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Young Writers Society



she cared when no one else did.....

by dramagurly


"Why is this happening to me?" Kara asked herself while she was walking home on that cold wintery day. She tried to hold back her tears as she watched her breath show up like a cloud of smoke. A lump had settled in her throat and Kara was afraid it wouldn't leave her.Her dirty blonde hair swayed in the icy wind as her thoughts raced around in her head. She thought of her used to be beloved one.

"Stupid Krystal," Kara muttered and shivered from the coldness. "She ruins everything and i dont know what guys see in her," Kara whispered as tears slowly started to drip down her face. "I dont get it!" Kara sobbed as she stopped and sat down at a nearby bench. "Why can't I be her!" Kara wailed as she thought of how pretty and popular Kristy was. She let the tears crawl down her cheeks as she thought of how pitiful she was.

After what seemed like hours Kara stood up on her feet and slowly said to herself "Someday i'll be better than Krystal," and chanted that to herself for the rest of the walk home, hoping that someday, it would come true. Kara cried herself to sleep the rest of the nights after that. Every night tears fell out of her blue eyes and rolled down her rosy cheeks.

(Years later)

Kara walked along her highschool grounds as she breathed the fresh smell of cut grass. Spring was her favorite season. She walked with the boys who adored her. Her wish had come true. Krystal became addicted to drugs and her prettines went away. The boys were all over Kara now. She was in Krystal's shoes now. She had the best boyfriend she could ever imagine an she was as happy as a clam. Sadly a year after her graduation Krystal died from drugs and the only person that attended her funereal *other than her parents* was a happy girl that had blue eyes and a pretty smile that once was known as a loser. This persons name......was Kara.


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Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:15 am
KateHardy wrote a review...



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,

"Why is this happening to me?" Kara asked herself while she was walking home on that cold wintery day. She tried to hold back her tears as she watched her breath show up like a cloud of smoke. A lump had settled in her throat and Kara was afraid it wouldn't leave her.Her dirty blonde hair swayed in the icy wind as her thoughts raced around in her head. She thought of her used to be beloved one.

"Stupid Krystal," Kara muttered and shivered from the coldness. "She ruins everything and i dont know what guys see in her," Kara whispered as tears slowly started to drip down her face. "I dont get it!" Kara sobbed as she stopped and sat down at a nearby bench. "Why can't I be her!" Kara wailed as she thought of how pretty and popular Kristy was. She let the tears crawl down her cheeks as she thought of how pitiful she was.


Well this is an interesting start here. We've got ourselves an interesting start right here. We've got ourselves a powerful little moment here. This character seems to have a pretty intriguing relationship with this other person here and I think it gets our attention quite well that way. The disappointment there is highlighted really powerfully and you do get a sense that something powerful has happened as a result of how strong those details are. Well let's see where this goes.

After what seemed like hours Kara stood up on her feet and slowly said to herself "Someday i'll be better than Krystal," and chanted that to herself for the rest of the walk home, hoping that someday, it would come true. Kara cried herself to sleep the rest of the nights after that. Every night tears fell out of her blue eyes and rolled down her rosy cheeks.


Well this part adds an interesting element to the whole matter. It adds on another sort of view in the whole idea of this person and what they seem to be considering their goal in life. Now it seems almost as if this is a little more towards the unhealthy side of things than something this girl might have done to her, although given the lack of information here, nothing can fully be ruled out either.

Kara walked along her highschool grounds as she breathed the fresh smell of cut grass. Spring was her favorite season. She walked with the boys who adored her. Her wish had come true. Krystal became addicted to drugs and her prettines went away. The boys were all over Kara now. She was in Krystal's shoes now. She had the best boyfriend she could ever imagine an she was as happy as a clam. Sadly a year after her graduation Krystal died from drugs and the only person that attended her funereal *other than her parents* was a happy girl that had blue eyes and a pretty smile that once was known as a loser. This persons name......was Kara.


