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Young Writers Society



A short story I'm working on reposted in the right place.

by Blank


It really has no plot quite yet but I felt like posting it to get some feedback on the style in which I'm writing.

Wind whipping her bright bubblegum pink hair in a wild flail as her fingers tighten on the throttle. Head lower. Broad smile. Eyes wide open and the purr of the six hundred forty-five cc's roaring between her thighs. She shotgunned down the windy roads laid precariously on the frills of the monument, slamming down the curves with zealous resolve; bike tilted at such acute angles her knees nearly kiss asphalt. Ahh, she thought, this is bliss.

And what a sight she was. Like the disappointed motor queen prom date she was (Blue Dress. High Heels. Biker Leathers.) she let out a tremendous scream, a hardcore guttural growl in blackest of heavy metal. What better place to scream than here? How could he do this to me!!

Fathers.

Love daddy but why is he such a jerk?

“... totally unacceptable, Jayme! I am not going to allow you to sacrifice the hours of training you've put into this. To just throw it away on this... this... guy. I know its you're prom, honey, I know. But opportunities like this come once in a lifetime. Phillip Pramore is a real Broadway director who is looking for real talent. Not some sixteen year old who sacrifices a good nights for some...disillusioned young man and a childs' fantasy.”

Her jaw clenches tight as she realizes that this wasn't about prom at all. Her head nearly combusted and the visor of her motorcycle helmet is thick with heavy breath. Any other guy, she knew, would be suitable to take his little girl out. Anyone other than Shadow. Any other guy and her father would be making wedding arrangements. The difference? Shadow was twenty four.

The bike slowed as she shot through the last tunnel cutting her from civilization. Playing it safe was a necessity; last thing she needed was the five-oh sending her home in handcuffs. Besides, the streets were nearly empty anyway so there was no need to rush. Fifteen, maybe twenty and she'd be happily in his arms, cheek pressed on chest, slowly swaying back and forth to the tune of some sappy love song. Butterflies swam in her stomach just thinking about it.

The city was home; it was as familiar as breathing. Sure she loved her house on the hill but the city... the city was a person to her. An intimate one at that. Her romance with it allowed her, on any occasion, to navigate this route through a series of back alleys and unknown side roads to evade any police, goons, or any such thing under her fathers employ to apprehend her. She knew they lurked. The city told her they were.

Shadow lived on the second level of a twenty story high-rise apartment. His building was connected at the center, by means of walkway, to the two other buildings on its flanks. Along the building was one large 'L' shaped alley way leading from one side to another. Shielded from city lights by the adjacent businesses and parking garages the alley posed as a cozy resting ground for the homeless and the wicked. A perfect path for a young teenage girl.


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Fri May 01, 2009 1:00 pm
Master_Yoda wrote a review...



Hello Blank,

Let's see what we can do here. I do suggest, though, that before you go further you come up with a strong plot. You need something to drive your story around. I've got random pages of abandoned stories lying around the place, entirely because I had no drive and didn't know what was going to happen next. Even if your story is a character story rather than an idea or exposition story, you would do well to get an idea as to where you want to go with it.

Let's take the actual story and see what we can do with it.

Blank wrote:Wind whipping her bright bubblegum pink hair in a wild flail as her fingers tighten on the throttle.

This is extremely bold. Starting a sentence with a fragment! No, I wouldn't do it, unless I felt it absolutely necessary. I don't think it's necessary in this case. Try, "Wind whipped her bubblegum pink hair wildly as her fingers tightened around the throttle." You also want to be careful that your prose doesn't start to seem too purple. If you're creating a scene of excitement, you don't want your reader to have to think about imagery. Make the imagery simple, concise and only use it where necessary. As a first sentence this works fairly well as far as hooks go. :)

Head lower. Broad smile. Eyes wide open and the purr of the six hundred forty-five cc's roaring between her thighs.

Try replace those periods with semicolons. The period just seems a little too final. I don't know much about motorcycles, but I think that the imagery here might be better replaced with, "the hum of the twelve cylinders", The "cc's" is hard on the eyes. If however you feel you have to keep it this way, remove the apostrophe. Another reason to change this is that while "six hundred and forty-five" is long enough to draw your attention away from the story, "twelve" is not.

