Amusement

by SalmanK

Published June 6, 2013

E - Everyone

   Amusement

Once upon a time there was this little boy who had only one dream,to ride a horse. He was amused by the idea of it. Cold winds passing by and the feeling that you are the fastest. He was the son of a tailor. His father was amused by clothes. Beautiful clothes,colorful with a variety of embroidery. The father and the son never understood each other. One day the father asked:

"Do you want to be a soldier boy?A knight?"

"No!"In clean and simple words the son replied with the emotionless face.

"Then why do you want to ride horses?Look at me! I live an honorable life by cutting and styling pieces of silk and thread. You should do this."

"You will never understand."The son replied.Again with an emotion less face.

The boy used to visit stables and race courses. He envied the jockeys and all the other people that had the luxury of riding such a fine creature.

Horses with their strong legs and angry faces.

One day the amusement got better of him. He entered a stable in the dark stole a horse. He thought borrowing it just for an hour would not hurt anyone. The horses were pretty well trained e so it was easy for the boy to climb the horse and just go out into the open fields and enjoy the unthinkable. He saw men riding horses countless times so he knew what he had to do. He climbed up kicked the creature and he started to run.

Slowly step by step the horse started gaining speed. The boy felt that he was running and not the horse. The boy thought he could beat the world. It was not like he imagined. It was even better! The world surrounding him started to blur. The horse gained more and more speed. After a minute or two the boy realised that horse is out of control.He saw people stopping horses but seeing and doing are two different things. So he jumped of the horse and broke his leg. He did not even feel the pain. He was just over joyed. He felt like the king of the world. His father, police and many others found him later lying on the grass field laughing. He laughed all the way to the hospital and all the night that was to come. The only thing on his mind was when will he get a chance to rid a horse again. He recovered in a month and was allowed to go home. When he reached home he was not able to believe his eyes. His tailor father bought him a horse. A beautiful white young one!

He climbed up!

Ready to feel like the king of the world again.

The horse started running and slowly step by step the horse gained more speed.

But the boy did not feel anything.

Anything at all!

Comments & reviews · 3
Wherethewindgoes wrote a review Review · Jun 30, 2013

Hallo!

So, I think the story was good, and the idea behind it is interesting, but there are a few improvements I would suggest.

Firstly, the beginning. Generally, "Once upon a time" is not the best way to start a story. Not only is it quite cliched, but it's often (including here) followed by a background of the character and his life and such. Readers like to start stories where things are happening; that's what hooks a reader, as opposed to describing the character and who he is and his life. All of that should be shown instead of told; he likes horses? Then show him riding one, or watching someone else riding them. Don't just state that he likes them.

Secondly, I would suggest giving this boy a name. Characters with names are easier for the reader to empathize and connect with. Just saying "the boy" sort of distances the reader from the character. This also relates to the fact that you didn't really adequately characterize the boy here. We don't know anything about his personality other than the face that he likes horses. What kind of kid is he? Does he like reading, playing, learning? Is he rebellious, nice, mean, angry, anything? You don't really have any of this, so it's very hard for a reader to connect to the character, which is key to their enjoyment of the story.

Also, I'm not sure that your story really does what you said, which is define amusement. First, amusement is like halfway between "fun" and "funny", but I don't really understand how the boy finds horses funny. Second, yes, he is amused by horses, but you don't really go anywhere past that. You don't describe, say, what he does to satisfy this (except stealing a horse, I guess), or how he changes because of it. Which brings me to my next issue with the story, which is that...it doesn't really go anywhere. The boy likes horses, he rides one, he gets one...and that's all. No conflict, no character development, nothing. I would suggest adding in some sort of conflict here, some problem and solution. Or even just show how the character changes. What is different about their life now that they have satisfied their urge to ride horses? What is next? Things like that make the story more interesting and satisfying for readers.

So, all in all, the story was good, and has potential, but with a little improvement in terms of character and plot it could be even better!

_Wherethewindgoes

User avatar
Sins
Review
Sins wrote a review Review · Jun 10, 2013

Hey Salman! I was browsing through the Green Room when I came across this, and so I thought I'd come check it out and review it for you :)

Once upon a time there was this little boy who had only one dream,to ride a horse.

You may have done this on purpose, but I have a bit of a pet hate for stories that begin with 'Once upon a time' because it's a very big cliche, which makes it a little overused. I would maybe consider removing or replacing it (even to something as siple as 'There was once this little boy...'), but hey, it's your call

He was amused by the idea of it. Cold winds passing by and the feeling that you are the fastest. He was the son of a tailor. His father was amused by clothes. Beautiful clothes,colorful with a variety of embroidery.

I like the idea you have here and I can see that you've had a nice stab at creating imagery. Nonetheless, I really think you can expand on that and make the imagery more detailed, and perhaps make it stand out more.

The father and the son never understood each other.

I've quoted this as I want to note something very important: showing instead of telling. You'd be surprised at how much more thrilling a story is when you show the reader things rather than just tell them things. Don't just tell us the father and son never understood each other, that's easy! Make us lazy readers do some work by not giving everything away, but showing us signs of how the father and son never understood each other.

The son replied.Again with an emotion less face.

I'd suggest for you to replace that first full stop with a comma

The boy used to visit stables and race courses. He envied the jockeys and all the other people that had the luxury of riding such a fine creature.

