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22 Public Reviews Given
51 Total Reviews Given
Public Reviews
1
1
Review of Never Alone  
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Only thing I would change is 'and can always call on Him anytime.' I'd take out always because anytime is there. Anyway it's ultimately up to you. That's all I've got but I enjoyed it *Smile*
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Review of Reveille  
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP  
Rated: 13+ | (4.5)
Well I'm reviewing this for Simply Positive. These are my opinions and they're meant to be helpful. Anyway, now that that's over with I'll get to work *Laugh*

'Because when you get there you'll realise that you won't know what to...' Realize.Well pretty much all of the mistakes are spelling errors. artifact,organized. It was obvious, he felt... One other thing, you have several run on sentences full of commas scattered thoughout. You should try to break them into smaller sentences to make it flow better.
3
3
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP  
Rated: E | (5.0)
I'm just going to get straight to the review *Smile*

'He stood silent for a moment, wearing a black robe trailed to the floor;' wearing a black robe that trailed to the floor;

Well then, this chapter had pretty much no mistakes *Laugh* I'm really enjoying this story. Keeps getting better! Don't know if I'll get to chapter 4 tonight but I hope so. Well, I didn't find anything but you should probably still check for yourself *Smile*
4
4
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP  
Rated: E | (4.5)
I'm going to try to keep this review a little shorter for you. If I'm basically repeating myself I won't mention after a few times. So you should read the story out loud to find any mistakes I missed or didn't point out.

"The suns were now set, and nearly all light was lost between the ruined buildings and high walls that still stood amidst shadowed rubble." This sentence seems a little long try to shorten it. 'The suns had set, and nearly all light was lost among the high, ruined buildings and walls that still stood amidst the shadowed rubble.' It's not much shorter but it feels more organized and fluid, and well it's the best I can come up with right now *Laugh* "His hands began burn with blue flames, and the corridor exploded with a flickering light." 'His hands began TO burn with blue flame, and the corridor exploded with flickering light.' "The doorway ahead of him opened into a round room, which was lined with benches of crude stone" The doorway ahead of him opened into a round room lined crude, stone benches. "The room around him begin to darken, and a sense of power filled the very air around him." The room began to darken, and a sense of power filled the very air around him.

Well overall this chapter was much clearer and fluid than the first two before editing. Not sure if you edited this one yet so maybe you're just getting better as you go *Laugh* I couldn't point out everything. There are a few different places after and around the last part I pointed out that could be worded a little better. It's nothing serious though.
5
5
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: E | (4.5)
Well I'm back for another review *Laugh* I like the story line of this series so I plan on reading and reviewing all of it. I know for now you only have the first few chapters up but I'd love it if you posted more.

My thoughts:

"Time seemed to stand still during the lectures of the flame instructor" feels strangely worded. Try, time seemed to stand still during the flame instructor's lecture.

"and one of the yougest" and he was one. Only use a comma between two independent clauses, because they have to be sentences that could work on their own. Like what I just said see? *Laugh*

"He addressed his classroom now through a long gray beard and wisps of hair that hung over his eyes." Now, he addressed his class through a long gray beard and wisps of hair that hung over his eyes. I think it would sound better this way.

"His head leaned back and his eyes scanned over the same familiar section of ceiling, where each and every imperfection was already burned into his memory." His head leaned back and his eyes scannded over the same familiar section of ceiling--each and every imperfection already burned into his memory.

"from his left, slowly rolling his head" from his left, and he slowly rolled his head.

"forward, with long silver hair that nearly hid half his face." forward, and his long, silver hair nearly hid half his face. Or, forward--his long, silver hair nearly hid half his face.

"picture had exaggerated" You got two spaces in there *Smile*

"stifle his laughter as Zek" stifle his laughter, as Zek. Not sure if you would have to change it but usually a comma needs a conjunction unless a parts not really part of the sentence. Like it's just details or something.

