Dear diary,
Today is Wednesday, December 16th, 1894. The weather in London had been absolutely freezing, and I've had quite a few mishaps today. The end of my day was not that bad--in fact, if it had not been as lovely as it was, I would have gone barking mad
My day started at half past five in the morning. The floor was very hot and warm. Thank goodness my brother remembered to wake up and put the fire on, or Mother would go bonkers. I looked outside; snow was everywhere and it was freezing. mother was worrying about my brothers, my sisters, and me. She said it was the coldest winter since 1867. My sisters were very worried about it as well, but we had to start our jobs so no time to worry. My first job was throwing out the contents of the chamber pot. father had gone to the pub last night and he had used it--pooh, was it smelly! . I hate that job so I tried to do it quickly, but there’s no avoiding that smell. My next job was helping my sisters cook breakfast. i cut my hand on a knife and got blood on the floor. mother got really angry. Then I got ready for school. our school uniform was very ugly. us girls had to wear these horrible dresses which mother said weren't worth the .... we paid for them.
Next I went to school in the bitter snow. I was unbearably cold. Anyway I reached school just as the bell rang. There was a substitute with a very dreary voice that made you want to go to sleep. Firstly we did drills (I personally think drills are very useless). Then we did reading. I laid my head down on my desk and my teacher told me to sit with the back straightener (very painful). The rest of the school day carried on sadly as it began.
5:00 came and I before I knew it, I was off into town with my brothers and sisters--were were going into Central London. My brothers were boot boys and my sisters and I were selling bunches of flowers. We sold twelve bunches of flowers a pair, to be exact. By around seven o'clock we had run out of bunches to sell so we all--including our brothers--set off home. We counted our money--20 shillings! Enough for warm, delicious meals all week. We were so happy as we came home.
We reached home to be welcomed by the mouth-watering smell of warm chicken. We told mother and father the good news; they gave us each a gentle hug and kiss. No matter the weather today: I will sleep with a warm heart.
By Lil-mizzkitty1
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Mark this comment as a review? Points will be awarded to the poster.
Your comment was posted, but it wasn’t long enough to count as a review. Reviews need about four complete sentences (at least 250 characters). Try writing another review that explains your thoughts in more detail — the author will appreciate it, and you’ll earn points for it.
Agree that exact time shouldn't be used because way back when, common folk didn't utilize the wonders of clocks. hard to believe anyone could live without one. Anyways, you might want to do away with time (?) becuase our culture tends to be very time-oriented, and back then it wasn't so much. Read Little House on the Prairie. It should help you get the style you need to really set the mood (granted, it's in 2nd grade reading level, but you can work it up a little)
probably should establish social class. This quote
leaves me wondering where the family is on the social ladder. you need to establish who she ( i am assuming gender. need to fix that too) is. In the 1800's social class defined who you were, and definitly changed the dynamics of your life. Read The Little Princess. Great contrasting of social standing in that book.
Establish age too. You could do this through school scene quite easily also.
But great idea, keep going with it. Vaguly remember reading books with this setup and loved them! So remember to make it your own story, not someone else's
I'm slightly uncomfortable with the fact that I don't really know what the gender of the person writing the diary is. I'm assuming they're female but it would be nice to know for sure.
Just to be nitpicky, I'm not entirely sure "5:30am" would have been written in the 1890s. It sounds way too modern. "Half past five" sounds more realistic.
I didn't understand when you said the floor was hot but it was freezing outside. That just seemed to defy logic. o_O
Anyway, I liked it overall, but I would like to see more entries, I think that would be interesting. Just be aware of the fact that it is the 19th century and be careful not to let modern terms slip in.
There were a lot of errors, most of which got pointed out, but those are easily fixed. However, it really seems like there is absolutely no point to this. While it is interesting, I don't know where you're going with it or what is going on in the story at all. It doesn't really read like a diary entry or even a story - not enough emotion to be a diary, not enough explanation to just be a first-person story. The wording is incredibly shaky, but playing with sentence structure will fix it.
I'm interested to read this if you do a rewrite.
This is interesting. Here the weather is rainy right now and there are a lot of poor flower-sellers in thee streets too. So, it was so easy to see you story. I like it. You write as if you were there, with them. That is very important for writer. Very good.
This was interesting. I was confused at first whether Ma'am was the employer or the mother; when I realized, it made sense.
You might want to make it more exciting; as a diary people generally discuss what new, interesting things happened in their days. This seems more of an essay on what a day was like for people in the 1800s.
I'm no expert, but in the 1800s, one rich enough to have carpet would not need to sell flowers on the street, correct? Of course, I may not be correct, so you may want to do some research on this.
Another of my 'peeves' is that I don't think a lower-middle class girl in this time period would attend school. Wouldn't she be working all day? If they are upper class, shouldn't she be receiving private lessons and not having to sell anything?
You may want to describe how one could cut themselves while washing clothes. That didn't make sense to me, 21st century person that I am.
I think it's a good shell to expand on. There were some punctuation errors, but those can easily be fixed.
Remember, you should review two pieces before posting something of your own. Welcome to the Young Writers Society!
Dear Diary, "Diary" should be capitalized.
Today is Wednesday, December 16th, 1894. The weather in London had been absolutely freezing, and I've had quite a few mishaps today. The end of my day was not that bad--in fact, if it had not been as lovely as it was, I would have gone barking mad
See how I rephrased parts of this paragraph? It sounds much better this way. Also, there was a lack of punctuation, so I fixed that, as well.
My day started at 5:30 A.M. this morning.
You needed a semicolon inbetween the hour and the minute. Also, why bother putting A.M. if you're going to put "in the morning" as well? It was unnecessary. You could have it either way, though. Either put A.M. and leave out "in the morning" or keep "in the morning" and leave out A.M.
Hot and warm are the same thing, no?
No matter the weather today, I will sleep with a warm heart.
Overall: I think you should do some research on late 19th century London! I'm no expert, but I've read enough books, done a little research, and learned enough to know that this is a very vague account of London at the time.
You told more than you showed--we want to know what London looks like, feels like, sounds like! There was no dialouge! I understand that it's a journal entry, but I think that everyone puts at least a few lines of dialouge in entries...yes?
You're not very specific, but that can be worked on.
Little description! Again, I want to know the sights, smells, and sounds of London!
This was a good attempt, but by changing these things, adding more, and doing a little research, this story will really start to take off. Don't stop writing!
Welcome to YWS! I hope you like it here! If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me!!!
-x-Ashes