Anything But Normal~Chapter One, Part One

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I looked at my small body in the mirror. The blue in the short, strapless dress brought out the blue specks in my dark grey eyes. My long, dark brown hair curled down my back and covered the part of my chest that the dress didn’t. It was exactly right for me. With the way it hugged my hips and fell softly over the upper part my legs, I knew I had to have it. I tugged the dress off and searched for the price tag. One hundred and twenty dollars for this one dress; that's ridiculous!

I quickly pulled on my faded jeans and black v-neck, and stepped out of the dressing room. I walked over to the register where I saw a young cashier, looking to be in college. Perfect, I thought; noting his hazel eyes hiding slightly behind his shaggy brown hair.

He looked up at me with a grin on his face as he said, “How can I help you?”

“How much is this?” I asked, handing him the dress.

He scanned the tag and said, “A hundred and twenty.”

“Really? Dang it!” I said, trying to sound disappointed.

“What?”

“That’s a little out of my price range… Do you think you could give me a discount?”

“Only employees receive discounts,” he replied quickly.

Time to turn on the charm, I thought as I made sure to look up into his eyes. “You’re an employee, aren’t you..?

I searched for his name tag but couldn’t find one.

“Tom," he finished for me, realizing what I was looking for.

“Tom,” I repeated, batting my eyelashes. I reached over and ran my fingers through his hair while I repeated his name again. “Now, are you sure that only employees receive discounts? Because I think it should be 75% off, don’t you?”

“No,” he said and my face turned into a frown. “I think it should be free. My treat, gorgeous.” He stared into my eyes intently and I smiled in return. He seemed to melt.

“How sweet,” I said although I knew this wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. No, this was all me. I grabbed the black bag he handed me and turned to head for the door. Just before I stepped outside, I heard yelling from behind. I turned to see a woman yelling at Tom.

“You can’t just hand free stuff away to every cute girl you see!” she shouted. “That’s coming out of your paycheck!”

Tom was just beginning to come out of the trance that he had been in; shaking his head to free it of the fuzziness.

I turned away, feeling sorry for him. That was, until I looked in my bag and saw the silk dress that I had just received without paying a cent. Seth is going to love this! I can’t wait to show him.
Last edited by rayhutch5 on Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:19 am, edited 7 times in total.




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Okey dokey,
firsts things first welcome to YWS, I'm very happy to be your first reviewer.
I should also say that I don't do grammar, can't review it and don't spot the mistakes. Other people I'm sure will fill in the gaps I leave and will tell you about all the roaming , and incorrect speelings but it ain't me,
So here goes, first off I think the piece is a bit short for real review should really be at least twice the length. I get that it's a nice little scene. We do get a bit of character and a it's a good start but try to make the next bit longer so that the rest of us can really get our teeth into it, we have the patience, honest.
Second off, I'd hold off on some of the description of the way the character looks. Having it all at the beginning makes it seem as if you're just getting out of the way so you can get on to the story, also the mirror gambit can seem a bit cliched. Maybe for instance you could put the eyes bit later instead of in the mirror like
"time to turn on the charm I made sure that my dark gray eyes, with just a hint of blue, met his, hazel brown..."
I mean that's just an example but it feels less contrived.
Also you say after "i think it should be free" "I knew i had him", of course she does he's just said that she can have the dress for free. You get what i mean it's needless, it would only work before like "75% off. His eyes, hidden behind his shaggy brown hair were focused on mind. They had softened since I had come over, he seemed not to be able to concentrate on anything else. I knew i had him. "No" he said" i think that would be the best place for it.
In conclusion this short little scene works but it is just a that. A scene, next time put up a bit more so that we can learn more about this vacuous little enchantress. Any way a decent start overall.
PM me with any questions
Quibbons




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Thanks so much for all of your helpful comments! I'll definitely put them to use! Since this is just a first rough draft, I'm planning on definitely reviewing it later so thank you for pointing out some obvious mistakes from a reader's point of view. Yes, I realize that this is really short, in fact, it's only one-fourth of the first chapter. I was originally going to post all of chapter one in one post but decided against it because it seemed a bit overwhelming. But if you say that it's better to post larger chunks then I will next time. Since I'm new here I'm still learning exactly how things work, so thanks for your help! :)
"Everything has beauty, just not everyone sees it." -Jen Meyers