Okay... that ending is a little on the nose there, and also quite rushed. Its an interesting one. It's almost dare I say satisfying in how it manages to deliver quite powerfully on the emotions built up from earlier and provide something of a foil to the earlier bit. But it is a little ruined by just how fast it is and the way you just go a touch to the extreme on just how badly it goes for this Krystal.

Aaaaand that's it for this one.

As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.

Stay Safe
Harry




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Sun Feb 04, 2007 4:23 pm
Cade wrote a review...



This came off as awfully tell-y and not show-y. Instead of saying, "Kara is jealous," or something, give me some actions or thoughts that show me she's jealous. The reader will be able to infer for himself or herself.

The ending hit me like a punch in the stomach. Not in a good way. I mean, the whole last paragraph. It was all of a sudden, "Look, I didn't have enough time to finish the story properly, so I wrote a synopsis so you can see what happened!" Take some time to flesh the story out. If you're going to have a story this short, it can't possibly cover all of these things without leaving the reader in the dust.

Colleen




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Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:16 am
mandylynn16 says...



it's "especially", not "expeshilly"




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Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:13 pm
irnbru666 wrote a review...



I liked this piece, I can see where you were coming from and, as alot of girls would, know those feelings. I'd love if it this piece was extended, so as the reader could get more of Kara's feelings about Krystal.

I really think if there was, even a short history of events leading up to, what I assume was, Krystal stealing Kara's boyfriend, then the reader could get more of a feel for Kara and Krystal's bond as friends, because if it was really strong, then all of a sudden, that happened, the reader could really relate to Kara as a character and her emotions at the time :D




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Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:49 pm
Jess_14 says...



Why is Kara so upset over not being liked by as many guys as Kristy?




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Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:43 pm
falling in love says...



I like this piece. Is there going to be more? I want to know how Kara became the popular girl and vis versa. I hope there is more. I would crit on what I saw but Duskglimmer pretty much covered it so much better than I could have. Good job.




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Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:27 am
dramagurly says...



thank you!! a lot!! :D
i'll make sure to write more stories.
thats a given.




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Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:24 am
Duskglimmer says...



There's nothing to apologize for. We're all here to help each other out. I look forward to seeing more of your work around the site.




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Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:11 am
dramagurly says...



thanx! sorryn its kinda my first time1
i hope to get better and ill use these tips! =]




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Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:09 pm
Duskglimmer wrote a review...



I'm gonna start off by welcoming you to the site! It's always nice to get new members and we love seeing new work on the forums. If you wander over to the welcome forums you'll get to meet some of our other members and let them get to know you. Either way, it's nice to have you.

Now, starting on your piece...

I don't get the title. It sounds pretty, but doesn't have much meaning behind it, and especially when paired with the piece it just seems out of place. If the title refers to Krystal, than we need more information about her. If it refers to Kara, then I'm completely lost. All we see Kara doing is calling Krystal stupid and smiling at her funeral. It doesn't seem very caring to me.

In you first paragraph, I think you can come up with a more effective opening than a little teenage angsting. I know it's probably the easiest thing to come up with, but you can put together something that will have a bigger impact. I would rather have a little description to introduce Kara before we hear her talk. That's a personal preference on my part.

dramagurly wrote:A lump had settled in her throat and Kara was afraid it wouldn't leave her.


I really like this sentence, but I'd rather you used something other than the cliched "lump in her throat". Try and think of some other way to describe it. Your piece is very short, so you have to pack as much as you can into each word. Think about what you want to say and then say it. Don't use other people's words.

dramagurly wrote:She thought of her used to be beloved one.


That should be "used-to-be beloved one" at the very least. However, I would like to see a better lead in from Kara walking in the cold wondering why something is "happening" to her, to talking about Krystal.

dramagurly wrote:"Stupid Krystal," Kara muttered and shivered from the coldness. "She ruins everything and i dont know what guys see in her," Kara whispered as tears slowly started to drip down her face. "I dont get it!" Kara sobbed as she stopped and sat down at a nearby bench. "Why can't I be her!" Kara wailed as she thought of how pretty and popular Kristy was. She let the tears crawl down her cheeks as she thought of how pitiful she was.


