t

by somethingcreative

Published October 27, 2007

w y that.

Comments & reviews · 10
User avatar
xhalcyonx128
Review
xhalcyonx128 wrote a review Review · Nov 17, 2007

not bad :-)

i got how you were saying as soon as you got onto campus your freedom would be restricted (in ur 1st paragraph) but the puncuation could use some doublechecking.

My destination at the end of the 500 (I’ve now become too lazy to write out 500)
this really highlights the frustration of college-hopping (not a real word i know)

it can use some work, but the overall purpose is good, keep it up.

oh one grammer thing that stuck w me: "Mom's Against Life" should be "Moms" (btw thats also a nice use of humor)

i dont think you need the disclaimers in your last paragraph, it takes away from the body of the piece.

User avatar
Kim
Review
Kim wrote a review Review · Oct 30, 2007

wow you got hammered on this one, icaruss should not be posting replys. i liked it, i could see the humour and the frustration. i am not one to critique on grammar, as i am still learning myself, but i do read and i liked it.
keep going, dont listen to the wolves , who cant put in a positive thought.

kim

User avatar
Tessitore
Review
Tessitore wrote a review Review · Oct 29, 2007

An interesting read for sure, but there are a few things I would change. Azila seems to have caught most of them, however, so I'll just give you a synopsis of my opinion:

I like this style, but it seems either forced or not read through enough. As always I condone the trick of saying your piece out loud to yourself (or reading it to others) in order to find the right flow. You have a particular style I think you're trying to get across without appearing to false in it all, but there's still much here that needs to be smoothed out.

I enjoyed your first three paragraphs and the style therein, but the last half of your narrative seems too rushed, too forced, and does not flow with the first half. I liked the first half, it was nice. Only thing is that when you're speaking from first person, try not to interject yourself too much within your narrative like:

My destination at the end of the 500 (I’ve now become too lazy to write out 500) is my 4th college in a year and a half.


When you write (I've now become too lazy to write out 500)... it's a major drag in the story. For one, you could say "I'm too lazy to write 500" or some variation thereof, but your interruption is too LONG. Keep it short, or don't put it in, or just continue it without the () as part of your original narrative.

The reader does not generally care what your current mood writing out five hundred V. 500 is. They're just reading the story, and reading it for content. Keep that in mind.

Keep it up.

User avatar
Azila
Comment
Azila commented Comment · Oct 29, 2007

It was pretty good. I see what you're trying to do, but I think it needs a tad more work. Like Icaruss said, it is a bit choppy at times. Especially all of the "Disney (trademark)"s in the end paragraph. And also it just seems like it's a sentence about one thing, a sentence about another thing... then another sentence about another thing, then a sentence about the first thing again, you know what I mean?

Traveling over five hundred miles in a car where I’m not allowed to drink, soon not to talk, soon not to smoke and soon not to sing and when this day comes I will no longer be traveling any distance over ten miles.

It might just be me being stupid (which is very possible) but this sentence made next to no sense to me. I mean, I got the basic gist but there wasn't any flow and I had to read it four times over.

I begin to think that drinking 1 beer should be allowed if traveling over 300 miles, but the MAL would have none of that (Mom’s Against Life.)

I think you should put "(Moms Against Life)" right after "MAL" instead of at the end of the sentence. And make is "moms" not "mom's"

I made the overnight trip, in order to arrive on campus in time to attend my first class, who knows if this school took attendance or not. I was hoping they didn’t. I’m almost at 500 and looking for a spot to park. I drive down 1 road after another and at this point my car is going to need a lot of repairs going over the enormous holes in the roads that are on every road. I’m still driving in and out of holes and the time is running thin, I’m going to be late for class and mommy says that’s a nono.

Here is one of those places where it just seems like random sentences, you know? Try to keep paragraphs sorted by what they're about and not have paragraphs that are jumbly... I don't think that's a word, but oh well :lol:

A green and yellow ticket was sitting on my windshield and I think “At least they’re true to their school colors.”

There's some tense-switching going on here. See, "was" is in past, but "think" is in present. Of course, it might be intended, but as long as you know it's happening that's fine.

I do encourage you however to watch new Disney (Trademark) movies as they have banned smoking from their films. So if you’re trying to quit smoking watch Disney. (Trademark) I was paid by Disney (Trademark) to say that.

I think that especially for a piece like this the ending should be a conclusion of sorts. But what you did is just go off on another random topic.

Please PM me if you have any questions concerning my critique!
~Azila~

User avatar
Icaruss
Comment
Icaruss commented Comment · Oct 29, 2007

Wait. I misread. Yeah, you can't drink in the car, but then you say you can't smoke either. I guess it is confusing then. I don't get it.

somethingcreative commented Comment · Oct 29, 2007

Cool I respect that and most of your critique was true, but I can't fully respect it if you're seriously asking that question.

User avatar
Icaruss
Review
Icaruss wrote a review Review · Oct 29, 2007

Sorry, but I didn't like this. It was just too boring. The way you narrated, it seemed monotonous and bleak. Maybe that was your intention, I don't know, but it didn't flow well at all. In fact, it didn't flow at all. Each sentence was a chore to get through. Now, it wasn't confusing or anything, it was just too... I don't know. Too detached maybe. So when the bits that were supposed to be humorous came, I couldn't bring myself to even find them funny.

Oh, you know what? It was too repetitive. That's the word. Is that a word? Yeah, that's the word. Specially the first paragraph. And why can't you drink or smoke in College? I mean, you can't smoke during class but other than that... I don't know. I just didn't like it. Sorry.

User avatar
Azila
Review
Azila wrote a review Review · Oct 27, 2007

I suggest you not use "pre"

It makes it a weird font that I have trouble reading. Of course, if you don't do "pre" then there won't be indents, so you'll have to space out the paragraphs like I am in this post --with a space between all of the paragraphs (even dialogue).

That said, I really do have trouble reading it the way you have it, so I didn't even bother. Once you change it, PM me and I'll be happy to review it for ya. Sound good?

See you around!

~Azila~

somethingcreative commented Comment · Oct 27, 2007

As I'm new to this site, I had trouble formatting this when I tried to copy and paste it. Any suggestions?



Why should Caesar just get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar, right? Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar, and when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody because that's not what Rome is about! We should totally just stab Caesar!
— Gretchen Wieners