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I think the last half was pretty much unedited, except for Violet being older.
This was short enough that I don’t have many final comments. Pretty much all I had to say was written in the story, and most if it was sentence rephrasing and the like. I felt like sometimes you were repeating words or phrases (you mentioned several times how when Louis would kill he would ‘feel flesh tear and hear sinews break’). Some sentences seemed wordy too, so be careful for that. Be sure to weed out any unnecessary stuff and only say things in the most direct way. Lastly, hold back on the ellipses x). Most the time with dialogue, the reader will be able to feel the natural pauses and won’t need ellipses. Besides, they’re distracting, especially when you bunch a ton of them together.
Well, let me know about questions!
I liked this chapter for the soft aura it has of Louis’ love. I can understand that he has conflicting emotions between what he is and what he knows Violet needs him to be. I think you went a little too far in the first paragraph, though. Louis doesn’t seem like a loving father figure; almost like a lover. Tone down on his PDA and you’re golden.
The nitpicks are as follows:
First of all, I want to ask you about Louis’ eyesight. Somewhere forward a few chapters, you mention that Zayn is near-blind in daylight. Is this true for Louis too? If so, then the quoted passage above makes sense, but if it is not, then you should rewrite it. Either way, it is rather confusing. His eyes are open, but he still ‘reached across the floor blindly’?
Also, I find the whole thing about feeling her breathing rather wrong. If his senses are so keen that he can hear heartbeats, then why must he feel her just to tell if she is breathing? Moreover, that last little ‘She was’ seems rather blunt. I would cut it.
‘Forefinger’ is singular, ‘hands’ is plural; your action doesn’t match up.
What is an airstream? I gathered later on that it is some kind of portable house, a trailer of sorts, but it was a while later. I suggest that you refer to it as a trailer, just so you don’t confuse others like me.
Woah, wait; if it’s a trailer, then why does it have a wooden floor? Also, ‘floors’ is incorrect. Were it a house, you could say ‘floorboards’.
‘Shown through’ is the incorrect verb tense. You are using past tense, so it should be ‘showed through’. ‘Showed’ is a bad choice for a word though, perhaps you meant ‘shone’?
‘Dry shelter’ is a fragment. I notice that you use many fragments as frank, to-the-point descriptive phrases. This, however, is grammatically incorrect (even though it has a nice style to it) so use it sparingly.
Also, why is it not warm yet? He already has a fire, and he felt Violet’s ‘soft, warm skin’.
And set.
I like this line of imagery, definitely a keeper, but the futility note afterwards just detracts from it. I suggest you cut it.
Also, ‘while’ should be ‘whole’.
He should not ‘find’ this bottle, since he knows already it is in the duffle bag. He should ‘remove’ or ‘select’ it from the duffle bag.
Also, when referring to the organic origin of the milk, the adjective should be possessive. Goats milk, goat’s milk.
‘Rim’, ‘lip’, ‘edge’, not opening.
You need a space between ‘again,’ and ‘That’s’.
He must be very tall, and this airstream very short. Most trailers have a five-six to six foot ceiling, how tall is this guy?
You need a space between ‘bear,’ and ‘Here’.
This sentence is long, ungainly and just plain ugly. Cut, reduce, modify.
Three words: excessive prepositional phrases.
‘Minding’ seems a poor choice of words. Also, this sentence is too long and too wordy.
‘Nape of the neck’ sounds better, and certainly more technical.
‘Traveling’ is misspelled, depending on your nationality. If you speak British English, then it should be ‘travelling’. For Americans, ‘traveling’.
Or is it the other way around?
Far too many fragments going over the same idea again and again. Cut some, splice the others.
Splice these two sentences like so, “…in the world, and not just because he loved her so.”
So, he doesn’t need heat, yet he does have a body temperature. Why is that so?
I would imagine that a mythical cold-proof creature would also be just as cold as the surrounding air, it just wouldn’t feel anything. Simple laws of energy state would dictate that his body be just as cold as a stone if he is not generating heat. And why would he generate heat if he did not need it? Or is his heat so intense it keeps out the cold?
Just curious.
I love how you’ve used fragments here, especially that last one. See, this is how you should use them.
That last bit after the comma kinda dangles of uselessly. I suggest you either cut it or change the way you merge it into the first part.
At first, I thought the dogs stopped. You need to cut this into two sentences, like so:
“Louis backed away as the dogs approached. He stopped when he could feel the cold metal of a Grey Hound bus behind his back.
Instead of ‘stand’ I would suggest a different word, maybe ‘brush’ or ‘plume’ or ‘crest’.
