Hey Whyte, welcome to YWS! ^^ Quick note-- one of the site's main rules is that you have to post at least two reviews on someone else's writing for every one thing you post. So, because you've posted this story, you'll need to give some comments on something else on YWS.
It was a dark night at the lake, as the silvery glow of the moon shimmered across the water, everything was still.
I really like this description as a first sentence, but there are some minor grammatical things. For this to make sense, you'll need to rephrase it as one of the following:
It was a dark night at the lake, and as the silvery glow of the moon shimmered across the water, everything was still.
-or-
It was a dark night at the lake, as the silvery glow of the moon shimmered across the water. Everything was still.
I, personally, like the second option a bit more. ^^ But, it's your choice.
He brushed off his coat and sat down in the dirt by the tree, "I’m Aaron" he said.
Shivering from the rain, she replied "I.. I'm Brittany".
Aaron stood up, removed his jacket, and placed it over her shoulders. "Here," he said "you need it more then I do.” "Where do you live?" he asked. "In the city, me and my family came down here for the weekend. We wanted to get away from it all." “I know what you mean," Aaron said, "it’s truly beautiful here”.
Alright, quick grammar check-up:
Check out this article on punctuation within dialogue, okay? You're missing commas and such between your quotation marks.
Secondly, whenever you have a new person speaking, you have to start a new paragraph. For example, with your story, it would be written like this:
He brushed off his coat and sat down in the dirt by the tree. "I'm Aaron," he said.
Shivering from the rain, she replied, "I...I'm Brittany."
Aaron stood up, removed his jacket, and placed it over her shoulders. "Here," he said, "you need it more than I do. Where do you live?" he asked.
"In the city. My family and I came down here for the weekend. We wanted to get away from it all."
"I know what you mean," Aaron said. "It's truly beautiful here."
See the way I started a new paragraph with each new dialogue? PM me if you need more help with that.
![Arrow :arrow:](./images/smilies/icon_arrow.gif)
Alright. I think this was written pretty well, but I'm having an issue with your plot-line here. It's just really far-fetched and unbelievable. Think about it: a girl goes under a tree during a storm (which is, actually, a really bad idea since lightning will strike the tallest thing around, and therefore strike the tree, which might get her electrocuted) and meets her true love under the moonlight. They share a passionate kiss (after knowing each other for only a couple of hours) and then Brittany spends the entire next year fantasizing about a guy whose last name she doesn't even know.
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
Now, why it's a beautiful concept, the whole 'love at first sight' thing, it's rather unrealistic. Your readers want to read something they can connect with, and I think you're missing a bit of that here. Aaron and Brittany's relationship would be so much easier to relate to without the passionate kiss, or maybe with him, instead, writing his phone number on a piece of paper right before she leaves. Add a twist, maybe-- have her drop his jacket in the mud and become really embarrassed, or something like that. Put yourself in Brittany's situation: would you really curl up against and fall asleep under the stars with someone you've never met before, who happens to seem friendly?
Just work on making this more believable, and I think you'll have a wonderfully cute love story.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
![Arrow :arrow:](./images/smilies/icon_arrow.gif)
One thing that you'll see repeated over and over again in reviews on this site is the advice to show, don't tell. Well, you ask, what's the difference?
The clouds had seemed to come from nowhere and pretty soon lightning was tearing at the sky. Brittany rushed for the shelter of a large nearby tree.
Soaking wet from the storm she huddled up next to the trunk, in the hope the rain would pass just a quickly as it had come.
While this is some perfectly fine telling about the action in a scene, actually showing the emotions and the descriptions would make this really interesting. I'll just give you an example of how you could go about this, although you should certainly figure out your own way to add that extra OOMPH:
The clouds descended from nowhere, suffocating the sky so that the lightning had to tear through the gray blanket in ordet to strike. She looked up, grimacing. By the time I get home, she thought worriedly, the storm will be disastrous. Huge. Squinting through the missles of rain, she rushed for the shelter of a nearby tree.
Soaking wet from the storm, she huddled up next to the massive trunk of the three, shivering, muddy, and exhausted. One more glance towards the sky, and she hoped the rain would pass as quickly as it had come.
Now, that's certainly not the best way to do that, but see how it went a bit beyond just telling how she felt to showing what was happening around her?
All in all, a nice little love story. If you worked a bit on your believability and description, this will be great!
PM me for anything.
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
~Evi
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