Venom

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This was absolutley amazing! Just phenomenal. There is no other way to describe this! Very new ideas on this story and just amazing imagery. You are seriously talented.
When all you have is nothing, there is alot to go around.




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Wow, this is amazing! It's so beautifully written, and great imgination and emotion. I wish I could write like that. ^_^ I was crying towards the end of it! Really great job, you have an amazing talent for writing!

~Tear
And are the doctors dancing in, while the ambulances sing. Another boy without a sharper knife. The moment, that's where I kill the conversation, wrap this up with a knife that loves to feel. How do you know how deep to go before it's real?
- Yeah Boy And Doll Face ~ Pierce The Veil




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Hey there Hayden, Moo here at your service with a review. Seeing as no one has really nitpicked this or pointed out some of the more obvious flaws, I'm going to do so now. :3 Additions will be in bold, and anything that I feel should be deleted will be crossed out. Any other comments will be in italics.

The sun bled through the canopy of the forest. The air was cool and soft, feeling light on Eve’s skin. The breeze was sweet on her lips. Innocent curiosity bloomed in her mind as she explored the unknown regions of an ancient garden.

As she made her way through the deep jungle, she plucked exotic flowers from their vines, cautiously taking in their perfumes to discover if their scent was sweet or sour. (Can flowers really smell sour?) There were a hundred different tunes being sung by hidden birds. Fruits of every different shade and size were sprinkled throughout the garden, hanging from trees, swinging from branches, and falling to the ground with readiness to be consumed.

In Eve’s hand, she tightly gripped a spear. The shaft was made of a sleek wood. The spearhead was carved from heavy stone. It was a gift from her husband, Adam. With its sturdy weight, she felt powerful.

In the afternoon, once the cool of the morning had been swept away by the blazing sun, thirst began to itch her throat. After a few moments of searching, Eve conveniently found a small pond nearby.

In the pond’s glass-like surface, she could see her reflection. Eve recognized her wide eyes, round chin, her slender face, delicate nose and curved lips. Leaves and twigs had made a nest of her wild copper hair that tumbled down her shoulders and back. She began to pluck the fragments from it and combed her fingers through the knots.

She cupped her hands and brought the water to her lips and drank. The water was sweet and it raced across her tongue and cooled her burning throat.


Okay. Not a great beginning. Your hook is basically non existent, followed by some robotic description of Eve's movements as she moves through the forest. If you look at this section hard enough, the narrative is composed of movements and nothing but. Eve did this, then she saw that, she walked over there... See what I mean? :P This was pretty consistent the whole way through the piece. Try to incorporate emotion and feeling, they are absolutely vital to excellent writing that has personality and evokes strong feelings in the reader. Obviously Eve will have a strong connection to this forest. Describe how the haunting 'hoo-hoo' of a wood pigeon sends chills over her skin, or the silver flicker of fish scales under the pond water's surface and how she feels about this. Maybe even what she feels about Adam, you've only given us a bland statement telling he was her husband. Eve only seems to get material gratification from mentioning him, with the spear etc. You've got the bones of the description and narrative here, now time to give it flesh and skin, a face and a personality. Make your writing blow me away.

As for hooks, I suggest you read a little more about them here. They don't have to be positively explosive, believe me that even the simplest hooks work just as effectively. Stand alone lines work quite well, but try to work around it and find a way of writing hooks that fits you best. Remember, statistics show that readers only read the first three paragraphs of a novel before setting the book down because it was too dull, or continuing to read and ultimately deciding to buy the book. Your hook must grab the readers attention, take their interest hostage at gunpoint and drive them on to finish reading your work. ;)

A little bit of further reading: http://www.ehow.com/how_4556500_write-hook-fiction.html

Suddenly, the faint shadow rushed away from her sight and Eve could hear footfalls trail away. Curiosity blossomed in her mind again and she chased after the noise. Eve hurried through the jungle with her spear. She took powerful strides with her long legs. Her hair flew behind her as she sped through the trees.


This paragraph really disagrees with me for some reason. Maybe I'm slightly biased because I hate rhetoric and I think that writing is so much more effective using plainer diction other than 'blossomed.' Blossomed just seems way to romanticised for such an un-romantic piece. She felt curious. Sure. No need to romanticise that. But what about fear? Does she not feel scared, nervous, conscious of the being? Surely a dark, shadowy fiend would be out of place in the Garden of Eden.

'Rush' is also a soft sounding word, and I think to effectively describe the shadow you should go for something like 'jerked away from her sight.' It creates a more animal feel to the shadow, dark and quick footed, too fast for the human eye to discern clearly among the brush.

As Eve fled deeper into the jungle, the trees grew closer together and less sunlight filtered through the canopy. She veered right and left, dodging trees and bushes. Her breath burst through her lips with quick rhythm. The wind was no longer sweet, but musty with age. She could taste it on her tongue as she sprinted through the woods.


The tree’s branches forked through the sky. The wind made the leaves of the tree sway chaotically. Small fruits could be seen in the tree, yet, there were none on the ground. Eve immediately understood where she was.


Chaotically... Not buying it. Too syllable-heavy and violent to describe a light wind. I think 'quiver' is a nice way to describe the leaves, it leads on well to the frightening appearance of Lucifer.

In fury, Eve bounded forward across the meadow to the man. She reached out, tore the fruit from his fingers and tossed it to the ground.


Again, this point is about emotion. Describe her red hot fury at the insolence of the man. ;)

“Man, do you realize what tree you eat of?” Eve yelled. “It is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil!”

