Crossing Court

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TAKING THIS DOWN FROM THE SITE
Last edited by Grandison on Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:02 am, edited 5 times in total.




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Hi,

I liked this opening to the story, although it didn't give an awful lot away about the storyline but I think it's fairly easy to imagine. It's very well written and your spelling and grammar is great. Just two nit-picky points:

“Already? Gees,”
Lose the comma.

“Congrats, when he gets big, we’ll toss around a football.”
This would read better using 'bigger' rather than 'big.'

Other than that it was good, I enjoyed it. Good luck with the competition.

Becki
"I'll be writing until I can't write anymore. It's a compulsion with me. I love writing." J.K.Rowling

My Website: www.beckitedford.com




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Hey there.

Alright, critiques first.

Your narrator has a very easy and appealing voice for the most part, but at times it sounded stiff and unnatural. For example:

The smell of Gain was tickling my senses, as my mother had probably washed my sheets and pillowcases with the detergent. [I understand the sentiment of it, and it's a good opening line, but from a reader's standpoint it seems rather flat, especially coming from this character.]





Opening my eyes I began to wake up, my internal alarm clock let me know that it was morning. [This sentence bothers me. Shouldn't he begin to wake up before his eyes open? Consider rephrasing this.]





Tonya got out of bed and stretched her little fourteen year old body. She was just a kid but she already had the body of a woman, which was the reason why she was staying nights at my house. [In my opinion, these two statements are somewhat contradicting. Her 'fourteen-year-old body' gives me the impression of, well, a girl who looks fourteen. But if she has the body of a woman, that means early physical maturity and not the body of a young girl.]





Also, I noticed a lot of run-on sentences:

A nervous chill ran down my spine, crap, I hadn't expected to get caught. ['A nervous chill ran down my spine' should end with a period, and 'crap, I hadn't expected to get caught' should start as a new sentence. There are quite a few of these run-ons throughout the story, so you might want to do some proofreading.]


Overall, I'd say you've got the start to an interesting story here. Drama and conflict are well-established with the situation regarding Tonya.

Keep on writing!
I aim to misbehave.

Is it weird in here, or is it just me? --Steven Wright




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Ok, I changed the beginning, I need to know if it still needs work



You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...
— Dr. Seuss