If you look at the structure of this paragraph, things get pretty repetitive:

It's dialog, Kara muttered such as she did such and such. Dialog, Kara whispered as she did such and such. Dialog, Kara sobbed as she did such and such. Dialog, Kara wailed as she did such and such. She did such as she did such.

That's a lot of "as"s and you could make it more interesting for the reader if you varied things up a bit. Try grouping more of the dialog together instead of making it all separate statements and just slip the action in instead of having all these breaks to let us watch her sit down and let tears drip down her face.

dramagurly wrote:After what seemed like hours Kara stood up on her feet and slowly said to herself "Someday i'll be better than Krystal," and chanted that to herself for the rest of the walk home, hoping that someday, it would come true.


Why? What made her say that? What made her decide that she would be better than Krystal? I feel myself wanting more of the situation between Kara and Krystal to understand what was going on.

From this paragraph, I'm led to believe that Krystal has somehow done something wrong and that it hurt Kara. Maybe Krystal was rubbing her good luck with guys in, or something like that?

But from the rest of the piece, it just seems like Kara is jealous and Krystal is just too pretty for her own good.

Which is true? Help the reader out and give a little more background.

dramagurly wrote:Kara cried herself to sleep the rest of the nights after that.


A little too dramatic for me. You haven't really given enough internal pain on Kara's part to make her crying every night seem plausible and it's just a bit too much. One minute she's chanting that she'll be better than Krystal and the next she's still at rock bottom. After a decision like that, I expect fierce determination and drive, not crying herself to sleep.

dramagurly wrote:Every night tears fell out of her blue eyes and rolled down her rosy cheeks.


You've already said that she cried every night after that. I don't know how you can cry without tears, so it seems to me that the beginning of this sentence with rather superfluous.

And tears rolling down rosy cheeks... I don't really see that either. My nose turns red when I cry, and if I'm crying hard enough, my face does too, but I wouldn't describe it as "rosy".

dramagurly wrote:Krystal became addicted to drugs and her prettines went away.


"prettines" should be "prettiness". The YWS has a spellchecker built into the posting system. I would suggest that you use it just to pick up little things like that.

dramagurly wrote:She had the best boyfriend she could ever imagine an she was as happy as a clam.


This is another place I would like to see something more of your own words.
Honestly, although I know that it's a common phrase, I have no idea how happy a clam is and therefore I have no picture from this sentence.

dramagurly wrote:Sadly a year after her graduation Krystal died from drugs and the only person that attended her funereal *other than her parents* was a happy girl that had blue eyes and a pretty smile that once was known as a loser.


I don't think that the asterisks are used correctly here. I would much rather see some parentheses or dashes to set that phrase apart. Also, it seems rather odd to only have three people at a funeral. Didn't Krystal have extended family?

And I touched on this earlier, but it seems very unfeeling to describe Kara as being "a happy girl" at a funeral. It leaves me not liking Kara very much and because she's your MC, I would say that that's something you don't want. Maybe you can change that up at bit?

dramagurly wrote:This persons name......was Kara.


I know that you're going for the dramatic with this sentence. Having the sentence drawn out with that really long ellipsis kind of gives that away (you only need three dots in an ellipsis).

However, I don't think you need this sentence at all. We already know that the girl with the blue eyes was Kara and the previous sentence leaves us with more of an impact that this one.

Also, this ending just come across wrong to me. What in the world made Krystal turn to drugs? Why does Krystal die? Was that really needed? Why did Kyrstal have to be destroyed to put Kara in her proper place? It just leaves me feeling empty and the whole things seems more like the author has a vendetta against Krystal and wants to see her miserable. Is there possibly another way you can pull it together?

I hope I don't come across too harsh with this and I hope it helps.

Good luck in future writing and in editing this piece!





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