"leaned back his chair." leaned back in his chair *Smile*

"chair; he crossed his arms behind his head and his grin slowly faded as he began to again stare ahead at the old Magus." Okay I have nothing against semicolons but apparently the dash -- is starting to replace them in a lot of things. I didn't know that until like a week or so ago, but I still use them sometimes out of habit. Not sure if it would be important to change it, but I thought I'd let you know. Anyway, 'he crossed his arms behind his head, and his grin sloly faded as he turned back to the old Magus.' Two sentences that can stand on their need a comma at a conjunction. *Smile* Really easy to write out a sentence and not even notice you missed it though

"him, his soft brown sleeves forming a comfortable pillow as he rested his head upon them" him, and his soft, brown sleeves formed a comfortable pillow to rest his head upon.

"His eyes flicked around the classroom as he rested on the desk, until he again noticed Zek had his eyes closed and appeared to have nearly gone to sleep." I don't really have any suggestions for how to rewrite this, but I don't think until is a conjunction. I'm not entirely sure so you might want to check it out, but 'until he again noticed Zek had his eyes closed and appeared to have gone to sleep.' could use some work. Until he noticed that Zek, once again, had his eyes closed appeared to nearly be asleep. Sounds better but you would need find a way to connect it.

"Quietly, he pulled his arm back onto the desk, where his head still lay; He flicked the coin towards Zek, which landed flat against his jaw" This could be two seperate sentences. 'Quietly, he pulled his arm back onto the desk--where his head still lay. He flicked the coin towards Zek, and it landed flat against his jaw.' I'd change 'landed flat against his jaw' though. He was just leaning back, but this makes it seem like he's lying down. Then in the next sentence the beginning makes it sound that way too, but in the end he lands and the front legs of the chair hit the ground. It's not a major problem but it could be smoother so the reader won't notice. Some people might not notice just reading through; I mean I'm reviewing I have to read closely but still you don't need to risk confusing anyone. *Smile*

"Zek quickly sat up, the front legs of his chair hitting the hard floor with a loud thud as he landed." , Zek quickly sat up, and the front legs of his chair hit the hard floor with a loud thud when he landed.

"playful angry glance while Mason struggled to keep from laughing out loud. All eyes lay on Zek Cain in his black robe, with metal stitches that formed patterns throughout it to match his silver hair." Playful angry glance doesn't sound right. Try something like 'mock, angry glance'. 'glance, and Mason struggled to keep from laughing out loud.' 'robe, metal stitches forming patterns throughout to match his silver hair'. Nice description on the robe but try to come up with a design for the patterns to tell about here. Not extremely important but extra detail never hurts. Plus I'm curious about what you could come up with *Laugh*

“Sorry.” Zek said" "Sorry," Zek said,. Tags, he said, after dialogue use a comma unless you use another punctuation. Question mark, exclamation point. Also, if you don't use a proper name don't capitalize; even after a question mark or exclamation point. Beats, any action you use to show the speaker, don't use a comma at the end of the dialogue and do capitalize. Just learned all that recently too *Laugh*

"Come to the front of the class please.” Magus Grey said, in his wavering ancient voice." Same as before, except put a comma after wavering.

"away in an instant, the last" Split into a new sentence at the comma.

"Mason looked out over the room, taking note of familiar faces looking back at him, some already had smiles in anticipation of what was to come." 'room, and took note of the...him. Some already...'

"command over magic." command magic. "abilities to no avail" abilities but to no avail. "word was spread and he was" word was spread, and he was. "and mockery" double space again *Smile* "He was used to those eyes now, the eyes that looked through him as if he wasn't there, sometimes he found himself to prefer those eyes over the eyes of hate and contempt." there, and sometimes, he found himself to prefer those over the eyes of hate and contempt. Eyes is understood so you could remove the first one. With it still there it sounds repetitive.

"them, the look he gave" them, and the look. "pattern of flames was" pattern of flames, was tied..., and was long enough.

"attention.” Magus" "attention," Magus... almost missed that *Smile*

“Magus I--” "Magus, I--" When singling out a person you have to use commas around it. 'Go get me a sandwich, Bob, and hurry up.' "Zek started to protest, once again" Zek started to say. Once again,... Like I said in the last review you should really just stick with the 'say' tags. Protest is still simple but it might distract someone from the actual story. Just found this out but apparently using more vocabulary than just the 'say' words for tags is considered amateurish. Who would have guessed that? *Laugh* That's not what they teach in school *Laugh*

“Pay attention Zek Cain! No more interruptions!” The old mage belted back, and his fingertips pointed toward the sphere as his eyes began to glow with a red tinge." "Pay attention, Zek Cain!....." The old mage pointed his fingertips toward the sphere and his eyes began to glow with a red tinge." Goes back to the comma around the person you're singling out thing, and back to the tags and beats thing. You used belted back, which, if it wasn't for the fact that it's apparently amateurish, would be fine. Instead of using said, which I didn't think would work here, I used a beat.

