Hillsong - 1

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This is a new story I came up with yesterday, so I'm just letting it all flow in here. Please do enjoy, and leave your critiques!
I do apologize, though, if the way it's been written doesn't seem too in-depth or anything like that. If it's any consolation, I'm hardly 14?

Rated PG-13 in future for semi-mature situations.

His hands tangled themselves in her strawberry-blonde hair, while hers entwined themselves around the back of his neck. Smiles played on both their lips, occasionally crushing together. Their bodies connected; warmth and heartbeats shared.

They lay in the field of wheat outside her small Oklahoma home, laughing and smiling and gazing into each other's eyes, enjoying their little piece of what seemed to be forever.
"Will you always be with me? Forever?" she inquired, her fingers sliding over the smooth golden surface of his ring that fit perfectly on his finger.
"Forever." he whispered, his lips burying themselves into her hair, "I promise."
Her blue eyes traveled up to look at his green ones, fixated. She smiled, briefly pressing her lips against his once more. "Good."
Her ankle tangled with his own, fighting for domination. Her laugh escaped into the sky, and he held her closer, smiling into her hair. "We look so ridiculous right now." he declared sitting up amongst the wheat.
She laughed again, sitting up with him and leaning on his shoulder, "we do."
"Maria! Come inside! We need to prepare dinner!" her mother called from the house across the field, "your father will be arriving home soon!"
With a look of defeat, she kissed his cheek once more, exchanged their goodbyes and ran back to the house, her bare feet pounding against the dirt beneath them. He simply stood, nodded at the beautiful girl who was sprinting back to her traditional farm house, and walked down the road into the sunset under the orange-painted sun.


"Maria, I noticed you were with Bryce again." Mrs. Sparrow pressed, peering over at her daughter who was only calmly slicing a carrot.
"Yes, Ma, I was." the girl answered stiffly, the knife coming down on the carrot more violently, "and I don't need you to remind me how you feel about him."
"I'm only concerned-"
"Because he's older? Ma, I'm 18. He's only a year older and knows how to treat me well. You obviously oblivious to that and-"
"Maria, I'm worried for you. Being your mother, I have the right to be. This boy is frightfully nice around Joseph and I, and spends almost every hour of the day with you. You need to think about your priorities." Jean insisted, pausing her cooking to face her daughter whilst planting her hands on her hips.
"What about my priorities, Ma? Bryce has done nothing wrong and you know it. I'm not sure what your problem is with him, but I love him. You don't see me interrogating you about your marriage with Joseph, do you?" the eldest Sparrow daughter fought back boldly, looking up from her carrot which had become a lacerated one in a matter of one minute.
"Maria, not another word. To your room right now. I'll ask Halle to finish the cooking. You will spend the night without dinner, is that clear?"
Jeanette Sparrow was expecting a proper answer from her moody adolescent daughter, though her back was turned.
Only...
There was no answer.
She had already run upstairs, and slammed the door shut.

"Yes, she did," Serafina Sparrow sighed into the phone, "no, I forgot to hide food under the floorboards again."
"Do you want me to bring you something, Sera?"
"What are you having tonight?" she asked him, feeling a smile of relief creep up on her lips.
"Steak, peas and mashed potatoes. The potatoes are fresh from mom's garden. I know it's your favorite." he said with a chuckle.
"Perfect. Use the window."
They hung up.

Approximately 15 minutes later, a tap was heard on Serafina's window. She peered over from her book and saw her beloved Bryce, grinning and holding up a bowl with plastic wrap placed tightly over the steaming food.
She wasn't at all hesitant to open her window and let her boyfriend in, giving him a hug and a kiss thank-you.
They sat on the rosewood floor of Sera's bedroom, sharing the meal.
"You really are the most amazing girl I've ever met." Bryce murmured as they finished the last of the food, brushing a strand of Sera's hair behind her ear. She smiled, reaching up to entwine her fingers with his own on her cheek, "Thank you, Bryce. You're-"
"Maria! Is there someone else there?" Mrs. Sparrow yelled from the other end of Serafina's bedroom door.
"No, Ma!" Sera lied, biting her lip as Bryce whisked himself out of the room using the same window as before.
Bursting in, Jeanette only saw her daughter sitting cross-legged on the floor, a look of innocence painted on her face.
"Sera, there's still dinner downstairs if you want some-"
"I don't."
"Well I was just trying to treat you less like a child. Obviously that doesn't work with young women like you."
"Obviously not." Sera shot back, her eyes narrowing.
The tension continued to rise in the room as the two women stared at one another, motionless. They were either trying to find something to say, or wanted to see who was going to give in first.
Without another word, her mother simply walked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her.
Bryce reappeared at the window moments later, his normally pleasant expression suddenly converted to a more serious one.
With tears welling up in her eyes, Serafina thrust her weak body into the arms of her boyfriend, sobbing into his chest with her arms bent in an upwards angle and fists clenched until her knuckles turned white.
"Calm down, Sera, it's okay. Shh, yes. That's right. Calm..." Bryce whispered, stroking her hair gingerly.
"Never. Leave. Please." she choked and begged, stumbling over her own words with no help from her tears of shame that had only clogged her throat, preventing her from speaking clearly.
"Forever, remember?" Bryce murmured, lifting the girl's hand to show the gold ring with the engraving 'FOREVER' as well as his own. She nodded, biting her lip to hold back anymore tears.
"Forever." she agreed with a crooked smile.
"That's right, Sera, that's right. Forever."

