z

Young Writers Society


16+ Language Violence

.

by KingLucifer


Warning: This work has been rated 16+ for language and violence.


Note: You are not logged in, but you can still leave a comment or review. Before it shows up, a moderator will need to approve your comment (this is only a safeguard against spambots). Leave your email if you would like to be notified when your message is approved.







Is this a review?


  

Comments



User avatar
24 Reviews


Points: 5253
Reviews: 24

Donate
Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:17 pm
Robusto wrote a review...



A very interesting concept here. Normally, it's a school of superheroes where a few of them end up becoming super villains. But here, it's reversed. The school of villains ends up churning out a few heroes as well as villains. I could easily see this being expanded upon in the form of a novel or book series. I do hope for a sequel to this.




User avatar
289 Reviews


Points: 30323
Reviews: 289

Donate
Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:57 am
View Likes
Caesar wrote a review...



Hey General, I thought I'd drop by to deliver a review.

First off, I feel this piece is an improvement compared to your earlier works. Good job on that. However, there's still room for improvement. You've already received a fairly comprehensive grammar review, but I'd like to stress that, if you're going to show this to a professor, you might want to spell-check it five times, then re-read it another ten. If I showed something like this to my literature professor, I'd probably be expelled from life (via punches). The grammar is really the most jarring element here, as it makes my enjoyment of this otherwise quite fine chapter rather more difficult. I will, however, forego critiquing it and focus on some other aspects.

Oh, a side note, I really liked the intro, how the hero is the one kicking the villain's ass, and we see the villain helpless. And on a broader, yet related -- albeit less relevant note -- do villains really call themselves such? And heroes, for that matter? I find it a bit silly, to be honest. They might style themselves as villains, but I doubt they truly consider themselves evil. I bet they think of themselves as classy, elegant gentlemen who aren't bothered by such silly things as laws or morals. But not villains, not villains. I'm willing to summon my suspension of disbelief and pretend such an organization could exist legally, but it would be very nice if you could mention something to shed light on that later on. This is less than relevant for the chapter at hand, however; maybe something to keep in mind for later.

I didn't like the middle chunk, where the main character describes her friends in great detail. I realize a way was needed to introduce them to the readers, however, I feel someone who is well-acquainted with an individual will not spend much time thinking about them. Perhaps a more indirect approach could be used, for example, have them perform actions, perhaps joke around, a casual jab. I don't know, for example, Abyss Knight could be 'casually tossing his greatsword around, and catching it with ease', and maybe have another guy punch him on the shoulder and joke around about him being 'a cocky bastard'. Or instead of telling us that the chick is the medic and strategic, she should be reading, say, a book on medicine, or I don't know, the Art of War. It's indirect, but the effect is much the same, and it also provides a more vivid and colorful narration.

I sat next to him and he immediately draped his arm around my body and I kissed him on the lips he moaned at the taste of my lips cherry red.


*cue 70's string synthesizer*

No but seriously, where do you ever hear the sentence 'he moaned at the taste of my lips cherry red? I think that sounds more at home in a bad porno or something. Why would she even think of a sentence like that? I've not met a girl yet that would consider her 'cherry red taste of her lips'. That might just be me, however. Also, maybe I missed something here, but I thought they were in their first year of high school? I think? Usually you're not already engaged to someone at that age, provided you live in a first-world country and such, which I am led to believe they are. I mean they probably wouldn't be fighting with dangerous weapons at 14 either, but hey, they're super villains.

Er, that said, onto even more angst. When the former villain gone hero shows up, that might be an excellent character-building moment. Senka reacts by threatening to kill her former friend, that's a very strong threat. I'd love to see more thought go into those paragraphs, to really understand what the two are feeling. Once again, indirect gestures are your friends. Or, since this is first person, I suppose you could just give us a paragraph on what's going on in her mind, either way, I'd certainly love to know. Perhaps she clenches her fists in anger, frowns deeply, taps her sword against her leg, I don't know, something more to indicate her state of mind. And when the Hero asks her to turn to her side, she laughs and dismisses it, but what kind of laugh is it? Is she shaken by the proposal, does it confuse her, or does she simply dismiss it as foolish, and derides the other for even suggesting it? And yet more, when the Hero says she is in accord with her parents (incidentally, I didn't realize her parents were around until now -- that was kind of sudden), how does she feel? Betrayed, abandoned? Like her world has been turned upside down? Something so drastic, presented in such an indelicate manner, by her parents and a former friend turned enemy, no less, that is bound to have quite an impact. Show us this impact!

