationship is well defined. Their dialog carries the story forward well. As for grammar and structure nothing was so egregious as to pull me out of the story at any point. It works well for me and it would make for an excellent start to something cool.
The first chapter has a lot of information you need to know about the aliens, but you pile it all on the reader’s shoulders too quickly. I like the alieness of the aliens but they are at least relatable in an alien way. It seems a pretty good balance. But the elder telling the story to a reluctant youngster has a resistance to the knowledge you are trying to share built in and none of it has action to draw you in to catch a reader I think I would suggest starting the story with chapter two.
chapter six had a few word choice errors
"I saw what happened and have no answer." Dr. Schmitt began, "I have never seen this happen. Our patience is full of surprises. I need to go and examine the previous blood sample. Do not try any more IVs until I find an answer. Until then, Matthew, we will wait for the MRI results. I have another question: have you experienced any other changes?"
it should be patient not patience
The Elders, who were Out of Phase, were the easiest to tap into. He found their secrets first. He did not act on them; he kept their thoughts and plans in case a timer would arise where he needed to act upon them.
It should be in case a time would arise not timer
chapter seven
the more you explain in the alien scenes the less you really need chapter one as an info dump if I read chapter seven as though I hadn’t read chapter one I am fine.
Chapter 15
I am confused about the explosion and why eternity does not recognize the high one I thought he was selected because he had the color of the highest peaks so shouldn’t she recognize him. This chapter tangled all of the previous chapters up for me.
Chapter 16
The Defender in Green was spotted in several parts of the city late morning into mid-afternoon. Citizens would state that he appeared out of nowhere and disappeared by flying away or just disappearing.
It is a little redundant you could probably just stop at disappeared
Chapter 20
Joe paused for a few minutes, then began again, "Matt, I want to thank you for doing this for me and for me. It is much more than I thought would happen. I can make a fresh start in my life. There are things I will do differently and never do again. Don't worry. I will visit Misty and the girls from time to time. You are only a five-minute run from me. We never evaluated your flying time. Before you say anything, I leave my feelings about Erin's death here. I couldn't move on because everything reminded me of her and our life together. That shadow was too much to step out of."
I am confused about who is saying what in this paragraph
He is on the Federal Bureau of Investigations' ("FBI") Ten Most Wanted List for anything you could think of. This guy thinks he is a criminal genius because he has never been caught. We have enough to put him away for several lifetimes without parole. This is most likely a trap."
just go with FBI everyone knows what that is you don’t have to spell it out.
Chapter 23
I had guessed that eternity was the high one’s daughter though I am not sure having male and female Hydranousians is applicable they would more likely be genderless since they reproduce by budding. Other than that you have done a great job of making the aliens alien but relatable.
In summary
You use a lot of extra words in your dialogs that people just don’t bother with when they are talking. You have a long story here and it might help you trim the size to something more managable and readable if you went through all of your dialog and read it aloud. Usually people state things pretty simply.
It is a big improvement over the previous drafts of this story that I have read. i think you really have balanced the alieness of the aliens with reliability to characters we all can understand.
I think you should double check the sequence of events happening on the alien planet they sometimes seem a bit jumbled.
and some of the dialog is hard to follow without proper paragraph breaks and punctuation.
I love love love dragon poems! It always seems like there is so much dramatic possibility with them, even when they are on their own. This one has faries, pixies and whatnots to interact with. I was more than a little disappointed that the dragon did not interact more with the smaller creatures. It seemed singlemindedly focused on the idea of treasure and that seems to miss a lot of opportunities to expand the stereotypical version of a dragon. I like dragons when they discover that friendship is the biggest treasure and it just keeps growing every day. The idea that he ultimately discovered the treasure of knowledge that was a good twist. And perhaps not as cliche. I think this last few lines could have been clearer as to what physical transformation is involved in becoming a wizard. I would have thought the dragon would just get a wardrobe of robes and pointy hats to become a wizard but the poem implies he becomes something entirely different and has to transform back into himself. That ending was a bit of a jarring way to go.
I love it. The contrast between the steamy fantasy and the reality of her husband is absolutely perfect. The imagery from the first part really drew me in and I was ready for it to get hotter rather than beating the heat. I like the element of an all inclusive resort. I admit when the husband accused her of not working I thought it was less a complete fantasy and more the fantasy of a woman working pools side at an all inclusive resort as a towel girl or a waitress. the reality of the situation was much better and definitely grabbed me well. I loved that she argued back that sometimes you write in your head first. I know I do. I tend to have mapped out an entire plot and played around with some ideas for the perfect scenes for a story before I ever even look at paper. At that stage my characters are defined but fluid, I name them but as I play with the idea for days and the original name slips away I give them a new one about the time the name starts sticking I know it is ready to be outlined. I wonder if that is why the adonis has no real name.
THis is a cool sounding story. Ryan seems a natural born hero. `This has so many ways it could go from here and I would be interested in reading more of it. One slight thing though it would be easier to read if you put extra returns in between paragraphs. THey all ran together for me and I had to reread in several places to find the right completion of a sentence. the font size is pretty good, fairly readable but the lines run together an awful lot. Also a wordcount would be nice so a person knows how long a read they are signing up for. not that I am complaining, it was a fun read. I love the characters I so want to read more of this story. Everyone in the fantasy land is so kind to Ryan and I wish the real world had a bit more of that.
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