End of chapter 1.


*NOTE: If you're wondering why Bryce refers to her as Serafina/Sera and only her mother calls her 'Maria', it's simply a family thing I plan to clear up to you all in a later chapter. Keep in mind that the main character's name is actually Serafina, Sera for short. Maria is her middle name.

Thanks for reading!
Please avoid really harsh critique?
Peace. (:




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Hey there, michaelahart! Welcome to YWS, hope you really enjoy it here. It's ever so wonderful. :wink:

If it's any consolation, I'm hardly 14?

Nope. No consolation. I've seen people younger who've written jaw-dropping pieces. Damn those prodigies. I suppose you could go with being new. A few months on YWS and I can guarantee you'll certainly see the difference in your writing ability.
Please avoid really harsh critique?

I agree that it's wonderful receiving comments which increase the head size X] but it's important people also point out the small errors in your work, so that you can improve on them, obviously. I agree that some people can be a little bit too harsh. Which is always such a shame... :(
Anyways, [/pointless chatter]

:smt023 Nitpicks:

Smiles played on both their lips, occasionally crushing together.

Th second part confused me a little. Just the switch between past and present, as I wasn't sure what crushed together for a moment. Them or the lips? Guessing lips... I'd just rearrange the sentence a little...
: Smiles played on both their lips as they occasionally crushed together.

Their bodies connected; warmth and heartbeats shared.

Just think that's quite cute. ^^

"Forever." he whispered

Speech tag! Okay, you got the lowercase "h" on "he". But you missed the full-stop being converted into a comma.
: "Forever," he whispered

"We look so ridiculous right now." he declared

Same here.
...now," he...

"we do."

Capital "w" on "we".

"your father will be

Capital "y" on "your".

"Yes, Ma, I was."

Turn the full-stop into a comma, not just because it's a speech tag, but you've got a lowercase "a" on "and" when you re-start the speech, so I'm guessing it's continuing from this.

Ma, I'm 18.

No! Don't fall into that trap of just putting "18". Writing out the number looks much more professional, and, if I may say, less lazy. So, go! Write "18" as "eighteen"! :smt003

pausing her cooking to face her daughter

Pausing her cooking? It doesn't sound right. Pausing in her cooking? Nah, nor does that. Urrrm... Pausing with her cooking? |: Perhaps leave out the cooking or something, and just say she paused and looked at her. I'm unsure... Other reviews please pick up on this! :D

Joseph and I,

I'm also unsure about this - X] - but I think it may be "Joseph and me". I was told the way to tell was by removing what came before it. Say, if you did: This boy is frightfully nice around Joseph and I, You'll see "...nice around I" makes no sense. So you'd change it to "...nice around me". Then stick the "Joseph and" back in and you have it!
Hopefully some of that made sense... O.o

Jeanette Sparrow was expecting a proper answer from her moody adolescent daughter, though her back was turned.
Only...
There was no answer.
She had already run upstairs, and slammed the door shut.

Ha ha, I really like this. It's great. (:

Approximately 15 minutes later,

A-hem.
"Fifteen", not "15".
(:

:smt023 Overall:
Awww. That was really cute. It makes me feel quite sad now, 'cause you're obviously going to make something happen. :smt016 Please, do continue with this. I should like to see their personalities deepened more, as, in my mind, they could be anyone. Perhaps describe their surroundings more. Does she have anything quirky or unusual in the room? Something which shows her personality or tastes. What attracts her to him? Him to her? I couldn't help but notice:
nodded at the beautiful girl who was sprinting back to her traditional farm house
Is that what stands out to him the most about her? Her looks? That's not a good basis for a relationship. :? Perhaps explain what had first attracted them to each other? Like, she could be staring at him and thinking about something to do with his appearance/personality. Something quirky, interesting, rather than Mr Average and Miss Average in love with each other.
Well, those are my thoughts. ^^
Hopefully I wasn't too harsh. :smt016
Please, PM me when you post more.

Happy writing,

~EmmaJane~
Your = Possession. Your shoes are so sweet!
You're = Omission. You're quite strange...

If you are confused about which to put, simply say in your mind "you are" and see if that fits the sentence. If not, you are looking for your.

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Hey there! I was gonna critique this last night, but I had to go to bed... And then school. So this won't be that long of a critique, since Emma went through the nit-picks and stuff already.

I'll just focus on the overall now though. Sorry if I repeat something though. I'll try not to, but if I do, it'll just be because I feel it's important.

