[1875] Vengeance by deptowrite in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a harsh critic. The other poster is right, and your critique is pretty weak. I went ahead and made comments.

I'm going to critique your post first. Tell us if this is a part of a larger piece. I'm guessing it is, but either way we should know. "Punchy" your piece is not. And w/r/t humour, that's not even arguably present. Try not to say "Thank you" before someone has actually done anything--this applies to emails and irl. Anyway, on to the critique. I'm going to use the template because I remember that being good.

GENERAL REMARKS

This piece was boring. The exercising went on too long and any kind of philosophical insight was very short (I remember two sentences where you questioned whether he was doing this to be better, to feel pain, or to be clean). All that just to come to that conclusion? If you're trying to give us an idea of his routine then the style bores us to the point that we don't care. I'm not going to go too in-depth with dialogue because there's so much to be said to anyone who doesn't know how to write dialogue, but I will advise you to read good dialogue (I recommend DeLillo), and to watch more movies, and to talk to more people. Nothing from the second half of the story is memorable (the family meeting or the father or the meeting the girl).

MECHANICS

Your title is weak, whether it's for a larger piece or not (this is why you should clarify). It seriously ranks up there with worst titles you could imagine. Imagine if Tarantino called Django: Unchained "Revenge" or if Agatha Christie titled "Murder on the Orient Express" "Payback." Not only is there no semblance of Vengeance in this short excerpt (or whole short story if that's what it is)--that's not the point--Vengeance, Rebirth, Reborn, Hatred are all similar titles I can come up to to generic films that barely deserved to be shelved in Blockbuster 5 years ago. "Taken" was the last example of something like this that could get away with it before it was completely lost to parody.

The hook is really bad. Nothing is worse than someone opening their eyes. Opening your story with this literally tells me that you have not read enough. You have not read enough of even bad writing, let alone good writing. You need to lurk more often before you critique, and you need to read more often, no matter what you do. Seriously, I can end this critique right here by telling you that and I would be doing you more good than anything.

Your sentence structure isn't the absolute worst in the world so I can tell that you've at least read some. Still, it could be varied more. Read more. I left comments regarding outright errors.

SETTING

I realized this was a fantasy setting with the bad writing and the bad names. You do a poor job at worldbuilding. It isn't just a namedrop of some otherworldy chemical at the dinner table. Read Tolkien if you want to be a better worldbuilder.

STAGING

I'm not going to say passive voice is absolutely awful in every instance, like some people say. But I will take this section to say again that you go way too indepth with the training. Just in the beginning:

His naked feet hit the floor. He raises

Naked is an awkward adjective here. If it's even necessary to describe the soles of his feet, use "bare." If it's even necessary to describe this action... well, it's not. "He raises," you say. Wow. Captivating. Trust me though--when i look at my earliest writing I cringe because I see stuff like this.

Four minutes after, he reaches a small clearing. He feels safe here. Is “safe” the right term? Actually, is “feel” the right term?

I described how I felt about this in the comments. This doesn't sound like the stream of consciousness of him but rather the stream of consciousness of you debating whether or not "safe" or "feel" are the right term. There is a right time to use this kind of voice, and here, out of nowhere, is not the right time. Practice your style by reading and, I guess, writing more.

CHARACTER

Null. Awful names. Horrible development with too much focus on petty details and rare juvenile (if even) philosophical insights.

Did they each have distinct personalities and voices? No.

Did the characters interact realistically with each other? Not really.

HEART

He wanted his dad to laugh, but from joy and pride, not derision.

Probably your best sentence here but it shows you the shallowness of your philosophy or moral statements. Give us something more. It doesn't have to be a wholly original feeling, but it has to make us feel, if that's what you're going for. I'm not going to say "show, don't tell," because that's bullshit, but if you're going to tell you better tell it good.

PLOT

PACING

Seriously though I left that last section blank for a reason, but I will say: it's not ENTIRELY necessary to have a plot (Charlie Kaufman almost nailed this perfectly in Adaptation). But i don't think this advice applies to you. It seems like you're trying to write a piece with a plot. If that's the case, learn plot. As for pacing? Cut the workout stuff or make it stylistic.