Overall, I think you have a neat premise for a story. The grammar needs to be corrected, but that's less than important, grammar can be corrected easy. It's kind of bare-bones at the moment, I feel some more depth to it, some more thought on the emotions of the characters, would benefit it greatly. I'm curious to read more.

Hope this helped
-Ita




User avatar
384 Reviews


Points: 14918
Reviews: 384

Donate
Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:10 am
View Likes
eldEr wrote a review...



Hey there! Isha here for a review :)

Now, you've got a really neat piece here. I love the story line, and the female heroine, and all of that jazz, and I can't wait to read more of it. However, there's a lot that I wanted to talk about, grammar-wise. I hate quoting large chunks of material, but I'm going to quote your entire first piece here, to let you know what I'm talking about. All of my comments will be in bolded letters within the quote, and corrections will be underlined.

He held me by my neck and he stared into my eyes with a burning fury in his, he threw me across the room. This entire sentence makes no sense.


Okay. So, first of all: The first two "he"s are redundant and unnecessary. They sound amateur and make the work very clunky. That first part isn't very well-written at all. Then you've got a comma splice ([...] and he stared into my eyes with a burning fury in his, he threw me across the room.)

Comma splices are when you use a comma between two independent clauses. For example:

'I had an apple, I ate it.' is a comma splice, because the comma separates two clauses that can be independent. The proper way of writing that would be:

'I had an apple. I ate it.' or 'I had an apple, and [or 'but'] I ate it.' or 'I had an apple; I ate it.'

This sentence is probably better written like: "He held me by the neck, staring into my eyes with a burning fury. He threw me across the room." It'd be even better if you added something between the sentences. For example, something like, "I didn't even have time to retaliate before he threw me across the room," just because it makes it sound and feel more natural to read.

Everyone was gone. We were alone. I pushed myself to my feet, blood pouring from the gash on my arm. Here, I'd suggest starting a new sentence. Ray Bird was snapped and destroyed, laying on the ground not far from me. He slowly walked toward me in a predatory-like walk This is just plain awkward. I'd change 'in a predatory-like walk' to 'He stalked towards me'. It gets rid of unnecessary adjectives, and stalking towards someone implies that the walk is slow and predatory. knowing full well there was nothing I could do to fight back against him. I'd get rid of 'against him'. We know what you mean by the end of 'fight back,' so the rest just messes with the flow. He wound up his hand get rid of 'his hand.' Obviously, if he back-hands her, the thing he's winding up is going to be his hand. Don't add totally unnecessary details like that, because it messes up the flow and back hands me across the face, my body already at its limits.


"You said you would sooner die than become a Hero, and now, I'll put you out of your misery now here you already said 'and now' before, so you don't need to add it here," he said.


He slowly drew his sword from his sheath. comma-splice I try to crawl away, but I'm too weak. comma splice He raises the blade above his head. comma-splice I look to see in horror that I was going to die. comma-splice He plunged the sword down and my life flashed before my eyes.


You use comma splices and redundancy throughout the work, and using what I illustrated to you in those quotes, it's probably a good idea to give the piece a quick skim-over and fix them up. Your issues are mostly just grammatical and writing style. Also, you switch tenses from past to present a lot (you'll notice that I corrected some slips into present in the quoted pieces), so pick one and stick to it, and make sure to change all of your verbs to the proper tense.

Story-wise, I think you're totally fine. Your characters are pretty cool, and your plot seems engaging, so good job with that!

Good job and keep writing,
~Ish





In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary.
— Kathleen Norris