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Wow, this is good. I like the whole "I'll put you in a trance to get what I need." thing. That's so fun! I wish I could do that to get out of homework, hehe.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”- William Shakespeare




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Haha, thanks! :) Yes, that would be so helpful in "real life". =D
"Everything has beauty, just not everyone sees it." -Jen Meyers





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Hey! Thanks for asking me to review your work! I'm always happy to do so!
I agree that this piece was a bit short, and quite brief. I like your writing and wouldn't mind reading more! Anyway, I liked the way that you set the scene and established your character. Like Quibbons Quill said, it would be more natural if you only put a bit of description in the first couple of sentences and then as you continued on you could tell us a little bit more about her physical appearance. Your grammar in this piece seems mostly fine, which is great because there is nothing that puts people off of reading your stuff more than bad grammar. Now for some nitpicks:
“Tom,” I repeated, batting my eyelashes.

(remember the comma there)
I saw a cashier who looked to be in college.

This sentence sounded a little awkward, if you know what I mean. Maybe "I saw a cashier who looked college-age." Or "a cashier who looked about twenty" or something like that.
That was, until I looked in my bag and saw the silk dress that I had just gotten (Maybe the words "bought" or "bargained for" would sound better?)

Tom was just beginning to come out of the trance that he had been in; shaking his head to free it of the fuzziness.

I just liked this sentence, it really gave the reader the impression that he was under the girl's spell.
Anyway, entertaining piece, I enjoyed reading it! Thanks again for asking me to review it. Will read the second part of this novel now :)




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I Like It, But Can You Tell Us What's It About? You Should Put That In The Beginning Of This Post. But That's By Choice And Welcome. I'm Also New Here Just One Correction.

The dress hugged my hips just right and fell into an A shape that came down to my knees.


You Can Just Put "...fell into a shape that.."

Other Than That, Good. Just Follow What Other Reviewers Say For Example Edits. Can't Wait To Read More

~Xiahou Zay
Reality Is A Lovely Place, But I Wouldn't Want To Live There.




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Thanks so much, Shadowhunter14! I will definitely apply your corrections! :) Glad you liked it; it means a lot!
"Everything has beauty, just not everyone sees it." -Jen Meyers





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Thanks Xiahou Zay! I get what you're saying about telling everyone what it's about, but I wanted it to be a bit mysterious in the beginning. You understand what it's about in the next two chapters, though. If you happen to read them (when I post them) then, please let me know if it's annoying or makes you want to give up on it. Thanks so much for the tips! :) I'll put them to use!
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I looked at my small body in the mirror. The blue in the short, strapless dress brought out the blue specks in my dark grey eyes. My long, dark brown hair curled down my back and covered the part of my chest that the dress didn’t. It was perfect; exactly right for my petite body. you don’t need this because in the next sentence you describe how perfectly it fit you, which would be like repeating yourself. The dress hugged my hips just right and fell into an A shape that came down to my knees. I tugged the dress off and searched for the price tag. One hundred and twenty dollars for this one dress; that's ridiculous!
I quickly pulled on my faded jeans and black v-neck, and stepped out of the dressing room. I walked over to the register where I saw a cashier who looked to be in college. Perfect, I thought; his hazel eyes hiding slightly behind his shaggy brown hair. What was perfect? It almost sounded like she was being sarcastic.


Besides those few comments, I have to second Quibbon’s review completely. ^_^
Hope I helped!
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The good news is we can't make any mistakes.
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Hi xXTheBlackSheepXx! Thanks for the review! I see exactly what you mean; thanks for pointing those mistakes out.
What was perfect? It almost sounded like she was being sarcastic.

In answer to your question, it explains this completely later into the book. Hope you have the chance to read it (once I post it) and get an answer! :) Sorry that I can't tell you now, though.

