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Kidnapped C1 : Goodbye boring life, hello horror flick



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Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:55 am
Rydia says...



"What the hell?" he asked, hearing me grunt as they dropped me roughly on what I could only assume was a [s]piled[/s] pile of things they’d just stolen from our house.

Distantly, I heard the shrill scream of a fire detector going off.

Unfortunately, the driver seemed to have noticed the same thing I had. [You tell too much. Just mention the screech of tires and maybe the driver swears or something. That shows he's heard it. Of course he's heard it so why tell your reader? You do that quite a bit.]

The car squealed as it tore away, sending me rolling [s]unto[/s] nto what felt like the TV. [What does a TV feel like? Think about it. Describe what it feels like. And it will be in a bag at the very least and usually they'd put it towards the front of the van, pressed right against the seats and packed in tight so as to prevent any possible damage. The girl's been put in last. How realistic is it that she's next to the TV or that she can hear all the voices and already separate all of them. Many people sound similar and these are all men or boys. Just take a moment to consider the realism of this piece.]

“What’s in the sheets?’ the driver asked—at least I assumed it was the driver, which, counting the four that had broke into my house, brought the count [s]up[/s] of criminals up to five. [Telling again. When there are four people breaking into your house, you're going to be thinking of more than counting them. She might recall that there were three or four but how does she know the driver wasn't in the house?]

1) What do you think of the MC? Is she (could you tell it was a she??) realistic? Consistant? Suggestions? She's very clearly a female, if only because you keep referring to her as such. I think her dear is portrayed well and she's realistic but I'd like to see her decide on a priority. Is it to listen to her captors, to strain to hear their voices so she can use that and the information to her advantage later. Or is it to find something she might be able to use as a weapon, to try and get free. She hasn't even checked any bonds she may have beneath the sheet and if it's only the sheet that's tied, that should be easy enough to get out of. And think about what it will be tied with. They had no intention of kidnap so not rope. Probably something much easier to untie.

2) Due to Keek skipping a part, there's some general information missing that might make this scene confusing. If you were confused by missing details/explanations, please point out where/what. It's generally clear. Too clear in places where your persona should be dazed, confused. Should find it hard to hear them. And I think it would be better if you started at her capture then there'd be less need for 'telling' later on.

3) Would you want to see more of this story? If not, why? Yes, it's good. It's not great, not as good as your others but I think it has potential. There again, I'm not a huge fan of romance.

______________________________

“G-give him the money,” said the timid one. “He’s taking the girl, right? He’s doing us a b-big favor,” he reminded everyone. [Stop referring to him as the timid one. If you want to give him some sort of identity, have your character introduce that in the first part. Often we think of people by their characteristics so maybe she thinks to herself 'This guys a mouse' or something and after that calls him 'mouse guy' or 'mouse boy' but is she like that? Does she have that touch of humour/sarcasm?]

But no, the trunk door opened. [Be consistent. It's a van! It has no trunk.]

For a second, I thought that I’d been forgotten, and my heart almost lifted in some kind of inexplicable sense of hope.

A ripping sound [s]make[/s] made me freeze.

To me, seeing that sky and knowing I was alive, was like watching [s]halleluiah[/s] hallelujah being sung by the stars.

To my surprise, he wasn’t dressed all in black, something that hadn’t registered back at my house.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I beheld him, curious to know what a [s]kidnapped[/s] kidnapper looked like.

His hair was short and black, mussed by the night’s activities. Looking over that face, which seemed [s]ot[/s] to be a stone depiction of some warrior prince, I was forced to admit he was attractive, despite his [s]sort of[/s] long nose and thick eyebrows.

With a yelp, I scrambled to my feet and out of the street [Don't you mean sheet? The street isn't going to set on fire, there's only the sheet that could catch fire.], stumbling past him in my hurry to avoid being cooked.

Forgetting my situation for a second, and spurred by the rush of adrenaline that had come with the fear, I turned to tell him off for nearly setting me on fire, but my words died under his gaze. His expression was sort of blank, but his eyes drilled a hole right through me.

Somehow this hadn’t registered before, but [s]not[/s] now that I’d noticed I felt the sting of little rocks under my feet.

I darted a glance at his face, and found his attention had turned to watching the street [The street would not burn. Sheet.] burn.

I searched my surroundings and felt disappointment and despair sink in. We were in an empty parking lot, which was bordered by [s]c[/s] chain fence on two sides. The third side [s]lead[/s] led to what looked like a gym, and the fourth led to the street.

His dark green eyes were watching me intently, like a predator watching [s]it’s[/s] its prey.

I hurried to follow him, but found myself slowing down to a near crawl.

1) How's the MC doing? =P Poorly. Does she have no strength? Has she not at least considered how she would run when set free, how she might escape? She fears punishment, yes, but she needs to try. Just once at least. Not follow him like a little sheep.

2) Your opinion of her captor? He's good. I'm glad you didn't make him completely perfect. He's described well, his personality is developing well. All good so far.

3) Your opinion of the plot/writing style thus far? Please, please spell check and proof-read before posting. It's highly irritating to try to read a piece that has so many typos. Your writing style is good, it's effective but you'd get better responses if you clicked the spell check button.
Writing Gooder

~Previously KittyKatSparklesExplosion15~

The light shines brightest in the darkest places.
  





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Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:41 pm
Aedomir says...



EDIT: I will post review in a second...
We are all Sociopaths: The Prologue

Sociopath: So • ci • o • path noun
1. Someone who believes their behaviour is right.
2. Human.
  





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Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:04 pm
Aedomir says...



Part One

I think I scanned this over a day or two ago when you put it up.

growled the one who'd threatened me with the knife

This sounds awkward and a bit of info dump.

he asked, hearing me grunt as they dropped me roughly on what I could only assume was a piled of things they’d just stolen from our house.

This is a long sentence and unnecessary. Try cutting it down into two.

Distantly, Iheard the shrill scream of a fire detector going off.

Stick the I in.

It just seemed to me it was the only thing of real value in our house; we’d only just moved in and the house wasn’t very well furnished.

You haven't expalined what was the only thing of value here. I think you mean the laptop, but try making it a bit clearer with adding those two words. :-)

hopes weren’t exactly the same as mine on this point. I might have told them what I hoped

These are very close together here.

That, or they’d understand what I said and get angry.

I liked it up to the last two words. It soudns quite immature and lacks suspense here.

sounding like someone had just told him the sky was brown.

This just sounds a bit cheap. How about: 'like he had just discovered the sky was brown'. Good similie, but misused.

Kill me?

Should be italicized.

Feedback questions
1) She is quite realistic but she doesn't seem as scared as I would have thought. We know what she is thinking but is she terrifed? Scared?
2) No nothing confuses me here.
3) I would, but make sure that you go through with a toothpick and add some of that grat DoaV style. :-D

Part Two

said the timid one

No! Don't tell us he's timid. We should work that out by ourselves. Showing, not telling.

protestation

'protest' will suffice here.

A ripping sound [s]make[/s] made me freeze.

Past tense.

the gag, unable to move because of the hand holding my head down. A moment later, my gag

Think of a better name for 'gag'. Maybe 'rope'? You use it a lot, as seen from above.

I saw no more grammar errors ther frm a scan, but yes, it is a grammar nightmare. :-)

Feedback questions
1) I like her, she's quite good but again, I need to here a bit more about how she feels.
2) I know very little about him, but he could grow, definately.
3) I like the plot, if not a bit done and predictable. You could definatley make it more original. It terms of writing style, I see you have improved tremendously during DoaV. Rewrite this, and get that suspense in. You are agreat writer and this isn't your best.

I reckon I have summed everything up here! I liked it, but yiou could improve greatly.

Keep writing!

~D'Aedomir~
We are all Sociopaths: The Prologue

Sociopath: So • ci • o • path noun
1. Someone who believes their behaviour is right.
2. Human.
  





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Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:46 pm
Heidigirl666 says...



I thought this was a good start, although I did think the MC was a bit too cool.

She came across to me as about sixteen, but in that case, I'm assuming she'd be a bit more terrified of what they were going to do to her, maybe panicking/struggling a bit more, not counting kidnappers or worrying about things like her dad's laptop. :?

Why did she just follow the guy at the end? Why not try and run away? She didn't seem that desperate to escape, which bothered me. I think your fight or flight instincts would kick in in that situation, and she appeared not to have any. She just didn't come across as panicky or emotional enough for someone who's been plucked from their home in the middle of the night by several strange men, gagged and blindfolded and thrown into the back of a van. If I was her, I'd have been sobbing like a baby by that point, more concerned about being sexually assaulted, killed, tortured, anything, even if at first glance they do seem like only oportunistic burgulars.