Yes, definitely ‘crest’, not the first two.
‘Dilate’ means to open up. An ophthalmologist would often see pupils dilating when he shone lights into his patients’ eyes, but rarely would he ever describe their eyes as a whole to dilate. In connection to eyes, the verb ‘dilate’ is almost always used to describe the movement of the pupils, not eyes.
What you could say is:
“…how his pupils dilated erratically.”
What’s with this new line? It looks to me like you accidentally pressed ‘Enter’.
You need a space between ‘backward.’ and ‘Shit!’
Weren’t you capitalizing Wolf?
‘His’ refers to Louis. ‘He’ is the guard. However, you do not discern between the two, so it could be confusing. You need to clarify your pronouns.
When a dog snaps, he does it with his mouth. Same for a wolf, and I expected so with Louis. However, you say ‘snapped’ and then Louis uses his hands. Maybe you should change it.
Again with the dilation.
You need a comma after ‘snow’. Also, I would have called it ‘snow-white fur’ and left it at that:
“Snow-white fur unfurled all over his body…”
Also, how does he hide his tail in his human form? Or does it disappear completely?
‘Spay’ is a word, alright, but I’m pretty sure Louis isn’t ‘spaying’ himself.
Why didn’t it pop off like his shirt?
You need a space between ‘stuttered.’ and ‘I’m’.
‘Wagging’ is the incorrect tense, but even in the correct form it still is not the right word.
I would suggest that you cut the ‘that’, it makes it much more steamlined.
For a sinew (which is just a tendon) to pop, it must be stressed rather fully. Not at all what a neck sinew would be doing.
If his claws are sharp enough, they would not need to push hard against the sinews to cut them, thereby eliminating the pop you might get with a duller object.
At least…I believe so. I do not claim to know this from personal experience.
You haven’t mentioned him dropping the guy yet, so he’s gurgling his howl around a mouthful of human.
Howls are actually rather high-pitched. Raise the pitch and the sound carries farther. Lower it, and the effect is negative.
What about his clothes? And the blood all over him?
‘And their belongings’ is kinda tacked right on there without any special significance. Also, it is mildly incorrect in reference to the position of the verb.
It should be:
“He caught her and their belongings up in his arms…”
Cut the part I struck out. In fact, you could cut out the mention of the billboard entirely. Location isn’t too important right now, what with the intense emotion.
You need a space between ‘whispered,’ and ‘I’m’.
This is the second chapter, but I would change it if I were you. Change the first chapter to a prologue, then make this the first one. That way, you can spend a few more chapters on Louis, instead of switching back and forth between the two. After a few chapters on Louis, you can switch back to Zayn’s story, and spend some time on that. That format should be a little less confusing.
I know that you’ve already done a lot, but there’s still a long way to go yet.
Cheering you on,
Jenth
Thanks for all the excellent feedback guys
very nice paragraph
this paragraph shows a lot about his character. What he thinks about humans, and how much he hates dogs
I really love the description of this wolf; very unique.
great description
Wow, another amazing chapter, but first I have to say a few things that threw me off just a little bit.
You didn’t give Louis’s name until the chapter was nearly half over; you always referred to him as ‘He’. So when you first said it, I paused thinking ‘wait, who is that?’ and then I was like ‘oh yeah, that’s probably him.’ To clear up that moment of confusion, you should just stick his name at the very beginning. The first sentence really, and that would take care of it.
Secondly, I was tripped up just a bit when I realized that this was based on a futuristic society, when I was thinking it was some fantasy world. Not a big deal, just when you started describing old Shell stations and grills I got confused. That’s probably my bad, but if you can give any hints earlier to what time period this is in, it might help. Up to you.
Well, that’s really all the suggestions I had. You did such a great job with creating Louis’s character. To me, he’s very unique, and it’s a lot of fun to watch him through the story. I especially like how you made him treat Violet as if she was his daughter, not necessarily his lover. Oh, and it would also help if you gave us an idea how old she is.
Your descriptions are amazing; they constantly give me that wow factor. I think you’re story has a great mix of words that makes it seem both violent and beautiful.
I really want to read more of this. PM me when you get more up? Thanks.
I'm surprised this doesn't have more views/comments O_O
I love how you go from having the reader believe that Luis is just some normal person and in love (girlfriend/boyfriend) with violet to fatherly figure to savior to wherwulf. Also, you make it so that the reader wants to side with him even if the rest of the world vews him as a moster.
Okay, i just want to say one thing. Replying to your work is so hard because i want to help and critique your writing but i can't find anything wrong with it! Keep it up and let me know when you post the next part to this!