I also noticed you used a lot of dialogue tags at the end of your speech. I won't say much about it, other than that you should read this. It highlights everything that has to be said. Look over all of your dialogue and you'll see what I mean.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SaidBookism

The man turned to face her and Eve gasped. His eyes burned through her with radiance more glorious than a billion suns. They were sharp and hot, like that of a serpent. The stranger’s face could have been chiselled from the smoothest stone. His carved chin and jaw was perfectly square. His sharp cheekbones framed his masterpiece eyes. A wide, tall forehead and sturdy brow completed his glorious face. His unblemished, milky skin was crafted flawlessly over his strapping bones and the meaty slabs of his striking, concrete muscles. The man’s blonde hair fell in glossy, curling locks down his back like liquid sunlight. His long burly arms, and square hands, laced with steel muscle, were both godly works and deadly weapons.


Oh no, the dreaded appearance info-dump. I'm sure you probably know, but people around YWS have an intense fear of info-dumping, and for good reason. It's one of the biggest writer sins. Well all do it, don't get me wrong. ;) But having that much description of a person's appearance is not good writing. Instead you should reveal his magnetic personality through action, dialogue, movement etc... the list goes on.

Also, seeing as you used a human as a guise for the snake (Very good by the way, I liked that ;)) I think that when you describe Lucifer, you could possibly change his image a bit. Snakes have sexual connotations, so Lucifer would be so much more intimidating as a sexy, dark, magnetic and animalistic individual. Again you must be careful that if you are going to use such a description that you show it through methods other than banging it in one big paragraph on the page. For example, if I was wanting to describe Lucifer, you could describe his animalistic movements such as slinked, coiled, slithered etc. These hint towards snakelike movments. Snakes also tend to be slender yet powerful creatures, and this contrasts your description of Lucifer as a burly, muscle packed beast. That seems more bear-like to me.

The man was magnificent. Eve was strangely attracted to him.


And what does attraction feel like? ;)

When he spoke, his voice did not match his beautiful, flawless lips, for his voice was like a dragon’s.


The serpent uttered one word that struck sheer horror in her heart as the ravaging fever burned mercilessly. Its voice was as a dragon’s, its eyes blazed like cinders from hell. “Sinner.”



You already used that simile before, try to vary your writing a bit. I'd like to finish by saying I really enjoyed the ending. Powerful. :) Italicize 'sinner' to get the full impact.

I'm sure you've noticed I haven't gone over the scene with the fruit being eaten. It was a little sloppy and chaotic with Adam rushing in out of the blue, eating the fruit and then seemingly becomes crippled with the knowledge of evil without even dropping a line. I've already spent quite a while on the review already, so maybe you can ask someone else for help on that bit :3

Overall Impression

Overall I have to say I enjoyed the new take on the Bible story. I thought that your story itself was interesting and brought new thoughts and ideas to the table, so congrats on that. But unfortunately some of the flaws in the writing spoiled the overall effect that the piece had on me. Definately work on emotion and hooks. Otherwise the writing was pretty sound with only a few mistakes. The rest of my suggestions were merely that; ways that I think the story would become more powerful in its message and help it to resonate throughout the reader's mind. Well done on what you've got so far, but there is always room for improvement!

Please send me a PM or reply here and let me know if I helped or not. :0

Thanks for the good read, Hayden. Good luck and keep writing!

~Moo xo
“Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came.”

--Carl Sandburg




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Moo;

Firstly, I want to say that I very much appreciated the review before I write anything else. Just know that.

Now, I must say that it stings.

After multiple people told me that my writing was flawless and imaginative, your review stung pretty well. But, I thank you for the criticism. :D

I definitely see what you mean about “hooks”. I'm definitely going to work on that.

I agree with what you said about Eve seeming robotic. Getting into my characters has always been the hardest part of writing for me. I always make them so flat. I can never get into the meat of the character. That’s a challenge for me.

I see what you mean about me adding romance to my piece or using unneeded description. Romance has always been my thing. I’m big on romanticism. The problem is I don’t know how to use it effectively…? I need to change that, I guess.

I definitely agree on the “info dump”. I have a problem with that, too. You’ll probably find it in most of my writing. It is often used when I describe the appearances of people. I have a really hard time expressing what the characters are like through actions.

By the way, I’m now simply dreading over the mess I made with the “fruit-eating” scene, as you pointed out...

Overall, your review was helpful. I want my story to be emotional. I want it to be powerful. You’re the first person who really ever told me it needed improving. I look forward to making it live up to your expectations ;)

I’ll let you know when I edit the piece so you can see how I've improved it.

Thanks so much for the help!

H.

P.S. Feel free to review my story "Unbound". I really liked what you had to say!

http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?t=79413




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Awesome!!!! There were things I may not have agreed with in a biblical sense, but all and all I found your story GREAT!
One question? Why did Eve carry a spear at the beginning? Just wondering...

(Still can't wait to have your books on my shelf some day!)

Keep writing,
~FW~
http://www.isiseiyr.com
~When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. ~ George Carver

Writing...they claim it is a dangerous occupation... 'they' have no idea!




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Hayden it was great as usual!

BUT the snake needs LEGS he isn't cursed yet, so he needs legs then he can loose them latter. Okay? Sorry this is just.....bugging me....legs....LEGS!!!


Okay I am done....legs

L.E.G.S spells LEGS!!! Yay!! Okay now I am done....legs
"Me I'm dishonest but a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly its the honest ones you have to watch out for because you can never tell when they are going to do something incredibly...stupid." ~Capt. Jack Sparrow



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