"orb, drastically becoming" drop the comma and change becoming to become.

"on, Mason" on, and Mason... "felt the orb began" felt the orb begin

"toward his hands he saw the black" his hands, he saw... "orange color, it flickered with an internal fire as the old Magus focused on it." Period after color.

"slightly above and Mason saw" above, an Mason...

"The old Magus was too focused on his task that he had forgotten to stop, and both Mason and Zek knew that this would not end well." too focused on his task to remember to stop,... The original part sounds weird.

"Again Mason looked" Again,... This sentence is really long so if you can try to split it.

I know it's past Monday but here's what I have for now. I'm not done but well I figured you would like to at least get some of it *Smile* I'll keep working on reviewing but you can start editing if you want.
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Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: E | (4.5)
My thoughts:

They're are multiple times in the story where you randomly put two spaces between your words like this. There are too many times for me to list but you'll notice when you look for it *Laugh*

"saw dozens of small orbs began to appear around him." begin

"with his eyes blazing with a yellow glow." sounds awkward. Try to change the second 'with' or just remove it "with his eyes blazing a yellow glow" sounds good enough.

"with cheers and applause, with drinks spilling." same as the last. Just remove the with and it'll sound fine.

"his smile faded to see" comes out sounding like the smile faded away to go see what was going on *Laugh* "his smile faded when he saw that she was now missing." sounds much better.

"Relik forgot all else,..." Too long of a sentence for a fast paced scene. End after Relik. And continue a new sentence with "He sprinted towards the wall..." Take out 'now' because it's unneeded clutter. Same with 'there', he already ran across the arena to that point so we don't need to know where this is happening. Any word that serves no purpose other than taking up space should just be removed in general. If you try to get something published and the agent finds a lot of unneeded clutter he/she might just send you out right there. If you're lucky they'll point it out and tell you to fix it.

"He made his way through the people he heard the arcane once again begin to roar louder and louder" just a really awkward sentence. Some rewording could easily fix it though. And try to be careful with your tenses. In that sentence you changed from past to present really quickly and it could throw stuff off easily.

"Melios stood holding and orb" an orb

"Quickly, it became too large to control, and it reached the size of his body it began to cook Melios where he stood" awkward sentence. "Quickly, the orb reached the size of Melios' body and became too large to control. It cooked him where he stood." This way the phrasing is less awkward but you can write it out however sounds best to you.

"She started again, but her eyes shut as she faded away again," Either remove one of the agains, or change the second one to once more.

"Moments seemed like days as Relik stared blankly at the light coming from crystal lamps that hung along the walls." This sentence feels a little long. Try to shorten to something like this: Moments seemed like days as Relik stared blankly at the crystal lamps hung along the walls. It's shorter and still carrys the same meaning. Pretty much goes back to the clutter I mentioned earlier.

"...had not been not happy about it," hand not been happy about it.

"...and flowed over her like water,..." over her isn't needed. It's already understood what you're talking about so it's just taking up space. Also, end the sentence at water and start a new sentence. "It trailed behind her..." It breaks it up and makes the work seem to have more flow and be evenly paced.

"...never making it to the door..." End at door with a period. "Making love under the stars and open sky." That could be a sentence on it's own and would be a sentence that end the flasback strongly.

"had grabbed onto his arm to helped him up." help him up

"was all she replied," was all she said would sound better here. A lot of people think it's better to use other words than just he said or she said, but using anything else tends to distract the reader from what's happening. I mean honestly if it just says Bob said, do you really pay attention to anything other than the name? *Laugh* "Bring me a sandwich!" Bob yelled. Yelled or something else usually distracts the reader by being a different word and also you already have the emotions in the dialogue so it's a waste of time to repeat it.