Horses with their strong legs and angry faces

Your use of the word 'angry' here bothers me a little. In the previous paragraph, you refer to the horses as 'fine creatures', and when someone views something in such a positive light, negative words such as 'angry' do seem a bit odd. I mean, to most people anger is a bad thing, yet you portray the horses positively so it's a bit of a mismatch adjective for me.

He entered a stable in the dark stole a horse.

You're missing an 'and' between 'dark' and 'stole'

The horses were pretty well trained e so it was easy for the boy to climb the horse and just go out into the open fields and enjoy the unthinkable.

You've got a little typo between 'trained' and 'so'

He climbed up kicked the creature and he started to run.

You need a comma after 'climbed up'

Slowly step by step the horse started gaining speed. The boy felt that he was running and not the horse. The boy thought he could beat the world. It was not like he imagined. It was even better! The world surrounding him started to blur. The horse gained more and more speed. After a minute or two the boy realised that horse is out of control.He saw people stopping horses but seeing and doing are two different things. So he jumped of the horse and broke his leg. He did not even feel the pain. He was just over joyed. He felt like the king of the world. His father, police and many others found him later lying on the grass field laughing. He laughed all the way to the hospital and all the night that was to come. The only thing on his mind was when will he get a chance to ride a horse again. He recovered in a month and was allowed to go home. When he reached home he was not able to believe his eyes. His tailor father bought him a horse. A beautiful white young one!

I think this paragraph would benefit being cut into several ones. A lot of dramatic things happen such as the horse being out of control and the boy breaking his leg, and I think such dramatic situations have far greater impact if they're more spaced out compared to one chunk

Overall


Okay, so I think this is a nice little piece of writing you've got here. Nothing too serious and pretty simple too, but I actually really like the simplicity of it. So many writers feel the need to create incredibly complicated plots with complicated characters and complicated events e.t.c. so I find it really lovely sometimes to read something like this that goes for the simpler side of things, and when done well, simple can be just as effective as complicated. Sometimes it can be even better! Overall, a nice read with lots of potential :)

In terms of critiques, I do have a few things to mention that could hopefully improve this even further. The first thing I want to mention is only small, but it's about grammar and punctuation. Basically, I noticed that you don't tend to use spaces after commas, question marks, speech marks e.t.c. It might just be a copy and paste error, but if it's not, remember that you must always leave a space after punctuation marks like that. Otherwise in terms of grammar, you're pretty much doing good. There are a few hiccups here and there, but definitely nothing worth stressing over.

As for content, while I do really like the simplicity of this, I can't help thinking that more details and more imagery would work a charm. You've got snippets of them sprinkled around the piece, but I definitely think you can take it even further. Take the last paragraph, for example. It involves lots and lots of events such as the boy falling off the horse, him going to hospital, him getting a horse e.t.c. but it's all squeezed into that one paragraph. These events are probably the main ones too because they're what moves on with the story, and so as a result I can't help feeling that spacing them out and elegantly throwing more detail into them is a really good idea. This sort of fits in with what I said about showing rather than telling too actually.

Basically, don't just say that the boy fell off the horse and broke his leg, describe how he fell off, describe how hard he hit the ground, describe the sound of the bone breaking, describe the horse then galloping off like a madman e.t.c. The same goes for the other things, describe how he 'captured' the horse and mounted it, describe some of his time in hospital maybe. Do you sort of see what I'm trying to say? I'm not the best at making sense, so if you are a little confused, just pick my brain further after you read this.

The only other thing I want to mention is about the plot itself, primarily towards the end. Maybe this is just my maternal instinct (not that I have a child, but y'get me), but I find it a bit strange that the father would so willingly get his son a horse when he's just spent time in hospital because of a horse, particularly falling off one. I understand that the idea is that the father realised how much horses and riding horses meant to the son, but it still does seem odd to me... If you'd mentioned the father buying his son lessons before the boy actually got on his own horse, I'd be a bit more understanding, but as it stands it does seem a little unrealistic. That's more of an opinionated critique though, so I won't pressure you to change that, but I do think you should consider it.

Well, I think that's it! I hope I've managed to help you, even a little bit. I haven't reviewed a thing since last September, so I do apologise if I don't make much sense or if this doesn't help you much. I'm just a tad rusty is all! If there is anything I've said that you want clearing up though, don't hesitate to question me and pick my brain, I'm here to help after all!

Keep writing,

xoxo Skins

actually i did not want it to become lengthy that is why i rushed and tried to finish it quickly. Please check out my other pieces they are a bit more complicated thanks

User avatar
Shiksha
Review
Shiksha wrote a review Review · Jun 6, 2013

wow!! that was pretty good!!! you conveyed an excellent message without even saying it!! the boy and his dreams were narrated by you in the least characters that you could use but beautifully. and you totally proved that if someone is completely after fulfilling his dream, no one can stop him and even after failure, he will go on because that's what he has always wanted. i liked the way you wrote. it was straightforward and symbolic at the same time. that's what made it look so real and anyone could relate it to themselves and their dreams...that's very helpful for me because my dreams are also pretty unusual but i want to fulfill them....:) so...thanks for motivating me!! :)



Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness.
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