Waiting for the Breeze - intro

by talkingbird

Published May 2, 2010

This isn't really a short story, it's an intro to a much longer one, i just wanted some feedback. You can find the rest under novels and novellas, but right now there's only this. Thanks!

Waiting for the Breeze

Introduction

The town, by definition, was a façade. Its semblance depicted a place where kids of well-to-do parents lightheartedly hang out in the town center and mostly receive good, private school education. People visualize it as a place that seems so isolated from reality, only attaching themselves to it through community service. But this description belies the truth. For it is not detached from reality, reality is embedded in it. It is the epitome of the Titanic, a ship that sets off, but never reaches its destination. Yet, there were survivors of the Titanic, so there will be survivors of this town.

But Maggie Byrne refused to go down with that ship and refused to merely withstand the fatal crash. The seemingly ebullient green landscape, quaint shops, and safe town center gave the feeling of impenetrability, like it could withstand any hardship, but it couldn’t, the people couldn’t. The citizens of this town where forever falling into a hole of insecurity and other issues which lead to troublesome corollaries, just like her family. She repudiated the lives of her sisters, Gillian and Ani, which played before her.

Gillian was well out of college and well into her alcoholic’s anonymous group. She had been the model student, the personification of what had seemed at the time, like success. Then she moved to the city for college. By the end of her schooling she had total academic perfection and her future lay before her, but now that that was accessible, she had no more goals but to continue. To carry on walking down the littered gray sidewalk through throngs of people under reflective glass and mundane buildings to her job as C.E.O. in a big company. But while walking through the crowds of people, street performers, and artist she realized all the things she could’ve been and all the things she didn’t perfect.

Social perfection was one. She had friends, but none she held near to her. She was liable to drive any boyfriend away as a result of her excessive work schedule and dull personality. Thus, she broke down at every small rejection pertaining to these things and drank the pain away. And eventually she drank the job away, too.

But no, Maggie refused a life like that, more than her other sister, Ani's life. She was bubbly and superficial, once had tons of friends, and the social power to discard them. Her future? She had thrown that away years ago, and now she was without the power to get that, and the friends she once had back. Maggie didn’t want to be the person to rely on looks and luck and fail when that luck ran out.

She did not want to simply be a survivor, only to go back England where she started. No, Maggie wanted to take a life boat and continue the journey, to row all the way to New York.

Comments & reviews · 3
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talkingbird
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talkingbird commented Comment · May 3, 2010

Thanks for the reviews!
And yes, I know this isn't a short story, but I wanted to post it here to get some more feedback because I wasn't getting any in the novels and novella section.
And yeah, in an acting class we had to do this really intense character devolpment thing and I decided to use some of that in my writing, but I'll try to work on Maggies.
:)

captain.classy wrote a review Review · May 3, 2010

Hiya!

So I thought this was a good piece of writing, but isn't really a short story. It seemed more like two character profiles pushed into one block of writing.

What I did like about this were your descriptions! They were such a pleasure to read. All these little things about your characters made them see so much more real. I love how you took the time to actually get to know your characters before trying to tell others about them. That's really good. :)

Keep writing,

Classy

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Snoink
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Snoink wrote a review Review · May 2, 2010

Hey talkingbird!

Interesting beginning! I like the language and the way you bring us into the characters' lives. Now, my main suggestion here is to describe more about Maggie. In what ways do her differences show out and how does she live her life differently from her sisters, using real examples? Right now, you're just telling us, and I would really like for you to show us. :)



But there was no goat man, there was NEVER any goat man!
— OSP Red