I know that Emma said this already, but you really need to develop the relationship a bit better. Right now, we only know that they love each other, but we don't know why. How did the relationship start? When did it start? She said this also, but right now it's still really shallow. But that can be easily fixed with more description and background.

We also need to see more of their personalities. Right now, all we know is that Sera and her mother don't really get along with each other. While this is good, and it sets up the plot extremely well, we need more. By developing the personalities a little more, you will add depth to the whole story, and that's what you want.

Make sure you also develop all your character's personalities as well. In this chapter, you're mostly focusing on Sera and her mother, so maybe focus on Bryce more in the next.

And lastly, I also noticed that you switched names a lot. While it's important that you don't always use the same starter for your sentences, and that you switch it up a bit, you don't need to do it quite that much. It can get confusing very fast.

Take her mother for an example. First, you call her 'her mother'. Then it's 'Mrs. Sparrow'. Then 'Jean'. Then 'Jeannette Sparrow'. Sometimes I had to read them over again, and make sure that it was the same person. You don't want us to have to do that. Remember that words like 'said' and 'he/she' are easily skimmed over. It's not bad if you use those sometimes.

But that's about it. Again, as Emma said, being only 14 isn't that good of an excuse. (And this was good anyways!) Don't bag your work. It only makes us as readers think that you aren't confident. Remember to always be confident! 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!

You did a great job! Also, don't forget that we are only giving you constructive critisism. Personally, I think that harsh reviews are the best because they help you become a better writer if you take the advice. And if people try too hard to be not harsh, you won't get as good a review.

But I still tried not to be that harsh, so I hope this helped! I hope you'll PM me as well when you post the next chapter! I'm excited to see what happens next! So good luck in your writing, and I just loved this! I better stop rambling though. So good bye and good luck! See you around!

~ Trish :smt006
~ Patricia Tina :smt006

Don't look in the spoiler.

Spoiler
I lost the game.

"I always hear punch me in the face when you're speaking, but it's usually subtext."
~ Dr. John Watson




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I haven't done a review in forever, so it's refreshing to revise and critique this for you.

If it's any consolation, I'm hardly 14?

No. I have read works by younger people and a lot of them have been quite good, and others may try to avoid the harsh critque for simply being a few years younger than me.

Their bodies connected; warmth and heartbeats shared.

I'm not too fond with you using that semicolon, part of me feels that it shouldn't be there and it should be replaced with a comma instead.

They lay in the field of wheat outside her small, Oklahoma home,

There needs to be a comma after the adjective "small."

laughing, smiling, and gazing into each other's eyes,

Two colons should be placed. Please do not do the "and and and" thing.

"Will you always be with me, forever?"

Do not seperate this sentence, that would create the "Forever" part as a sentence fragment, place a comma afterwards instead and lowercase the F.

"We do."

It's the start of a quotation, capitalize the W.

"Maria, come inside! We need to prepare dinner."

Place the first two sentences together, with a comma after "Mariad." Do not over use the exclamation marks.

her bare feet pounding against the dirt beneath them.

I think it would be much more fitting if "Them" was changed to "Her," since you are mentioning Maria leaving Bryce.

who was only calmly slicing a carrot.

I do not understand what that adjective is there. Take it out.

"Yes, Ma. I was."

Seperate that into two seperate sentences.

"You're obviously oblivious to that and-"

I'm sure you meant to say that.

"You will spend the night without dinner. Is that clear?"

Make that into two seperate sentences.

Approximately 15 minutes later, a tap was heard on Serafina's window.

I know you mentioned explaining why her mom refers to her as Maria, but as a reader, this is very confusing. Tell of the differences her mom and Bryce use to address her to clear things up.

"Well, I was just trying to treat you less like a child. Obviously, that doesn't work with young women like you."

A comma should be place after the beginning of both of the sentences.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Serafina thrust her weak body into the arms of her boyfriend, sobbing into his chest with her arms bent in an upwards angle and fists clenched until her knuckles turned white.

This all seems too sudden. Try writing of Maria's feelings before stating this.

"Calm down, Sera. It's okay. Shh. Yes. That's right. Calm..."

Fixed, but I really disliked that quote.

"That's right, Sera, that's right. Forever."

Why state the underlined twice?

Overall:
Your piece was very well written, though I must say, it is very boring. I barely feel connected to the main character or Bryce and their love for one another. The character's feelings and thoughts are barely, if not at all, written. It would be nice to know how they feel, and to elaborate on why they love each other, and what traits of them make them love each other.
House: People interest me. Conversations don't.
Foreman: Maybe because conversations go both ways.
House & Foreman: Like Thirteen.




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All of the grammar things were taken care of by the other critiques. Overall it is a very great story so far and i like the idea, but i agree with kikisaysRAWR! that I don't feel a connection to the charaters or the connection between them. I would just say work some more on that.




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hey,
i'll make this short because everyone else has got everything covered. but i agree mosty.

you've got to tell us how they met also small little things like Bryce's thoughts about

maria. how strong and amazing she was. something like that. but apart from that i liked it a lot.

bye lil-mizzkitty
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