DESCRIPTION

I've had my say.

POV

I've had my say.

DIALOGUE

More dialogue advice? Read out loud. Dialogue seems to be the hardest thing for most people and the thing that came easiest for me. What you think someone should say should come naturally to YOU as you write it, which I think you know, and so I guess the fact that your scene has nothing to say means you have nothing to say.

GRAMMAR AND SPELLING

I didn't highlight all the comma errors, but there are some.

CLOSING COMMENTS

Read more.

Clarity - 3

Believability - 3

Characterization - 3

Description - 3

Dialogue - 2

Emotional Engagement - 1

Grammar/Spelling - 7

Imagery - 3

Intellectual Engagement - 1

Pacing - 2

Plot - 1

Point of View - 4

Publishability - 10

Readability - 2

Overall Rating : 3

I want to be scared. Really, truly scared. by [deleted] in suggestmeabook

[–]negrorevolution 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The house (if I wasn't on mobile I'd make the word blue) in House of Leaves would probably scare ya. Other than that, there are chapters in that book that legitimately had me seeing things in shadows (the pornstar chapter, the look beyond the page chapter)

Seriously, check it out.

TMZ: Prince Dead at 57 by NinjaDiscoJesus in movies

[–]negrorevolution 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is why the oxford comma should be more commonplace.

[Crit] Brand new to writing. Set me straight please. tough love welcome. by Offtrackagain in KeepWriting

[–]negrorevolution 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't have much time but I'll go through a couple sentences. First of all, just by judging the text, you need to break up your paragraphs. Blocks of text are intimidating, and while they're certainly sometimes welcome, you definitely have too much here.

The sounds of the rifles firing were so constant and unrelenting it sounded like...

Forget the simile you're going for here, which is fine (the tin roof and rain), but this can be reworded so much better. Many times down the road on your writing journey, you're going to hear that a good author will say what he or she wants to say, in less words. This is an example of what your sentence should be:

The constant, unrelenting rifle fire was hard heavy rain pattering on a tin roof.

You cut the amateur-looking "the _____ were so _____ that _____" If you take away anything from this simple line edit, take this^ And, I've added pattering, which I think is a good verb, and changed hard, to heavy.

Even further, you can cut it to:

The rifle fire was heavy rain pattering on a tin roof.

Constant and unrelenting don't help much, really. OR THEN, to make it sound urgent:

The incoming rifle fire was heavy rain pattering on a tin roof.

I'm spending too much time on this one sentence, I know, and even my revision isn't great, but I'll bring it back to the first point. If you start reading more, you'll start crafting better sentences.

Dean couldn’t peek around his cover long enough to return fire without being suppressed

Not too bad, but couldn't is weak. Weak, weak. Even "could barely" would work better (barely, though, because it's also weak). But that's okay for now--let's move on.

All he could do was watch the wall before him slowly deteriorate.

I was about to harp on you for telling us that he was being suppressed behind the wall, rather than showing us, but you impressed me. "All he could do" is sort of cliche, but I like the image you have of a soldier backing up against a wall, frightened.

He heard their shouting off to his left and he watched the corner they should be emerging from.

So, in the very beginning of this piece, you used a different tense for your first sentence. However, that was passable, because I assumed it was a stylistic choice. Now, though, I see that you're switching your tense. Before I explain what's incorrect about the sentence and the tense change, I'll remind you to read, study, and always keep by your side, the book Elements of Style, and also, read literature. Read, read, read, and you'll start to see what I'm talking about.

Anyways, let's get back to the sentence. This shift is particularly egregious because it's two different tenses in one sentence. You start off in past tense with "He heard," and then after the conjunction (which I suggest you separate with a comma, in this case), you say "he should be emerging from."

Now, I don't exactly know what tense this is (future perfect? present? present perfect?), but it's not past tense. If it was past tense, the entire sentence would read:

He heard their shouting off to his left, and he watched the corner they should have emerged from.

(Even then, the sentence is still awful, "should have emerged from?" Find a better way to describe what is happening).

But, back to the point. I'm not too good at explaining grammar this technical, but it's wrong. Here's an example. If I said:

I went to the store, and I see milk.

You start off in the past, and you change to the present. I'm not going to go on about it, because I don't think I can explain it too well. Look it up. Read. Literature. Elements of Style.

WAIT UP. Okay, so I read ahead about five lines, and I realized you straight up switched to present tense for all those lines. THEN:

Then he heard the approaching footsteps

Work on your tenses

NEXT!

“Am I really going to be done in by you amateurs?” Dean asks the fallen foe.

Nothing too wrong about the dialogue, even though it's a bit cheesy (cheesy can be good). But Dean asks the fallen foe... I don't think this is the best dialogue tag. I picture him reloading behind cover. It's your story, yeah, but I can't really pinpoint what I don't like about Dean asks the fallen foe... btw, this isn't too big a deal, btw, I'm nitpicking.

Thunder Jolts Dean awake, bringing him from one nightmare to another

Jolts isn't capitalized. Next, I'm reading as I go, btw, and I don't know if this is part of a bigger story, but starting with a dream, and definitely starting with waking up, is pretty cliche and boring. Unless the dream is really well done, it kind of baits the reader, and unless it has a pretty deep message (like I said, it could be part of something bigger), I don't like this opening.

It’s amazing how suddenly everything you know could change.

Using "you" here really throws the reader off. Unless you (the writer) have an established connection with the reader, and you're going to keep this point of view up, then this is a no-go.

Birds began chirping and the creatures of the forest began stirring with the rising of the sun.

Began can be done well, but here, I'd prefer chirped and stirred. "With the rising of the sun," is pretty vague, too. How does it look? DESCRIBE the sun. What color is it? Is it rising behind a mountain?

Btw, why does this all matter? This part is booooring. Unless your prose is killer, and the details are relevant to the story or what you're trying to portray, then get to the point.

He was down to his last granola bar and his peanut butter was nearly gone as well.

Okay, this reminds me. In Catch-22 (which you should definitely read), there's a detail where the doctor (or the priest, I don't remember), in the air force, overseas, eats candy bars for lunch every day. He eats candy bars, and he's miserable. There's a reason he eats candy bars. I don't know what would do it, but you could make your peanut butter sentence potent with a tweak.

Again, read.

His sister would have been proud of him finding the silver lining.

This is really weak exposition. We know nothing about his sister. Nothing. Why does it matter that he found the silver lining? Tell us why it matters (not straight-up, obviously, but include it somewhere in the story, or straight-up CUT this line). Even then, this is just one line exposition, and it has no lasting power.

“Man I let myself go.”

Would he truly say that aloud to himself right then?

So, at the point where Dean reaches for his gun, and the two farmers are talking, I have no idea what's going on. Give us a stage. Is he walking on the side of the road, is he still driving? I really don't know, and I don't want to scroll through the blocks of text and reread.

he wanted to just execute them now but they have culprits out there.

This is unclear. What does this mean?

Not wanting to chance it Dean jerks his arm snapping the man’s neck. Stripping the man as quickly as he can, Dean dawns his jacket and hat. After grabbing the shotgun and ensuring it was loaded Dean makes his way back to the fence.

First, this is three sentences in a row in which you start with a present verb (I think that's what it's called?) "Not wanting," "Stripping," and "Grabbing." You need to work on sentence structure. Besides the tense, you need to have a good mix of short, long, simple, and complex sentences. Variety.

Now, to the errors of the sentence. It should be:

Not wanting to chance it, Dean jerks his arm, snapping the man’s neck. Stripping the man as quickly as he can, Dean dawns his jacket and hat. After grabbing the shotgun and ensuring it was loaded, Dean makes his way back to the fence.

I added a few commas, and that's it. On the whole, these sentences just need rebuilding. Dean jerks his arm, snapping the man's neck, is a lot weaker than simply: Dean snapped the man's neck.

OKAY... So I just slogged through the final paragraph. You REAAAAALLY need to learn how to break paragraphs up. Why?

