Needles and Roses - Chap. 1 (Edited)

Have yet again re-downloaded. 3rd (for you) version of this chapter. I've shortened it up, for those of you who hated the length

Description: Takes place in London, around 1845. My MC is a timid servant called Rachel. As most characters, she has a past and a dark cloud over her future. Enjoy.

Great! You actually put this on here kels! As I've already read this when you printed it our for me at school (remember the printer incident! lol) and I've told you a MILLION times how good it is, I guess I'll just have to tell you again! WONDERFUL WORK!

Psh!

If you've finished it, it's time to put it in manuscript format! This means, always double space after the sentences, put it in a monotype font (I like Courier), underline all the italic words, make all the ellipses into three periods, make all the dashes into two hyphens.

There's more but... I've done this chapter for you. Most of it. I probably missed a couple of things.

Hey KJ!
I promised I'd critique this, but I haven't started to yet. Homework (not to mention the pile of reviews-to-do I have) has me pretty bogged down for now, but I'll try to get around to it some time this week. *bookmarks*

Cheers,
Camille xx

Wow. That was... a truely great read! Your expression and description were fantastic and I particularly like the way you captured the repressed emotions of Rachel. Also loved you character Amy, she seems like she will have a very interesting role in the tale.

A little editing to do, I did pick out some errors but they looked like mostly typos and I see that you have already had some editors so I wont pick it over again.

I really am itching to know of this future Rachel threw away and why her past haunts her every step. Let me know when chapter 2 is available!

hmmm yep yep that murder definitely sounds like a vampire!

EDIT: yeah, i didn't actually say much there...i'm afraid mummy wouldn't let me stay up too long, so i was a tad short on time

anyway...it did drag on a bit, but that's not uncommon for first chapters. i found myself getting more into it as it went along, especially once the thing about Ann Samuels cropped up. before it seemed like Rachel wasn't very concerned about them(them being the murders). so basically you really got me interested right when it was over xD

also, i wasn't too fond of the first person present tense. when a story is as long as this one, you may be able to get away with one or the other(first person OR present tense) but both...?

then again, maybe i'm just being stingy. Sorry if that's the case.

Can I have more? That was really good. It's very hard to find a good story in present tense, but you handle it very nicely. It's a very interesting story. I like it, especially because I enjoy historical fiction most myself. My novel is historical fiction. The sci-fi is my remedy for writers block! I am having TERRIBLE writers block. Any suggestions?

Anyway (oops) great story. Please post more. It's just like a real book, minus some minor errors, but that's no biggie.

This is a good start, I think. It’s a little lacking in character and scene description so your atmosphere isn’t as strong as it could be and you need to be careful occasionally that you don’t use terms that are too modern but it’s generally well written. You’ve got some excellent dialogue and I love the characters; they have great personalities.

I've written some more specific, detailed comments but it's not letting me upload the file so I'm going to pm it to you, let me know if it doesn't come through. Hope it helps,

Heather xx

I think it was really great. There were only a few problems that I came across. One was punctuation. Somewhere in there after a short sentence, (about 15-20 words long), you forgot a period. I think it was i the middle. Next are two sentences that I found a problem in:

"But Mr. Garret and Miss Nathanial are also are good friends"
(You need to take out one of the are, or take out an are and the also.)

“ 'That was your sister, was it?' "
(I don't know the problem with this sentence, but something isn't right. I think if you replace "was" with wasn't, that would be better.)

The last thing was the length. I don't know if it was just me, (and my ability of slow reading), but it was really long. Maybe you should make it two different chapters, because it took me just over an hour to read.

Other than that, I thought it was great.-Jeni

P.S- Since it took me so long to read, I will have to read chapter 2 and 3 later. But don't worry, I will read them.

The promised review! ;P

I think it was really great. There were only a few problems that I came across. One was punctuation. Somewhere in there after a short sentence, (about 15-20 words long), you forgot a period. I think it was i the middle. Next are two sentences that I found a problem in:

"But Mr. Garret and Miss Nathanial are also are good friends"
(You need to take out one of the are, or take out an are and the also.)

“ 'That was your sister, was it?' "
(I don't know the problem with this sentence, but something isn't right. I think if you replace "was" with wasn't, that would be better.)

The last thing was the length. I don't know if it was just me, (and my ability of slow reading), but it was really long. Maybe you should make it two different chapters, because it took me just over an hour to read.

Other than that, I thought it was great.-Jeni

P.S- Since it took me so long to read, I will have to read chapter 2 and 3 later. But don't worry, I will read them.

Well, I edited the first chapters. All comments and/or impressions are included in the attachments, so you can just go on and read that instead of this. Cheers!

Or no. I just opened it. The comments are gone. Ugh.


EDIT: I copied and pasted them. Not pretty at all, but will have to do.

I liked this. It could go a bit faster, though, cut out the unnessecary discription.

I'm finally done!

First off, I'm really sorry about the wait. Life's been crazy lately. Chapter Six will be critiqued next, though - don't worry!

Only one main problem with this, besides the million little comments I made: the length. If this were a book, I'd put it down. Why don't you split it at one of the *****'s? The rest of your chapters are shorter, and this just seems to drag on, ruining the amazing-ness it possesses.

Oh, and my comments are strange this time. I only put in five the normal way - the rest are just in a different color. (My critiques constantly change, sorry!)

Yeah...that's basically it. I went really in-depth in the critique, but this is the revised version and doesn't really need many overall things.

PM me for anything at all!

~JFW1415

First of all, i agree from above, if this was a book, i'd have put it down long ago.
It drags on far too long and could easily be chopped into shorter chapters. Although i managed to get through it, and it's probably the best chapter 1 of a book i have ever read. Description is amazing, and you've just thrown this chapter together so well!

One thing i found was it was very very choppy. Sentances are far too short in most of the first 5 pages, so i tried linking a few together to make it flow better. Dosn't need to be taken into account but as a critiquer i hate reading stories with so many short lines all over the place.

Good job with the characterisation. I can imaging and see her doing the things; your writing brings the characters to life. You have gotten way into your story though and dragged it along way too much, so if you revised it and sped things up a little readers can stay with you for longer.
Not be cruel but most will probably begin to skip pages or just put it down.

I can't wait for the next chapters though. Good work overall.