Thanks again for the review! It definitely helped! -Rachael
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Spoiler

[Firstly, notice how I formatted your story with line breaks. Try formatting it this way - it makes it a lot easier to read]

I looked at my small body in the mirror. The blue in the short, strapless dress brought out the blue in my dark grey eyes. My long, dark brown hair curled down my back and covered the part of my chest that the dress didn’t. It was perfect; exactly right for my petite body. The dress hugged my hips just right and fell into an A shape that came down to my knees. [These descriptions feel slightly invasive] I tugged the dress off and searched for the price tag. One hundred and twenty dollars for this one dress; that's ridiculous!

I quickly pulled on my faded jeans and black v-neck, and stepped out of the dressing room. I walked over to the register where I saw a cashier who looked to be in college. Perfect, I thought; his hazel eyes hiding slightly behind his shaggy brown hair. [The last bit (after the semicolon) is kind of a broken sentence, since it doesn't have a subject. If you're up for experimenting with style, that's OK -- but I wouldn't do it in a serious work]

He looked up at me with a grin on his face as he said, “How can I help you, beautiful?” [Having a very hard time imagining a clerk call a customer "beautiful". If I was called something like that by anyone I don't know, they'd sound at least a little weird to me. Or is she so beautiful that no man can resist her? If that's the case, I would revise your character, because that's a very big Mary-Sue warning sign]

“How much is this?” I asked, handing him the dress. [Doesn't she, uh, already know how much it is? Or is this just her entry into wooing the guy into giving her a discount? If I were the guy, I'd think of the main character as a bit... not all there, if she can't read the tag - in other words, even if she said this to get the discount out of him, I would still change this up a little]

He scanned the tag and said, “A hundred and twenty.”

“Ooh...” I said, sounding disappointed. [Sounding disappointed to whom? You're writing in first person; your character can't really judge herself whether she sounded disappointed or not from another perspective. I'd change it to "...I said, trying to sound disappointed". Better yet, I'd remove the description altogether and change the "ooh" to something a bit more evocative. Good dialogue should speak for itself; it should be obvious from the way she replied that she sounded disappointed]

“What?”

“That’s a little out of my price range… Do you think you could give me a discount?”

“Only employees receive discounts,” he replied quickly.

Time to turn on the charm. I made sure to look up into his eyes.

“You’re an employee, aren’t you..?"

I searched for his name tag but couldn’t find one.

“Tom," he finished, [Why "finished"? Why not just "said"? Again, this goes back to the good dialogue speaking for itself bit] realizing what I was looking for.

“Tom,” I repeated, batting my eyelashes. I reached over and ran my fingers through his hair while I repeated his name again. “Now, are you sure that only employees receive discounts? Because I think it should be 75% off, don’t you?”

“No,” my face turned into a frown. [You should add "he said" after the "no". I had to re-read this because I was confused by the "my face turned...". It sounded like it was the main character speaking] “I think it should be free. My treat, gorgeous.” he stared into my eyes intently and I smiled in return. He seemed to melt.

“How sweet,” I said although I knew this wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. No, this was all me.

I grabbed the black bag he handed me and turned to head for the door. Just before I stepped outside, I heard yelling from behind. I turned to see a woman yelling at Tom.

“You can’t just hand free stuff away to every cute girl you see!” she shouted. “That’s coming out of your paycheck!”
Tom was just beginning to come out of the trance that he had been in; shaking his head to free it of the fuzziness.

I turned away, feeling sorry for him. That was, until I looked in my bag and saw the silk dress that I had just received without paying a cent. Seth is going to love this! I can’t wait to show him.



The spoiler above contains my full text critique. My comments are in [red brackets].

Hmm. Interesting start. It's a little short to be called a chapter, or even a half of a chapter, but it's still a pretty good start. No grammatical or spelling errors, which is nice, though your formatting made it hard to read. I broke it up a little in my critique, and I think you'll find it easier on the eye than the original wall of text.

First of all, I think your descriptive skills could use some work. As of now, they're like the potatoes that my grandpa liked to make: burnt on the outside, raw on the inside. That being said, you go in needless detail in some areas, while avoiding all description altogether in others. I'd like to see at least a few words about the store your heroine is in; a few more words about Tom's expression. Conversely, I'd like to see less words about the main character herself. At the point you describe her, I couldn't care less about how large or small her body is, or how her hair hides her cleavage. What did you hope to accomplish with that paragraph? She likes the dress. Great, give a reason why she likes it - it matches her eyes, it shows off her curves. You did that? Great! Everything else can be thrown out, and shown at a point where it is relevant.