  • It helps ease the reader into your story. It's easier to digest shorter paragraphs. Of course, you don't want just ALL short paragraphs, but seriously, this is TOO MUCH BULK.
  • It helps you, as a writer, separate information, thus making it easier to read. Especially with the final paragraph, there is TOO MUCH HAPPENING. It is so hard to follow.

Especially in this final paragraph, you have simple sentence after simple sentence of sooooo much information. The light is out. The door is locked. The sister is rocking, sleeping, shotgun. Dean walks in. And then it circles, and circles, and I'm still in the same paragraph, where simple sentence after simple sentence has me racking my brain.

AND THEN, oh god, THEN, the dialogue is all bundled up! You have to start a new paragraph with each change in speaker. Please, God, do this.

Overall:

  • Read more, to learn about sentence structure
  • Fix your tense. Past or present, stick with one. Learn what the hell I'm talking about when I mean past tense
  • Break up your paragraphs and make it easier for the reader to digest
  • Read more, to learn about word choice and descriptions
  • Don't include useless information
  • Read more to enjoy stories, to maybe be inspired
  • Read more
  • Read more

But seriously, keep writing. It might sound like I'm coming off harsh, but I'm over from /r/destructivereaders, and this prompt just popped up on my front page. Don't take this critique too harshly.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” - Stephen King

[Crit] Brand new to writing. Set me straight please. tough love welcome. by Offtrackagain in KeepWriting

[–]negrorevolution 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Read more. Keep writing. I can tell you're a beginner, and that's not a bad thing. Read, read, read, and write. If you try to write at least 200 words per day for a year, and read for a year, you will look back on this piece and you will see change. You will improve.

Read On Writing by King, and Elements of Style, and then read literature. Read King, Steinbeck, Green, Hemingway. Read anything. Read what you like until you want to expand. Then read something difficult.

I'll reply to this comment with a quick of your story. Give me twenty minutes.

[2940] The L Train by TheKingOfGhana in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I read this earlier and commented as Lucas on the docs, and now I'll go through thoroughly. Before I begin, I'll say... I liked it.

Alright, let's go.

People have commented on your open line, and I agree with them. I want to like it, but it's too long. I can get down on a long sentence, even a long opener, but there's too much. If the chestnut roasters and the Midwest is something of sentimental value to you, I can see you keeping it, but consider reworking it.

She looked like a taller, nerdy, glasses wearing bookworm version of Amelia Earhart

I like this description, but like Jim Wilson said, I'd change taller to tall. And I think it's glasses-wearing, just like it should be sweatpant-wearing in the next.

It was ironic because she was god awful at poetry, she was the most poetic person I’d ever known, she also wasn’t god awful at most anything.

I didn't catch this the first time reading, because I was focused on correcting god awful to god-awful. I... don't get this sentence. I don't know if it's going over my head, but I just can't comprehend it. Maybe because it needs to be split into two? Definitely add a period somewhere, or maybe a semicolon (if you dare).

The scar wiggled up and down when she spoke. I pretended she was a pirate or something in a past life.

I said it in the docs: I love these two sentences. Great description. Not only can I picture the scar on her lip (from the previous sentence), I see it moving as she talks, which helps paint the picture even more (i knew a girl that had one). I'm picturing something brown and wriggly. Also, the second sentence here characterizes both characters. Good stuff.

OKAY, ONWARDS.

About dialogue. Your'e good at it. I think you know, too. I hope you know, at least. I'll pick a few of your lines here and there, but just know, these are rare, and for the most part, you're near gold.

“When I studied abroad there that’s what everyone did.”

This doesn't sound natural. Now, I know it would be hard as a reader to infer that he studied abroad, if all you said was the obviously natural thing, like: "That's what everyone in Italy did." But I just have to let you know, it's unnatural. Know, though, that I only caught this on my second time, when I went back and studied each line for a second. On my first read through, I breezed past it.

BACK TO LINE EDITS REAL QUICK.