She shotgunned down the windy roads laid precariously on the frills of the monument, slamming down the curves with zealous resolve;

You're getting a little purple here. Replace "shotgunned" with "rode" or if you insist, "shot". The second part should read, "that lay precariously on the frills of the monument."

bike tilted at such acute angles her knees nearly kiss asphalt. Ahh, she thought, this is bliss.

This switch in tense is unnerving. I suggest sticking to the past tense. Unless you have a really good reason to do so. If you really feel that the present tense adds to the suspense so much, make it all in the present tense.

Like the disappointed motor queen prom date she was (Blue Dress. High Heels. Biker Leathers.)

You go on to describe her as more than merely disappointed. This is where you should put a lot more description in. She was, "livid", "upset", and "broken". I don't think the word "disappointed creates your desired effect here.

she let out a tremendous scream, a hardcore guttural growl in blackest of heavy metal.

This doesn't quite make sense as I'm reading it.

What better place to scream than here? How could he do this to me!!

You only need a single exclamation mark. The double one makes you look a little amateurish. Aside from that, this is the greatest part of your piece. :) I love it!

Fathers.

Love daddy but why is he such a jerk?

These fragments are fine, but they might look better as full sentences. I don't think you'd lose any of the desired effect. Also, italicize them like you've done with the rest.

Not some sixteen year old who sacrifices a good nights for some...disillusioned young man and a childs' fantasy.”

Kill the "child's fantasy" part. It doesn't seem like it would have entered the actual dialogue in real life.

Her jaw clenches tight as she realizes that this wasn't about prom at all. Her head nearly combusted and the visor of her motorcycle helmet is thick with heavy breath.

Once again, stick to a single tense.

Any other guy, she knew, would be suitable to take his little girl out. Anyone other than Shadow. Any other guy and her father would be making wedding arrangements. The difference? Shadow was twenty four.

There is too much repetition here, Try toning that down. I think that at this stage you don't need to expose the fact that shadow was 24. She's not going to care about that now. Keep that difference for a conversation with her father, or perhaps Shadow himself.

The bike slowed as she shot through the last tunnel cutting her from civilization.

This is ambiguous. Is she entering civilization or leaving it. It should also be "the final tunnel between her and civilization.

Fifteen, maybe twenty and she'd be happily in his arms, cheek pressed on chest, slowly swaying back and forth to the tune of some sappy love song. Butterflies swam in her stomach just thinking about it.

You've got this habit of omitting words that wouldn't hurt to add, and would make your story smoother. I would include the word "minutes" here.

the city was a person to her. An intimate one at that. Her romance with it allowed her, on any occasion, to navigate this route through a series of back alleys and unknown side roads to evade any police, goons, or any such thing under her fathers employ to apprehend her. She knew they lurked. The city told her they were.

This is probably personal preference but I think that the personification of the city was taken too far. It seems unbefitting of her character to personify it so intimately. Also, that second sentence is long and pretty confusing.

Shielded from city lights by the adjacent businesses and parking garages the alley posed as a cozy resting ground for the homeless and the wicked. A perfect path for a young teenage girl.

What does this mean exactly? The perfect path for a young teenage girl? I think you want to elaborate quite a lot here.

Overall
:arrow: Characters: You have only introduced us properly to one character. We got a little taste of her, but I think that we would like more. We see her as a common, naive teenager. Why should we care about her. Give us reason to do so. Also create a little conflict within us about her.

:arrow: Descriptions: I can't help but feel that some of the stuff that you did describe should have been left out, and that most of the stuff you didn't describe should have been described in greater detail. If you think that we would want to know about something, describe it. If not, don't. That's the general rule for description. You should also try to ensure that your descriptions fit the emotions of the point of view that you are describing from.

:arrow: Tenses: Unless you feel it vital to switch tenses for some obscure reason or other, don't. It's as simple as that. :)

:arrow: Prose: There were parts of this piece that you went almost over the top with descriptions that didn't really fit the sentence, and there were times that you omitted things that would have been extremely valuable. And then, there were times that you had a perfect balance. I would try to aim for a balance between overdone prose, and short, half empty prose. Also, I suggest doing away with most of the fragments. In the rare cases that you use them, they should be as effective as they can be.

