N/A.
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
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Alright then! So, about the story...
Good thing:
You have a great idea, a story about torture. The way you wrote it was enough to make me feel freaked out by reading it!
Bad thing:
Like Scasha says, it doesn't have much description or reaction from the characters. It would be a ton more exciting if you actually said "She was frightened out of her wits. What was going on here?" because then the reader can tell that there isn't an obvious reason the teacher is being tortured.
Good thing:
I like the ending,
I stayed when everyone else had left. Velten lowered himself slowly into his chair with a strained sigh. “You seemed distracted today, Adala, is something the matter?” His eyes went through me calmly and I felt he could read my thoughts.
“Just a little tired, Professor.”
“Well, get some sleep tonight. That’s all I had to ask, thank you, Miss Adala.” I was dismissed.
So creepy.
Keep at it! This would be a great horror story.
Hi Teardrop on fire! Welcome to YWS! I'll be your reviewer for the day!
Okay, I didn't really have time to nitpick through the rest of the piece so I decided to get right to the general comments:
The Good:
You have a very interesting idea here, especially the plotline, it seems thrilling!
Stuff you could Work On:
That Was Way Too Fast: One of the general rules about writing fiction is pacing. This is the first part of your story and we're already put right into the action. I know little about Adala's character so it is hard for me to understand the fear she feels when she sees Velten. Slow down! Don't rush all the scenes! Give the plot time to start itself.
The Three Ds: Description, details, and dialogue. in my opinion, you're missing all three. I want to be able to visualize exactly what is happening! Show us her surroundings, what she's wearing. Show us how she talks to her classmates! We have so little information to go off of it just seems as though this story is a skeleton, showing us where the action is going but not giving us any information about the characters.
In the Words of Gemma Doyle: If you hadn't written the disclaimer above about how this story is set at a boarding school in the 1800s I would have never known the time period. I would have just guessed it was happening in modern times. My advice? Read all you can about that time period, what they wore, how they spoke, what were the regular ideas of society at the time. For one thing, men did not teach at female boarding schools because most boarding/finishing schools were run by women. One piece of fiction that would be extremely helpful with trying to understand the time period would be the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first novel in the series). It includes magic and is also historically accurate so it will give you a good feel about the setting of your novel.
Realisticness?: Okay, some of the wording you used made it hard for me to visualize the pieces. This goes with the idea of details. Close your eyes and try to visualize what you mean. Then put it into words because I got very confused as to what the boxes meant and everything.
Show us a Story: Like I said above about the three ds I think it would be very helpful if you showed us everything that went on. For example instead of saying "My blood froze" show us by saying "My blood felt icy in my veins, a chill working its way up from the base of my spine. My hands shook as I bent down to peer into the hole, dread rocking in my stomach" or something like that. See the difference? Give us feeling!!
Does She Feel Anything?: I also felt that your character was emotionless. Is she angry that Velten makes her stay in detention? What did she even do to land herself in detention? I don't even think they had detention back then or at least they didn't call it that. Show us her rage, her happiness, anything that gives us an indication that she is alive.
Also, before you post a work of yours in the forums, you need to do 2 reviews. It should always be at least a 2:1 ratio (reviews:your own work). I reviewed this piece as long as you pinky swear that you'll do your second review! I hope I wasn't too harsh! You definitley have a lot of potential, you just need to give us more! Put flesh on this skeleton of a story and it'll be great! PM me if you have any questions or complaints!
Tell me if it was real enough