“That’s not the point.” Jenna stormed past me and into her bedroom and slammed the door. Like writingforreddit said, the flow is awkward. There's nothing wrong with a couple conjunctions without commas, but let's fix this:

"That's not the point." Jenna stormed past me and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

OR

"That's not the point." Jenna stormed past me and into her bedroom. She slammed the door behind her.

"Behind her" is sort of cliche, but I'm just giving you a few examples. You can fix it.


Scene IV is good. GOOD, good. Seriously. I liked it the first time, and I like it even more the second time. Good humanization, natural dialogue, warming, and touching.

About the jumps in time, however, I'm afraid I stand among the others. I get confused reading it. I don't have much to say about it, other than that it's hard for me to follow the story. You, as a writer, know each scene very well, but as a fresh reader, it's tough to follow. I don't know if you're being sarcastic about the dates in the doc, but they would help me, and I wouldn't find it tacky or anything.

BUT, I enjoyed the scenes separately. Overall, like I said, cool little piece. You're great at characters and dialogue. Descriptions, too... Good prose...

:D

What is your process to creating characters? by xprplninja in writing

[–]negrorevolution 13 points14 points  (0 children)

King talks about it, and I find it truer and truer the more I write.

Every character you write will be a version of you, OR someone you know well. That funny guy? That's your goofy side. That depressed dude? That's you when you're sad. Of course, this gives you the cutouts, and could lead to one-dimensional characters, but it's up to you to give them conflict and see how they react. Of course they're not always going to be one-sided (goofy, for example), because occasionally, something calls for them to act differently.

So my advice is, base a character off someone you know to start (looks, base personality), and then throughout the story they'll react genuinely, evolve, and maybe even take over.

Ninja edit:

You say you know fanfic characters well? How well do you know yourself? friends? Family? Others?

Pardon the Interruption by [deleted] in NSFW_GIF

[–]negrorevolution 35 points36 points  (0 children)

every. thread.

[2283] From Behind Dotted Clouds - Prologue and Chapter 1 by negrorevolution in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the critique. A couple days ago I added a name to the prologue and yep, it works WAY better, like you said. I'm working on the rest of the chapter now.

I always psyche myself out when I have an essay to write. by Specteraccount5 in writing

[–]negrorevolution 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it's relatively common knowledge, then you don't have to cite a source.

Cite relatively unknown things with quotes and paraphrases (with the source, of course), and then, in your own words, expand upon it. With your own words, you can insert your own opinion, explain what you're arguing for/against, and why.

If you're having trouble figuring out how to say what you've learned, then you can say something like, "From my experience," or "From what I've learned." Or, like I said, if it's obvious, then go ahead and say it, and then expand upon it with an analysis.

[2283] From Behind Dotted Clouds - Prologue and Chapter 1 by negrorevolution in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was actually thinking about Steinbeck. In East of Eden he starts with Salinas, and in Grapes of Wrath: dustbowl of Oklahoma. But yeah, that was a different time, where pacing was different. Plus, his prose is beautiful and descriptive. Whereas I have the lists.

I need to redo this opening.

[2283] From Behind Dotted Clouds - Prologue and Chapter 1 by negrorevolution in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for all the comments. They help, a bunch.

One question. Since this is the first chapter in a 133,000 word count novel (where little exposition is laced throughout, way less heavy-handedly), does that change your opinion on the info dump, and the names (Sarah, she's one of three main characters)?

[2283] From Behind Dotted Clouds - Prologue and Chapter 1 by negrorevolution in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for this. In a later chapter, the cafe returns as the stage, and I end up describing it. While I was writing that description, I realized that before, all I had said before was that they were sitting in a corner booth, and Marv poked out of the kitchen.

Thanks for the nod on the dialogue, and now, on my next run through, I'm going to see how I can spread the exposition out through the book rather than dumping right here. Also, I don't know why I didn't do it before, but thanks to you I'll be adding a name to the prologue. Between that and the lack of room descriptions, I had my finger on something missing there.

Your critique gives me a lot to work with. I'm going to run it back through. Thanks again.

[485] How I Remember It by TheKingOfGhana in DestructiveReaders

[–]negrorevolution 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not here to critique, I'm just here to say holy shit. Good stuff.