:arrow: On what comes next: I don't know if you have any idea yet where you are going to go with this, but let me suggest a couple of possibilities.
1) You could let Shadow try or succeed in assaulting, kidnapping, or murdering her. Her father would then go find her, or get revenge. You can build whatever story you like with this.

2) You could let Shadow try to eliminate the father from the equation, as he wants to be with the daughter. There could be fights between shadow and her, etc.

3) You could let the father eliminate Shadow. This would be great as it would allow for a great deterioration of the relationship between her and her father.

:arrow: What I thought: You have a promising start here, and I am certain that with a bit of work you'll have a great story. :)




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Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:29 pm
aynrandh8r wrote a review...



Wind whipping her bright bubblegum pink hair in a wild flail as her fingers tighten on the throttle. i'm not sure it's such a good idea to start the story off with a description fragment of a sentence. It's awkward and doesn't propel the story, it gives the reader just an image, a photograph, not anything with, so to speak, a "rising" and "falling" action. people underestimate the value of even a sentence having those actions, especially in an opening sentence. also, "bubblegum pink" is redundant. once you've said bubblegum, you don't need to remind the readers that bubblegum is pink, the image is already completed. the only thing I might do is because readers might associate "bubblegum hair" with the hair having a sticky quality like bubblegum is to perhaps say something like a "bubblegum hue" or "bubblegum-colored" or something along those lines. Head lower. Broad smile. Eyes wide open and the purr of the six hundred forty-five cc's roaring between her thighs. Not everybody knows what cc's are, including me, though I assume it's some sort of way to measure something about motorcycles, but I don't know, so explain. She shotgunned down the windy roads laid precariously on the frills of the monument, slamming down the curves with zealous resolve; bike tilted at such acute angles her knees nearly kiss asphalt. these last sentences are full of pseudo-complex vocabulary that doesn't work too well at all for me. "slamming down the curves with zealous resolve"? it's all adjectives. show some complexity to it all. "slamming down the curves like grace kelly slams a trunk door in a Hitchcock film." show some complex imagery, some complex metaphor. right now this is just lots of slightly big adjectives, and that doesn't cut it. Ahh, she thought, this is bliss. with a line like this, that just screams the cliched "won't last," this had better be good.

And what a sight she was. you can not use this cliche phrase unless you're being really sarcastic or satirical, it just doesn't work otherwise. Like the disappointed motor queen prom date she was (Blue Dress. High Heels. Biker Leathers.) she let out a tremendous scream, a hardcore guttural growl in blackest of heavy metal. again, show me some complex imagery and metaphor. "hardcore guttural growl" - instead, how about something like "she let out her scream reminiscent of a lioness just caged and shipped off to a concrete cell in the Harare zoo." or "she let out a tremendous scream, like a final bach sonata written before he commits suicide in an organ pipe." What better place to scream than here? How could he do this to me!! one exclamation point. and i thought she was in bliss, now suddenly she's mad? and nobody talks like that. again, please try to stay away from cliches.

Fathers.

Love daddy but why is he such a jerk? no no no, these last two paragraphs are not very well placed at all. first there's just a declarative one-word sentence - make that paragraph - that gets you nowhere. some little sighing phrase, "ah, silly fathers, they're so funny!" just ruins the flow and message of the story. it's just bad writing. and "love daddy but why is he such a jerk"? really? not to mention that it's not even a real sentence, but again, it has that same problem. don't say you hate your dad, describe how/why you hate him and what imagery that reminds you of. it's that old "show don't tell" rule for all of literature.

“... totally unacceptable, Jayme! I am not going to allow you to sacrifice the hours of training you've put into this. To just throw it away on this... this... guy. I know its you're prom, honey, I know. But opportunities like this come once in a lifetime. Phillip Pramore is a real Broadway director who is looking for real talent. Not some sixteen year old who sacrifices a good nights for some...disillusioned young man and a childs' child's fantasy.” not another prom story... i'm out. two things: one, work on your dialogue. listen to people talking in real life, notice what they say in response to what other people say, how they say it, etc.. study human psychology. study how people react to different things. two, work on imagery and metaphor. don't throw around adjectives, create an "imagescape," so to speak. associate description with other things, be it how something else looks/feels/sounds, etc., or how it reminds you of a certain event, association, etc.. this is flat right now, make it dynamic and emotional. that's all i have time for now.





A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.
— Honore de Balzac