One's Life

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“I want a kitten” she said commandingly.
She was not tall, but high heels made her to be refined and strict. Black trousers, black and white blouse…Her official outlook doesn’t remind the first date at all. Maybe a job interview, but never a date.
“A kitten ? Now? From me?” he answered, quickly and shocked.
They were sitting on a terrace of a small cafe, putting fresh summer air into their lungs. Summer brought a good mood, new hopes and wishes for better life. Summer meant something definitely good and marvelous. He believed that girl sitting next to him was able to change his life, because he deserved a better life. His heart was ready to love, to share happy minutes with beloved person… He was completely ready to open his eyes every morning and see her beautiful childish face. He was entirely ready to be happy.
“Yes. A kitten. A little purring ball of white fur! Is it so difficult? I want you to present me a kitten! That’s it!”
Her direct look was a bit frightening, a bit demanding and weird. She acted herself like a little girls who would throw a tantrum whether you didn’t fulfill her wish. He couldn’t understand if she was joking or not. She must have been embarrassed; she should have looked aside and had red cheeks every time he looked at her. After all he is older. How dare she could act like this? Just a vain girl who thinks a world of herself.
But she was not looking forward his reaction and answer. She was looking at nowhere with her widely open hazel eyes. The next moment she looked directly at him and cried offensively:
“You don’t love me!”
She took her bag and ran out of the café.
He was mouth-opened with astonishment, his indignation left him to be silent. Her small figure was vanishing in the crowd.
His dreams for better life were broken. She was not the right girl for him. Just not the right one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He woke up and looked out of the window. Dark blue sky didn’t let sun warm up the town. It was autumn. Somebody moved in his bed. A girl was sleeping in his bed. It was Sally. He looked at the Sally’s face, but it didn’t bring pleasant feelings. It wasn’t HER face.
They were wandering along the street together. They seemed to look like a happy couple taking delight in their love. A busy crowd was hurrying somewhere to work. It was bitterly cold so he turned up the collar of his coat.
“Are you cold?” the girl asked thoughtfully ”We can have some drink here, if you don’t mind.”
“Yes, it would be nice”
“I’ll bring something”the girl said with a wide smile.
He sat at the table on the terrace while she came into the café to buy some drink. The same old café… He didn’t want to come in and pretend that he is happy with her. Suddenly someone’s hand touched his shoulder.
“I’m really sorry and I feel so embarrassed! I guess I’ve forgotten my purse at your place” she grinned.
“Oh, that’s me who need to be sorry! How could I let you go without money?”
They entered the café and came to the bar counter. He pulled the wallet out of his pocket and opened it. The standing behind the bar counter dropped the glass staring at his wallet. The nice photo of little kitten was inside wallet.
“Oh, it’s our baby. Is it cute? Our little kitten” said Sally with proud, noticing the waitress’s great interest.
He understood it was her, an insane girl he was in love with. Her restrained features were full of surprise. They smiled to each other. One’s life was ruined. One’s life! But not theirs.
Last edited by high maria on Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.




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Hello Maria! I'm Evi.

First of all: you might want to check out this tutorial on Dialogue Punctuation. Those dashes are unneeded.

Also! Don't use ellipses (those ... things) in the narration, or the prose. If you absolutely have to use the "dot dot dots", use them in dialogue when a character is trailing off, such as:

"But, I thought you said..." she trailed off, apparently forgetting what she was going to say.

She was not tall, but high heels made her to be refined and strict


Maybe replace that "to be" with "look" or "seem"? Or, if you like, take it out all together. It sounds odd like that.

“A kitten ??? Now? From me?”,- he answered quickly and shocked.


Should be: "A kitten? Now? From me?" he answered, quickly and shocked.

Try to avoid using more than once punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, for example !!! or ??? or ?!?!. It looks amateur and rather gimmicky. ;)

Summer means something definitely good and marvelous.


Tense change, here. "Means" is present tense. The rest of the story is in past tense. So, it should be meant.

The standing behind the bar counter dropped the glass staring at his wallet. The nice photo of little kitten was inside wallet.


Forgot a word there. ^^

:arrow: Proofreading! You should really read over your story a couple of times before posting. Even better-- trying waiting a little while after you complete it to post it. That gives you the opportunity to step away from the piece a bit, and, after maybe a week, look at it with fresh eyes. You have some easily fixable typos scattered here and there, like missing words or tense or words that don't fit.

:arrow: Deux ex machina

This story, for me, is almost an example of Deus ex machina, which, as that Wikipedia article says, when something kind of random or too perfect is thrown in at the end to make the plot or theme work. Your story, though, is okay. It's a little bit too perfect, where he sees his former lover again, but not so noticeable that you need ot rewrite the ending completely. I just want you to beware of that plot device so you don't fall into its trap in the future.

:arrow: Story itself

My main advice here is to expand. You have the makings of a really cute love story (or really tragic love story, if you think about it) here, but right now we aren't given much time to get to know the characters. Expand the first scene at the cafe, so that we get a better taste of their relationship. Why does the girl say he doesn't love her? Why does he love her? Personally, she comes across as vain, immature, and sudden. Why is that attractive to him? You might want to portray her in a bit more likable light.

With Sally, they go from sleeping to wandering the street in an instant. Develop their relationship and conversation a bit, too, so that we can compare how the narrator feels about both of them, and enjoy the characters more. Talk about what's good about Sally, but still doesn't make him love her like he did the other girl.

All in all, good start! Now, work at the story more. Explore these people and their scenario. PM me for anything!

~Evi

EDIT: Also. Didn't get the last line, and that's supposed to be important because you use it as your title (and it's what the reader goes away with). So work on clarifying what you mean. Which one? Which they? And why was one's life ruined, but theirs not?
"Let's eat, Grandma!" as opposed to "Let's eat Grandma!": punctuation saves lives.




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Hey, I'm going to address your punctuation issues, especially the ones surrounding dialogue.

“I want a kitten”, - she said commandingly.

What is up with that dash thing? When you read a book, do you ever see that strange dashed line in dialogue? No. Then why is it there? This should read like this:
"I want a kitten," she said commandingly.
I'd also take out the "commandingly" because using adverbs to describe dialogue is the highway to hell.
So take out all the dashed line things in your dialogue and make sure all periods and question marks are inside of the quotation marks ( "" )


“Yes, it would be nice”
This is a full sentence, just like every other sentence in this. So why doesn't it have a period? Remember to put the period inside of the quotation marks.


How could I let you go without money??!”
Choose to either use one exclamation point or one question mark. In this case, the sentence is phrased as a question, so use a single question mark. This applies to all sentences in this where you used multiple question marks/exclamation points.

And onto the plot.. It'd be cool to write about a guy who's in love with an insane woman.. but you just don't do it right. The way you say he doesn't recognize her... I dunno, just rewrite it. But the basic idea is really good, it seems like something I would write ^^

Cheers,
Lena
stay gold, ponyboy




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Great story. I can see your story was stripped to pieces already so the only thing I have to say is make sure you proofread several times before submitting. In fact the best thing would to step back from the computer, go make a sandwich, or watch TV for a couple minutes then go and proofread. I'm sure you'll notice things you didn't before. ;)

Thanks for sharing your work,

Trick
Darker than the blackest black times infinity.



One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex