Newbie attempting to write

Aye, I'm new and I have attempted to write many times. My newest attempt is this( will show you in a second) which I started about an hour ago with an idea. If you like it so far I will add to it.

Okay well I edited this....I changed the name btw

Tristan gasped and looked around. What am I doing...? he thought with alarm. He was sitting in a hospital room furnished with plastic chairs and a cheap TV mounted on the wall in the left corner. He slowly regained consciousness and sat up. His head was spinning, he felt faint and dizzy, like he had been out all night drinking booze. It wasn't booze though, he couldn't drink. He tried to remember what had happened only to find it hurt too much. He laid back down and drifted to sleep.

He was sitting in the back seat of a tan 1989 Buick Century on his way to church, as a little girl ran into the road. The girl was dressed in a black, lacy dress that went down to mid calf. She was clutching a porcelain Chinese doll. The doll was wearing a baby blue dress embroidered in tiny yellow flowers. His mom screamed and his dad slammed the breaks. They slid across the road, hitting a construction site and flipping. This all happened in a fraction of second. Tristan was thrown from the car.

"Up Up Up!" an elderly nurse had walked into the room. "Yer gonna wake the whole state before we're done with ya, stop yer yackin'!". A number flashed through Tristan's head 12Y.

"What?" Tristan replied drowsily and screamed as a bolt of pain flashed through his head.

He landed in a puddle of soft mud. He got up, he was fine. He realized in horror that his mother and father were in that flaming car 30 feet in front of him. He took a step forward and heard a crack. Tristan lifted his foot. He had stepped on the precious little face of that Chinese doll.

"Got quite a bump on the head, kid" said a middle aged doctor with a scar above his right eyebrow, "Lucky you missed that old train, been running the tracks for 20 years, killed 2 people. One was an hobo and the other was a fugitive who was up to no good." Tristan finally was awake and able to understand what this man was saying. More numbers flashed 40Y. Tristan simply ignored it.

"Where are they?" Tristan asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

"Go back to sleep" the doctor said in a slightly worried tone.Tristan nodded knowingly and laid back down, too tired to start the waterworks.

He had handed Tristan water and Tristan began to drink greedily.

He gathered the doll up and looked around. It was dark, how was it dark? It was morning a second ago. A shabby looking gas station was across the street, with one flickering light out front. The luminous heat was crawling closer. He took a step back and his foot sank once more into the deep puddle of mud. For an instant he felt a feeling he had never felt before. Of which there is no word for, just that hollow feeling when everything seems too real, when you force your way out of the past and realize what is and isn't. He sensed he needed to go, help his parents. But he knew they were already dead. He was stranded in a world of nothing. He suddenly sensed he was being watched. The sense wasn't a feeling of safety, it was a feeling of dread. He looked down the road and suddenly...

He regained consciousness again. No one was around. He could hear the steady beeping of the hospital equipment. Thunder crashed outside, lighting the room. He screamed once more. Within thirty seconds a young nurse was in the room. She ran up to him and noticed he was conscious. A new number crossed his mind 55Y.

"Ugh" he moaned.

"Hon, are you okay?" she said as she put her hand on his forehead.

Tristan replied with a faint "Yeah..".

"You have a temprature of 103, your weak as a kitten, poor thing. Are you hungry?"

Tristan realized that he was starving, he hadn't eaten in...how long had he been asleep? "Yes" he replied, it came out so cleary he suprised himself.

"Stupid doctors have been starving you, saying you need your sleep" she said in a well-a-matter-of-fact tone.

She left the small room. Tristan looked around and found the remote control. He turned on the TV only to find the static made his ears wail in pain. He quickly turned it off and muttered. The nurse had returned with food. Soup, Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup and a glass of water. Her brown hands handed him the soup and he fought to sit up. Finally she just pressed a button and the bed slid up all by itself.

"Thanks" he muttered and started to drink the broth. He drained the bowl and started on the noodles, he didn't care for chicken very much. She had left the room. He drank the water and drifted off.

He was running. Running hard down a long endless road still clutching the doll. A train station on his right and the track straight in front of him. He heard a faint whistle. The muscles in his thighs burned, but he knew he had to go on. He dared a glance back only to be yanked back, right as a train slide across the tracks in front of him. He fell to the ground, almost like he was being lifted up and dropped. Hit his head while looking into the blue-green eyes of this man who looked as if he hadn't slept in a week. The man muttered . Tristan didn't hear that he was wondering why a number had popped into his head, 27Y. "Twenty seven why?" he thought as his own eyes closed.

He woke up with a desperate need to use the restroom. He saw one in the corner and attempted to get up but heard voices outside first.

"Mr. Tristan Marsh can't stay here any longer, he has nothing but a fever and he is taking up space." Said a strong male voice.

"But his parents died in the car crash, he has no family. His brother is somewhere in the middle east and we have no contact with him." Said the familiar voice of the nurse that came in earlier.

"To the orphanage. I am not this boys mentor. He is taking up my space in my hospital."

"Yes, of course." Said the nurse in a small voice.

She walked into the room in slow tiny steps as not to disturb him. Tristan had pretended to be asleep and sat up.

"Please excuse me as I attempt to walk to the bathroom." Tristan said.

"Go right ahead, I need to change the sheets anyway, your moving out tomorrow." She said in a faked cheerful voice.

"Okay," he said as he stumbled towards the corner. "By the way, why haven't my parents come to visit me?" He knew the answer, he remembered, he just needed it confirmed since the doctor had denied him.

She glanced towards the corner and said "Your parents died in the car crash"

He swallowed, "The doctor mentioned something about a train."

Again, she looked away nervously "You were found by a man, he was passing by. He said that another man pulled you away from a train right before it was going to hit you then ran away."

Yeeeah

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Mars
Review
Mars wrote a review · Sun May 24, 2009 1:35 pm

Hello and welcome!

On YWS, one of the rules is to spread the love. Post two reviews for every one work of your own. This is how we keep the site running, and also, people will be more willing to read your stuff if you do. What goes around comes around! ;-)

There are a couple of articles that might help you out - one & two

So, these are two different stories, right? Or beginnings of stories? It might be a better idea to post each idea separately, just so people can get more invested in them. It's a lot easier to critique one at a time, as well. Anyway, I'll do both, but just so you know, if you continue. Are they titled yet?

Anyway, let's get started!

ONE

This is pretty good for a very rough draft; I think it's a good idea that should definitely be continued. What I don't like about it - and this is totally understandable for something you just started but still needs fixing - is how completely rushed it is. Everything's frenzied, everything's fast, like you're trying to cram three pages' worth of story into four paragraphs. I think you need to draw it out, have Jasper slowly awaken, have the room slowly come into focus, then he can look around and test out everything to make sure it's still working, really describe how he's feeling; I mean, he's in a hospital, so obviously that in itself should alarm him and the reader. Etc, etc.

The numbers are very intriguing and I'm interested to know what they refer to.

TWO

Oh, so this is the same character? Or same name anyway. From what I could gather, it again sounds like an intriguing story, but I couldn't gather much because of all the grammar mistakes. And no matter how good a plot is, no one will read it if it's got too many typos, you know? So you need to go through and correct some stuff.

Anyway, you obviously have some great ideas in your head, and don't be discouraged by this review because I think you should definitely continue one if not both of these, but they are rough and editing is a very, very good thing.

Hope this helped!
-Mars



There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.
— Maya Angelou