This review is for The Showering acts of Joy Group.
Hello Jim aka Sum1
I like your handle...Sum1...Tells me that you are very clever and very cool, so I am obligated then to go read your bio and check out your port, to find out for myself how clever and cool you actually are.
I thought you might like to know this, because it demonstrates that; If you have a name/handle that generates some sum interest, then you will get noticed. and.....yes...You are as clever and cool as your handle indicates.
Overall Impression:
I gave this story a rating of 4. I normally give a rating of 4.5 to all the pieces I review, on the premise that; 1- nothing is perfect, and there will always be room for improvement, and 2- If a piece is perfect, then I don't have anything to offer in reviewing the piece.
The reasoning for your rating of 4 is because; 1- it had a lot of things that I like in a story and I enjoyed reading it. and 2- I found some areas where I could suggest changes to improve it.
Keep in mind that I am not an authority on writing in any way and my objective in reviewing is for myself to become a better writer by sharing thoughts and ideas with other writers, while helping others to write better as well.
The topic of your story was one that I have an interest in, you held that interest through to the end. The story was well written and a good read, although there were a couple sentences that tripped me up.and playing his usual games on Pogo as he listened/watched the usual poor offering of shows I don't think the use of LISTENED/WATCHED works here. I re-read the sentence and then understood what you meant, but I think it would have been better to construct a sentence that just says somehow: the TV was on but, Jim's attention was divided. But you are, for aren’t you here?....I can't imagine anyone saying this sentence, it's akin to; Shakespeare meets hillbilly Cletus.
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: I found no fault with spelling or punctuation, some sentences could be corrected to improve the grammar, but the same could be said for most works. Your story was a pleasure to read.
Imagery, Suggestions and Personal Insights: From the description you gave of your main character, Jim, I envisioned a faceless, featureless male. That's okay because I was able to see Jim from pin pointing his age, which I got from your description of his life, work, status, etc. I imagined Jim to be middle aged.
When you wrote about his part time job it threw his age estimation out of whack.
For me a second part time job is something a young person does. It did not fit your character (for me). If you added the part time job to illustrate Jim being over worked, it may have been better to make him busier or more burdened in his career. I envisioned Jim in a vast emptiness of deep space, except for his visits to the places he knew when he was alive. The ISS fit in well for me. If the image you were going for was "deep space" well done. I liked the diaolog in respect to the impossibility to travel between "life and death". It reminded me of the bible story of, Lazarus, the beggar in one of Jesus's parables. I have a bit of an issue with your ending. I once wrote a re-telling of a dream I had. Several reviews said this...You can't write about a dream, it's not a proper story. A dream doesn't follow any rules, there is no ending, beginning , the plot is vague, and so on. I had to agree when one reviewer suggested that...It is better to mine a dream for story ideas, than to just write about the dream. I am in the process of re-writing that dream into a short story, and it's working much better. I think your story would be better if Jim woke up in the hospital after having life saving surgery. That would justify the beginning when Jim was over worked, having chest pains and feeling exhausted. A pretty good story, with a little work it could be a great story. Thanks for sharing.
Joel aka Brother Nature
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