Second: I am not sure how you wanted to characterize your heroine. It seems that when she said "time to turn on the charm", she literally turned on some opium-like trance on Tom - to scam him out of a 120 dollar dress. Well, if that's true, then so far Tom is a much more sympathetic character than your main. Poor Tom. He won't be able to afford this month's rent, and he's going to have to feed off Ramen noodles until his next paycheck. All because some self-centered (pardon my French) bitch decided that she fancies a particular dress at this particular moment in time. Is she dying of cancer and that dress is the very last thing she ever wanted? Does that dress give her the capability to save the Earth? Does scamming an innocent person most likely working minimum wage out of a hundred and twenty dollars benefit anyone but her? If it does, then it should be mentioned somewhere. If the heroine walks away from this scam scot-free, I'm going to be very disappointed.

You could make the point that I'm taking this too seriously and that the whole scene was simply meant as a little comical thingy, but I really think that a hundred and twenty dollars is too much. If any of your readers are like myself and are going to stop to think about what your main character has done, the scene loses any humorous element it ever had. If, however, you are deliberately trying to paint your main character as at least an anti-hero, or at most a villain, then my hat's off to you, miss - you have succeeded with flying colours.

Your servant,
cC

P. S. If you have questions or comments, please contact me via PM or my wall rather than posting another comment on this thread.
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Thanks for the review CarbonCore! I'll make sure to take your advice and revise some parts of this chapter. Thanks again! :)
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Hi! Thanks for requesting a review. Sorry this took a while, by the way. I was off exploring the islands of lake titicaca.

Anyway, I think Carbon already pointed out a lot of the stuff I was going to say, so I'll try not to repeat anything.

I like this chapter. Your character is fun, we're already involved with the story, and I want to read more. The prose is rough, but this is a first draft, so I'm not going to go in to that much; the only thing I'd like to say is watch your dialogue and your descriptions. As for the chapter itself, I saw two areas where I'd change something: character development and plot progression. Carbon has already gone covered most of what I'd've (creative contractions, lol!) said, so I'll skip to description.

Example: in the very first paragraph, you immediately start ramming police blotter descriptions down our throats. This is the first paragraph. You need to grab us. You need to wow us/shock us/intrigue us. And right now, I'm not getting that.

Your MC has the potential to be the best thing about this chapter--show us what she is, consistently, from the beginning. It's fine if you want to start with her wanting the dress. But you need to let us see that in a way that is uniquely hers. Carbon touched on this a little--we don't really get a handle on her. Sure, she seems a bit manipulative, but even that wasn't entirely developed. She's vain, she's a bit greedy, and a bit full of herself as well. All of these were basically told to us. Instead, try showing us her traits coming through in everything she does.

Or, to put it another way, when you're telling us her thoughts as she's trying on the dress, we should be able to tell who it is just by reading the prose. Character development takes a huge amount of consistency that may not come until later drafts--that's ok, but as you're still writing it, try to work on really thinking about what makes her her. ;)

The second thing that came to my mind as I was reading was that I'm not sure why you chose to start the story here. Usually, in longer works, we expect a few things from a first chapter: the characters, the setting, and the main conflict. As far as I can see, there's only the first here. What, exactly, does this serve, other than showing us what your MC is like?

Of course, I'm not sure what the main theme of the book is going to be. The conflict could be her personality--in which case, this might be a good set up. But so far, everything is going just fine for her. In fact, it's perfect for her. So, like carbon said, I'm going to be expecting some of this to catch up with her, and fast, or I'll start to lose interest.

All of this said, I still enjoyed reading this, and look forward to seeing the next half. Let me know if you have any questions, or need another review. The next one may take me a few days--innternet has been spotty here. Hope that's ok. ;)

See you!

Lupis




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Thanks Lupis! I see exactly what you mean! It helps a lot, thanks again! :)
"Everything has beauty, just not everyone sees it." -Jen Meyers




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