Think: if you were kidnapped in the middle of the night, what would you be feeling? What would you be assuming they were going to do to you, having read about other kidnapping cases in the newspapers/ seen on the news on TV? If you know how most of those end, how much more terrified would that make you?

There were some bits you really didn't need and didn't add anything, so maybe go through it carefully and edit out some of the parts that are irrelevant. Make sure your sentences are tight and the wording isn't too clumsy, as it comes across in a few places.

You can tell it's going to be a romance though :D I'm not sure why. :roll: Anyway, good first start, and I do really like the idea. :D
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. ~Flannery O'Connor
  





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Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:55 am
ashleylee says...



Okay, I think you have a really solid beginning right now. Me personally like suspenseful beginnings and this was a VERY suspenseful one. Also, the age thing is kind of true. I really don't know how old she is but maybe as you continue this, the age thing you can slowly unravel and it will become clearer. Just a suggestion I guess. But besides that, I would definitely want to read more of this. I see that you have a second one and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be reading that one in a few moments so I guess you'll see what I think in my next comment! Keep writing!
"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love—and to put his trust in life."
~ Joseph Conrad


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Sun Mar 16, 2008 9:30 pm
Wolf says...



Hey Keek!
I tried to do a full-edit here, but my scanner broke down and I only got the first three pages. =_= And even those are bad-quality, I think. But everyone else probably got what's on the other three anyway...

Image
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Now, for your questions:

1) What do you think of the MC? Is she (could you tell it was a she??) realistic? Consistant? Suggestions?


She's okay. I don't have as strong a reader-character connection with her as I'd like (you did much better with Yazra) but it's better than I could do.
But yes, I could tell that it was a she because the man with the knife said he'd brought a girl and everyone else was like, 'the sky is brown!' or something like that anyway. XD

I think Heather (kitty15) had some really good suggestions, like giving the kidnappers names instead of just saying 'the timid guy' and 'the guy with the knife'. I really don't have much to add except that wouldn't she be worried about other things besides being killed? I don't want to say it, because it's revolting, but can you think of anything else (that's horrid) that men might do to girls/women?! *shudder*

2) Due to Keek skipping a part, there's some general information missing that might make this scene confusing. If you were confused by missing details/explanations, please point out where/what.


Yeah, that kind of bothered me, especially at the beginning. It felt like half-way through a chapter; at first I was confused. I think you should start where the girl wakes up and hears the kidnappers/burglars and then take it from there.

3) Would you want to see more of this story? If not, why?


Yes, but I don't find it particularly interesting, I'm afraid. It's one of those books that I'd read out of boredom, one of those books at convenience stores, you know? This is mainly because it's cliché. I bet that she'll fall in love with the knife-guy or something equally "romantic". I can't pinpoint the clichés (not yet, not in part 1 anyways) but it has this kind of "used" vibe emanating from it. ^_~

1) How's the MC doing? =P


Same as before: okay. I still don't have a feel for her personality, not really, but it's only the first chapter... so you don't need to worry very much?

2) Your opinion of her captor?


Urgh. I hate the captor, no offense or anything. He's very clichéd: darkly handsome, mysterious, strong, has a weapon. He's exactly like a million other protagonists (or is "antagonists" the word for evil guys?) in teen fiction these days. (Ha, that makes me want to say "When I was a child, authors...") I bet she'll fall in love with him, and he'll be like, "No. I not worthy. I am impure, and I hate my past."
I may be wrong, but it seems like that's where the story's heading.

3) Your opinion of the plot/writing style thus far?


The writing style is good, but I don't like the plot very much, unfortunately. =( It seems very predictable and clichéd/overused and kind of fails to catch my attention.

----------------------------

Overall... I don't know. I definitely like DoaV better. I think this is in-between 'okay' and 'pretty good'. I almost liked it, but the clichés ruined it for me, and I'd like a more defined voice for the MC.

You can PM me anytime, or if you can't read my writing for the scanned pages. XP And I think that on one of them, it cut of the last letter on the right side. >.< Sorry 'bout that...

Anyway. I'd read this, but kind of as a boredom-induced thing. Work with it. :)

Cheers,
Camille xx
everything i loved
became everything i lost.


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Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:24 pm
chick_with_a_pen says...



I think with the amounts of critiques that it would be pointless but I really liked the story and i want more could you maybe post more?
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