Feelings

4 posts
User avatar
Gender Female
Points 890
Reviews 42
You cannot capture a feeling. Pictures will show an event, a memory, but it cannot capture a feeling. Words, although they can describe anything, they cannot capture a feeling.
A feeling is like a night sky, you know what is there but there is always something you cannot see or don’t expect. A passing comet, a new star.
Feelings are unpredictable, you can be feeling happy then sad, you feel love then hatred, then you feel something you have never felt before and you don’t know what it is but you know you will never be the same after that moment.
We are but simple people who follow our simple paths but we harbour something much greater than ourselves and that is what makes us so great. We feel.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.

He's not dead, he's electroencephalographically challenged.




User avatar
Gender Male
Points 18178
Reviews 1259
I disagree with your ideas, even though I guess that isn't the premise here. I think writing can perfectly capture a feeling (to an extent), although obviously the olny way to truly understand a feeling is to, well, feel it. Your analogy of the night sky is quite good.

Looking at this piece analytically, it's too short and it's disjointed. You seem to have sporadically chosen new lines and not tried to tie them into one another in any way. Work on your transitions. Otherwise it may make sense but will just be hard to read. You have some good ideas here but you haven't joined them all together to form a unified work.

Also, on the penultimate line you say "greater and "great", which shows a lack of variety. Some good lexis here would enahnce this piece.
Nate wrote:And if YWS ever does become a company, Jack will be the President of European Operations. In fact, I'm just going to call him that anyways.




User avatar
Gender Female
Points 890
Reviews 42
Thanks. This was a sort of spur of the moment type thing.
I agree with the fact that it's a bit disjointed which I will work on probably tommorrow I don't know how I could make it longer but de-dejointing it up will hopefully add a bit of length to it.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.

He's not dead, he's electroencephalographically challenged.




User avatar
Gender Female
Points 2834
Reviews 131
Okay, I'm going to look at a chunk of your "story" in-depth:

You cannot capture a feeling.


Okay, this isn't a horrible first line, but it's not an amazing one, either. First lines count. Remember that. In terms of superficial hooks, this is probably the most important for readers. It's their first impression of the content in the narrative. It doesn't have to be action-packed, but it does have to be interesting. Unfortunately, this is not.

Pictures will show an event, a memory, but it cannot capture a feeling.


"But it cannot capture a feeling," should be, "but they cannot capture a feeling." Remember: you're referring back to the pictures, and that's pluralized.

Words, although they can describe anything, they cannot capture a feeling.


Cut out the second "they," so "they can describe anything, they cannot capture a feeling," becomes, "they can describe anything, cannot capture a feeling."

A feeling is like a night sky, you know what is there but there is always something you cannot see or don’t expect.


A couple of things, here.

"A night sky," should be "the night sky." This should be a followed by a semi-colon (or an em dash, or maybe even a period), to read, "a feeling is like the night sky; you know what is there," etc.

Secondly, your comparison isn't a very strong argument for your point. For a couple of reasons. First of all, you're trying to capture feeling in order to support the argument that you can't capture a feeling. You're comparing feelings to the night sky, and yet by your own claim, the reader isn't given a vivid impression of feelings. Therefore, either your initial argument isn't very strong, or the comparison isn't. Or, worst case scenario: neither are.

The other thing is that, "there is something [about a feeling] you cannot see or don't expect"? I hope the flaw in that argument is self-evident, but if not — say something, and I'll clarify.

A passing comet, a new star.


First of all: people do expect these things in the night sky, since — well, it's the night sky. They sure as heck aren't going to find a passing comet in the bottom of their basement.

The other thing is that you can see a passing comet, and/or a new star. So, again: your argument isn't very strong.

* * *

A few things:

1 - This is not "other fiction." It is non-fiction, and therefore should not go here.

2 - Formatting, please. It's a simple concept; separate the paragraphs by two line breaks. One block of text:

Feelings are unpredictable, you can be feeling happy then sad, you feel love then hatred, then you feel something you have never felt before and you don’t know what it is but you know you will never be the same after that moment.
We are but simple people who follow our simple paths but we harbour something much greater than ourselves and that is what makes us so great. We feel.


becomes two separate paragraphs!

Feelings are unpredictable, you can be feeling happy then sad, you feel love then hatred, then you feel something you have never felt before and you don’t know what it is but you know you will never be the same after that moment.

We are but simple people who follow our simple paths but we harbour something much greater than ourselves and that is what makes us so great. We feel.


It's the magic of the "Enter" key.

3 - You're all over the place. You say a lot of different things (okay, three) and then rush to say something new without coherently explaining your previous point and backing it up with a solid argument. Slow down. Take the time to figure out what you're trying to say and how you want to say it. Use segue. Segue is fun and healthy and beautiful. We will love you for it.
"He yanked himself free and fled to the kitchen where something huddled against the flooded windowpanes. It sighed and wept and tapped continually, and suddenly he was outside, staring in, the rain beating, the wind chilling him, and all the candle darkness inside lost."



the world (me) cries out for salvation (snacks)
— creaturefeature