Published December 8, 2010
Prologue
“How do I always get pulled into these situations?” I could help but think “I try to do something good for once and it ends up backfiring in my face”.
I sat back in the my chair and sighed. The cold steel of the handcuffs, was a constant reminder that I was someone’s prisoner. Someone who I had yet to meet. Someone whose sense of style (if you don’t mind me saying) way out of whack.
Sure the chair that I was sitting in and the table in front of me were nice. But the room itself, was in desperate need of a splash of color. Scratch that, the room needed a complete makeover. Anything to block out the blinding white paint, that coated the walls and ceiling.
I looked around the room once more, and couldn’t help but think of the events, that got me into this predicament in the first place. Those events seemed to pale in comparison to everything that was happening right now. It all stated with a little prank...
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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,
Hmm...well going through this, it doesn't quite make for a prologue here. This honestly sounds like it would be a much better fit for the start of a first chapter with the kind of tone we have here and the ending, which while working as a cliffhanger, honestly sounds like a bit of a segway into an explanation there...and not quite like an ending.
That aside though, we've got a pretty strong piece here. The description of the situation is quite nice, its short, but it manages to bring across the gravity of the situation nicely and show that things aren't so well for the person involved although you also don't get much of a sense of mortal danger. There's a light touch of humor across the whole thing and I get the sense that while this person is worried, they're not necessarily in that much of a predicament or at least they're fairly confident of being able to escape when they need to.
The voice of the main character here is also quite likeable which is great cause in first person that is rather essential since they will be essentially narrating the story to us...so uhh, off to a really nice little start 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
Hey-oh! Drudging this up because I want to read the latest chapter and to do that, I need to read the whole thing! Yay for more crit?
This might just be a personal thing for me, but I really don't like parentheses in fiction. They just feel too much like something out of a textbook or formal paper. If you use them a lot and make a statement of style with them, fine, but here, there's only one and what's in it could really be put into the sentence no problem. Example:
Someone whose sense of style, if you don't mind me saying, was way out of whack.
Exact same words here, just with the parentheses removed. It looks better, it flows better and you don't lose any of the meaning whatsoever. It's still understood to be somewhat aside.
I liked this. It was sort of spunky and snarky and made me wonder about this character, that they could be so upbeat in what is obviously not a good situation. It was really short though and that makes me wonder how necessary it is as a prologue. I mean, I haven't read the first chapter yet, but does it continue from here? If so, why not just put this prologue at the beginning of the chapter and combine them? Not every story needs a prologue and in fact, many readers, presented with so many unnecessary prologues in books and stories, will often skip them because they don't really add much to the story itself. When I get to the next bit, I'll be sure to let you know if I think this was really all that necessary. It was interesting, but it it's not needed, the interestingness doesn't save it.
All in all, I liked this. It was really short, so I didn't have much time to make an opinion, but like I said, I liked the character's voice. It has me intrigued and so I wander on to the next chapter!
Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions!
~GryphonFledgling
Hi! Thanks for the request. ^_^
A wee bit of a punctuation issue here. Should be: “How do I always get pulled into these situations?” I could help but think. “I try to do something good for once and it ends up backfiring in my face."You don't need the comma after "handcuffs."
You don't need the comma after "itself." Also, I find the repetition of "of" a little disturbing here. Maybe try making it either: "But the room itself was in desperate need of some color." or: "But the room itself desperately needed a splash of color."
You don't need the comma after "paint."
You don't need the comma after "events."
I think you probably meant to say "started."
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Okay that's it for the nit-picks (you really like commas, don't you?!).
Overall, I'm really sorry to say this, but I'm not sure how much help I can be. Why? Because it's so short. I haven't even said anything yet and my review is already longer than the whole prologue! I honestly can't say I really got anything out of reading this, just because there's hardly anything there. The version that StoryWeaver reviewed seems to have been much longer... why did you shorten it? I don't have anything against short things, as a rule, it's just that I'm not exactly sure what the point of writing this is. I mean, the purpose of a prologue is to introduce your reader to your character(s) and your setting, right?
Well, from what I glimpsed, it seems like a cool start of a novel. I like that there's a character who's obviously in a pretty dangerous situation, and all they're thinking about is that the room could use a makeover--nice touch. But that's about it. I glimpsed your character, glimpsed the situation they're in... but other than that, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to come away with.
I suggest really considering why you're writing this. I mean, do you think your novel really needs a prologue, or are you just writing one because you feel like novels should have prologues? And what do you hope to accomplish with this prologue?
Another thing to keep in mind is that in a published book, you could have a really short prologue because the readers could immediately just flip right on th chapter one. But here, on this website, the prologue is all we get. If you really want it to be so short, I suggest you post it along with chapter one so we have something to look at. Because as it is, I can't really find much to review here. ^_~
PM me or write on ym wall if you've got any questions!
a
I didn't like the beginning much because it wasn't really intriguing, but as I read on it mellowed out.
You should start off with a bang so that your readers will WANT to continue rading, rather then feel forced to.
I like your writing style though, so please keep writing
Okay, so overall, we don't get a whole lot from this first chapter, and I would've liked to see some more personality, especially from the main character. I still don't know where this story's going, but so far it just didn't really hook me in. Try to find an opening that's more convincing. Something that screams "read me!" Because I'm already trying to keep up with a couple of stories on this site, like a lot of other people; we don't keep up with the ones that are just okay. But I think you could turn this around and make it really interesting. Just find the way to convince me this is worth reading.
Keep writing,
StoryWeaver