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Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend
And here I was getting all depressed because you never gave me your thoughts... apparently @ mentions don't work when you just edit.  |
Don't worry about it; late feedback is better than no feedback!
(and I should know)
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Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend
I'm interested to hear what would have pushed it above an 8 for you, if there's anything specific.
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Well as far as my critiquing scale goes (and this applies to everything I critique across all mediums), everything starts at a 5 and either goes up or down depending on its positives and negatives. Typically what takes away from a score is stuff like writing errors, plot holes, inconsistencies and the like; but that being said it means that a story written 100% correctly will still only sit at a 5/10 for me. Unfortunately that means that what makes it higher than that drifts into areas that are less objectively measurable than grammar mistakes or inconsistencies—things like how emotionally engaging it is or how good a character is, or the quality of the prose.
So with the exception of the chain issue I liked the excellent writing and Utgar's character and stuff like that, but at the same time there were elements that felt incomplete (not in a harmful way but in a missed opportunity way): like we never found out what they were mining for and that never really came into the plot, or the villain wasn't quite as compelling as he could've been as a mirror to what Utgar will eventually become or whatever.
This is all more in the realm of subjectivity of course and as such it's hard to take as sound advice (because it's hardly necessary in regards to the quality of the actual writing itself or the overall goal of this piece which was to work on 3-Act Structure)—not to mention it simply won't bother others at all or they might offer advice in a completely opposite direction (for example I would say having a villain who's as interesting as our hero was would push it higher than an 8 but another reader might say Migol doesn't need that much development or character because this is Utgar's story and that's why they
didn't rate it higher than an 8—same goes for wanting to see how Utgar becomes so evil vs. a reader saying that's unimportant and being glad it ended where it did), but nonetheless that is my reasoning. I need a relatively strong emotional impact to take something to a 9/10 (such as
Kit: Young Ninja which really spoke to me despite not having a terribly well thought-out plot) or it needs to rock my world to make it to a 10/10 (like
Silent Hill 2). Same goes for comedic tales just trade emotional impact for yucks.
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Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend
As far as sequels... to be honest my writing has gone downhill in the past weeks to the point where I can't seem to write anything (see my FFC blog). Every project I start has problems, and interest only lasts a few days. I don't really know what the problem is. Right now it looks uncertain if I'll be writing anything.  |
Ah well, interest/writer's block... it affects us all. But you don't gotta be writing constantly all the time, and it will come back one way or another, so I suppose it all works out. I'd certainly not try to pressure you into writing something you don't want to, so no worries.
~TAF