Published March 18, 2008
#1
It was my fourteenth day of playing the violin on the corner of 5th and Rood in New York City. My previous job at Burger Monster had been a disaster, literally. It wasn’t my fault that the burger making robot (or as we called it “the Burger Monster”) went out of control during my shift. At least that’s what I told the Manager, but that didn’t stop him from firing me on the spot. And now I was on the street playing the violin for money. Not that I don’t like playing it, but after a few hundred years of practicing the same instrument over and over well… it get’s a bit tiring.
A man walked up to me and dropped a few dollars into the violin case, then leaned against a tree to listen to me. But I barely noticed him or any of the other people that were watching me as I was in the middle of an extremely fast section of music. Out of the corner of my eye though, I saw the man draw out a cell phone from his pocket, dial a number, and talk excitedly into the phone. But while I had an interest in other people’s lives, I couldn’t try to listen to him; I had to finish my piece. Before I hardly knew it though, I was done. Everyone who was watching me clapped and quickly walked away, everyone that is except the man who was talking on his cell phone.
“Yes, no doubt about it”....”Thanks, bye!” then he hung up his phone and walked over to me. He was a short man of about 50 with a few gray hairs running through his dark hair.
“That’s a good violin you play there.” he said to me.
“Thank you.” I replied.
“How long have you been playing that instrument.” he continued.
“Quite a long time.” I said uncomfortably. Not that I didn’t know the exact amount of years, but I didn’t think that he would believe 235 years 7 months and 14 days if I told him.
“Well when I heard you play that violin so beautifully, I couldn’t help but call my friend who is putting on this talent show for ‘Extraordinary Kids of the 22nd Century’. Now, how would you like to be on my friends show?”
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Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!
Anyway let's get right to it,
Ooooh I do be loving this opening here. For starters this burger making robot situation is low key quite funny not to mention quite a bit startling to start of on so instantly that's already quite fun to see. And then when the premise is slowly being set up with this violin situation the very casual way a massive reveal like this person being alive for hundreds of years is dropped definitely makes you sit up and take notice there, well let's see where this piece takes us.
Okay well this is a rather quiet setup here. With the way this started out and the oddly specific way that complimented was handed out on the quality of the violin as opposed to the music although of course it could also meant the music, but I sort of see it the other way, means that this makes for quite an interesting moment here.
Alright, well I don't quite know if this person would qualify for a show with that title, but well that's certainly not the direction I was expecting to see this go in and that does make for quite a neat ending here cause there are just so many questions at this point. Well, I will say you did a very solid job on this first chapter here.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
I would suggest you out in some detail and add some to your piece. The Burger Monster was pretty funny. Is the character a boy or a girl. Sorry, but for some reason I really want to know. The show is for kids that the Do MC would be playing for, so are they young? Do all people live this long of just the MC. How would the person not believe him? Well, just some questions I wanted to ask. I thought it was a pretty good piece, and it has some potential. Good luck with your writing and keep up the good work.
I like the concept. It's very interesting. Actually I love mythology. It could be a bit longer. Usually I try to set a page or word limit and that usually helps me. Still a great piece of work and an excellent idea. I also liked the Burger Monster part. Very funny.
Lots of punctuation mistakes. Need to go back and fix those - Teh Wozzinator already gave you some good tips.
As to your piece... it wasn't bad. Decent, in a word. My most favorite part was as, Soul of the Phantom said, the Burger Monster. I don't laugh when I'm reading, but you got me to crack a smile.
Anyway, good job. Interested to see more. Keep writing.
Hey, I told you that you'd have fun if you started writing. This is a great story idea, but it does need some work. I've taken care of all your edits in bold up there (and [s]strikethrough[/s]). Mainly, when you're doing quotes, you need a comma, not a period. And don't forget about question marks.
I think that you use a lot of "(so-and-so) said"s. You want to narrow that down a bit in the future, but it's fine in this chapter.
It's a pretty short chapter, though. That's fine when you're posting it, but I would recommend adding some stuff in. Detail, that's what you need. What does it look like at this place?
Overall, good job... 7.8/10.
KEEP WRITING!
Teh Wozzinator
I really liked this story, it had an essence of nature, and was flowing, i really enjoyed it, mail me if you have any more stories like this one...
A true masterpiece...
i really like this. I'm guessing since it says "chapter 1" its the beginning. I'm very picky on beginnings. For me, it has to be absolutly perfect or the whole story goes down in ashes.
I like how you really havent introduced characters in the more discreet way others do. By not giving there names yet and who they really are. Knowing the situation before other minor things i like about it too.
Also, how i can picture whats going on, what they look like, what they're wearing is all appealing to me.
How you let the main character know down to the date, when he started playing the volin says he's got nothing to loose but alot to give; at least in that moment but that could change during the rest of your story :]
everthing looks good to me.
good work!
It's pretty mysterious, in its own strange sense.
Of course, you could have left of on a cliff hanger, most people like it better that way.
Yours truly,
Memento Mori
This was really good, especially the part when you mentioned how long he's been playing the violen. I didn't find a grammer errors, hope I get to see more of this!
I agree with Phantom. It's intriguing, but it could use more. Maybe put in more exposition...other than that, your writing styles good. Nice work!
It was a pretty funny, mainly around about the Burger Monster subject. I don't know if you were going to be funny or not, I just found it to be funny.
The rest seems interesting, but this is pretty short for a chapter, and we really didnt get to understand the main character at all. And do all humans have long lifes in your universe, or just this character?
Looking forward to more, keep up the good work.