Still Doll Prologue - We Are Artwork

by Kirahh

Published June 13, 2011

In Novels

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Prologue

We Are Artwork...

When I was a kid, I used to think of my life as a portrait or a ballad. If it were a portrait, you’d see a variety of things such as love, hate, anger and depression. You would see thousands of colours probably never discovered before. It would look appealing to your eye.

If it were a ballad, you would probably tear up and cry. You would probably jump for joy or be filled with so much happiness that you would greet everyone you saw.

But my life isn’t a perfect picture or a beautiful ballad. No one’s is. I learned that when I turned seventeen.

I never believed in any of that paranormal junk. I never believed in the bogeyman or Santa Claus, I never believed in ghosts or vampires or fallen angels. Much less did I believe in werewolves or banshees. I thought of that as trash people fill your minds with.

My father used to tell me of a doll. He never told me the name. He said that the doll would come to life and kill all your loved ones. He usually told me this so that I would eat my broccoli, but it never worked. Because I never believed him.

And I was wrong.

This is my story of how I lived through the most terrifying year of my life. If you are too fearful, I would advise you to seal this book. If you are up for the challenge, you may turn the page if you wish. My story is capable of scarring your life forever.

This is not my choice. It’s yours. My story may torture your thoughts at day and will not leave your dreams at night.

For this, I am terribly sorry.

Comments & reviews · 6
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kaitlyn
Review
kaitlyn wrote a review Review · Sep 25, 2021

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,

When I was a kid, I used to think of my life as a portrait or a ballad. If it were a portrait, you’d see a variety of things such as love, hate, anger and depression. You would see thousands of colours probably never discovered before. It would look appealing to your eye.

If it were a ballad, you would probably tear up and cry. You would probably jump for joy or be filled with so much happiness that you would greet everyone you saw.

But my life isn’t a perfect picture or a beautiful ballad. No one’s is. I learned that when I turned seventeen.


Hmm, very interesting view on life by this person, not a comparison that I've personally ever seen before so that definitely makes things even more interesting here. I do wonder where this particular thing could be going, but from just the two comparisons you can see this person has had a sort of average if not a bit on the sadder side type of life, because there is a lot of sadness being throw around there especially in the ballad comparison.

I never believed in any of that paranormal junk. I never believed in the bogeyman or Santa Claus, I never believed in ghosts or vampires or fallen angels. Much less did I believe in werewolves or banshees. I thought of that as trash people fill your minds with.

My father used to tell me of a doll. He never told me the name. He said that the doll would come to life and kill all your loved ones. He usually told me this so that I would eat my broccoli, but it never worked. Because I never believed him.

And I was wrong.


Well, I'm not sure how this revelation ties into the setup of the first part there, these two situations don't really seem to match all that well, but that aside, this is a really cool premise being brought to light right here, the fact that it appears that so many of these crazy fantastical creatures are all very much real.

This is my story of how I lived through the most terrifying year of my life. If you are too fearful, I would advise you to seal this book. If you are up for the challenge, you may turn the page if you wish. My story is capable of scarring your life forever.

This is not my choice. It’s yours. My story may torture your thoughts at day and will not leave your dreams at night.

For this, I am terribly sorry.


Those are some very Percy Jacksony vibes towards the end, that one starts with an oddly similar message in its prologue, but well I have to say this does make for a very exciting finish right here, I really love the idea of this one year of craziness and it sound like it'd make for an excellent read. All in all, very nicely executed prologue 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

User avatar
LiverTeaTime
Review
LiverTeaTime wrote a review Review · Jun 20, 2011

But my life isn’t a perfect picture or a beautiful ballad. No one’s is. I learned that when I turned seventeen.

The 'No one's is.' should be 'No ones is.' No apostrophe. :)

Overall, it's okay for a prologue. It seems a bit Lemony Snicket-like in the whole 'don't read this' sort of way, which is okay, but you have to be careful or the reader actually won't read it due to the repetitiveness. As another reviewer said, be careful not to fall into cliche territory...it seems as though your plot line could get into the 'haunted doll' premise that quite a few horror novels use.

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fictionfanatic
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fictionfanatic commented Comment · Jun 14, 2011

'Ello, fictionfanatic here. Not time for a review right now because I must pack, but I shall review in a day or two! Just wanted to say love it, PM me when you post more!

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BelarusBirdy
Review
BelarusBirdy wrote a review Review · Jun 13, 2011

pretty good, but a bit cliche. (Sorry, I'm not trying to be a jerk.) One thing you need to think about is making all the "paranormal junk" different from the usual, boring stories we've gotten used to by now, having read many hundreds of them :) this is just a suggestion, but maybe you could start with telling something that happens later. it seems really interesting to me though, I can't wait to read more! just make sure it doesn't fall into the familiar pattern these stories often seem to. I tend to do that when I'm writing, i think the more you read these stories, the more you do. It's okay to have similarities to other stories, just make sure you have enough contrast to balance it all out.

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Sionarama
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Sionarama commented Comment · Jun 13, 2011

Can't to read what happens next!



The simple truth is that authors like making people squirm. If this weren't the case, all novels would be filled completely with cute bunnies having birthday parties.
— Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians