Please accept these comments as those of an enthusiastic reader only and therefore entirely subjective. Feel free to disregard them, in the end it is only you who can judge what your story should be.
INITIAL IMPRESSION:
I admit that I chose to review this out of entirely selfish reasons. When I looked at your port and saw the title a story jumped fully formed into my head and instead of reviewing, I went away and wrote my own. So it seemed only fair to come back and do the actual review.
Let me say that I was drawn in from the first, enchanted by the very idea, the language, the characters.
BEGINNING:
What I like:
I loved the intrigue and expectant mystery you manage to put into this first sentence.
Favourite part:
He played the writer.
I played the dancer.
EMOTIONAL DRAW:
What I like:
I love the whimsical atmosphere with which you are drawing in your readers.
Observations:
Sometimes the bow is overstretched through your language - there is just one word, one phrase that seems too much and breaks the musical rhythm of the words
A good example is: He wore a bowler hat and glasses and braces over his shirt.
The second and makes the sentence cumbersome and throws me out of the emotional pull you have created for me. I suddenly cannot feel the character anymore - I only see him.
Suggestions:
I might want to have more on sensations - not only what the characters see, hear and smell but how those things make them feel, react and wonder
Favourite part:
In the play he was in love with me.
In reality, I bored him beyond belief.
DESCRIPTIVE ELEMENTS:
External:
What I like:
You are very, very good at the external descriptive elements. You paint a detailed and amusing image.
Suggestions:
The descriptive fascination is sometimes muddled, almost lost, through overly convoluted sentences.
Favourite part:
Rehearsals took place in the back room of the back street theatre or – on occasion in the back room of the Fox and Glove round the corner, above the thud of contemporary rock music and under patchy lighting where half the bulbs had blown and never been replaced.
Internal:
What I like:
Are very sparse and not really necessary for the most part. I love how you make them short and to the point when you provide them - almost in stark counterpoint to the convoluted nature of your other descriptive elements.
Suggestions:
There are parts where they might aid in the construction of the depth of the character.
DIALOGUE/MONOLOGUE:
Dialogue among characters:
Observations:
Feels slightly abrupt, bordering on impolite in places.
Internal monologue:
What I like:
love the pithiness of it.
Observations:
I am not sure if I like her or not - or for that matter if you do.
Suggestions:
I would like to have a bit more substance, a bit more depth in order for the final reveal to be more shocking.
Favourite part:
I heard his words from the night before echo in my head as the train pulled out of the station – a hazy dream, or perhaps a reality;
CHARACTERS:
What I like:
I like how your main character turns out
Suggestions:
I can feel the place, the atmosphere, I can even feel the Writer - but in places I can only see your main character.
STRUCTURE:
What I like:
Good structure
FORMAT:
What I like:
Good format
LANGUAGE:
Style:
What I like:
I love the gentle teasing, suffused with the biting, pithy humour and dreamlike elegance of your descriptions
Observations:
Sometimes your meaning gets lost in the complications of your style
Suggestions:
There are sentence which could easily be broken in two or three.
Orthography: There were some orthographical issues. If you would like to see the comments in more detail please click here ▼
I met him at rehearsals for an obscure play by an unknown playwright in a back street theatre in the Northern quarter.
Northern Quarter
CAPITAL LETTER - NAME
For the show I wore a faded tutu and stripy leggings like a bizarre Christmas tree fairy that had spent too much time in the loft
For the show, I wore a faded tutu and stripy leggings like a bizarre Christmas tree fairy that had spent too much time in the loft
COMMA
“I’ve never even heard of this play.
PUNCTUATION
After rehearsals sometimes we would slope downstairs to watch the band and I would regale the cast with extraordinary tales of the people I had encountered and the situations I had found myself in during my lifetime in the theatre, whilst he glanced at the clock and fashioned a poor man’s origami from the beer mats whilst nursing a pint of mild.
COMMA
“Well, I am an actor, Charles
COMMA
TENSION:
What I like:
I like the way you hold the tension throughout
Suggestions:
The relative abruptness of some of the dialogue somehow throws the tension, the flow
END:
What I like:
I love the end - nothing else to say about it.
Favourite part:
But he was wrong.
I am the lover.
And I am the thief.
GENERAL COMMENTS:
I loved the cheeky levity, the hidden thoughtfulness of the piece. I absolutely loved the ending and the twist it represents.
IF YOU CHOSE TO EXTEND THE STORY OR EDIT IT - I WOULD LOVE TO READ IT AGAIN. LET ME KNOW.
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