"give you chance" a chance

Well that's all I've got but I know it's a lot to work on. I hope all of this helps because just from the prologue I can already tell that I'll like this series *Smile* If you rewrite this and want another review feel free to ask I'd be more than willing to help
7
7
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: 13+ | (5.0)
This is an almost perfect story! Interesting plot line, believable characters, good description, and great vocabulary. I love this item and I barely found any mistakes for an item this size.

My thoughts:

"cranked-up the air conditioner swith hopes of impunity." with

"with Julie today, okay? just can't handle it Brandon!" I just...

"I stopped to thank him on way out and. When..." I don't like the and. It feels a little awkward to me, in fact all of the broken up pieces of Brandon's dialogue feels awkward to me. Personally I'd like it more if you kept it together or maybe broke it up with a beat or a tag instead of individual paragraphs. What really throws it off is that the middle paragraphs and the end of the first paragraph don't have quotes but the last one does. It makes it seem like the middle two are a flashback and the last one is karen. It gets a little confusing so I'd change it.

"Opening his own door," You could remove door, it feels repetetive to have it so close to the original use and it should be understood that he's opening. I mean at that time what else would he be opening? *Laugh* If someone gets confused over that they probably would have stopped trying to read by now *Laugh*

"s***." I'd change that to something else. 13+ rating usually doesn't have that strong of a word. I personally hate censorship but I'd hate to not mention it and you get in trouble for it. Actually with how many times this has been rated you'll probably be fine *Smile* I just noticed the number of ratings *Laugh* but keep what I said about ratings in mind next time and try to make your words fit the limits on cursing and all that.

"uh thanks honey." add a comma after uh. Uh is usually used for a pause and the extra comma will make it flow and sound better. Without it it reads rushed like "uhthanks honey."

"He heard a loud, dull ‘thud’, and Julie disappeared under the truck, and then he watched the pickup buck twice as the front, and then the rear wheels rolled over her." This sentence is doing way too much. Stop after truck. "He heard a loud, dull 'thud', and Julie disappeared under the truck. He then watched the pickup buck twice as the front and rear wheels rolled over her."

"soft and furry" change furry to fluffy. A fluffy duck sounds better than a furry duck *Laugh*

"size}" you might want to fix this *Laugh*

So yeah those are my thoughts and I'm giving this a 5 because well these were all very small mistakes and the story itself more than makes up for it *Smile*
8
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Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Wow. Just wow. I clicked this because of the Final Fantasy X reference and I find the craziest thing I've read since the Hitchikers series *Laugh*. I seriously needed a laugh and this definitely worked. Make more of this stuff you definitely have a talent for it *Laugh*
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Review of We.  
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: E | (5.0)
Another great poem that's been written fantastically *Smile*Great hook at the beginning that makes the reader want to keep going {although I'm not a real poetry writer so I don't know if a hook is necessary *Laugh*) The message is clear throughout the whole poem: cheating is bad, it makes you feel horrible and leads to some really uncomfortable moments in life, but good things can always come out of all the horrible moments(such as finding your soulmate and staying together). Really relatable message that a lot of people can connect with and you've made it into an amazing work. Once again I can't find any suggestions so I think it's perfect *Smile*
10
10
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: 13+ | (5.0)
I love this poem, it has tons of description and lots of deep meanings. You capture the moment perfectly in this and do an amazing job writing it all out.

"Bare feet clap noiselessly on icy stone,

old doors click softly into place,

Rushed hands wave coherently through the thick curtain of darkness,

reaching for the gate to unfaithfulness." This has to be my favorite lines just because of all the description and how well it's done. I can't think of any suggestions to make this any better than it already is. You're an amazing writer and this is an amazing poem. *Smile*
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Review of Master  
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP  
Rated: E | (5.0)
First Impression:Very nice beginning. Pulls the reader in and makes you want to finish reading and even then you want more

Story:The story of how love can take many horrible turns is very true. I can easily imagine someone being rejected and mocked.

Form:The pattern of the words and overall rythm is kept throughout the poem and is never really broken.

Overall Impression: Excellent poem *Bigsmile* It's original in the sense that most love poems are about these perfect stories and that's just not how life works. This one is real and written in a way where you feel the pain.

Suggestions:No suggestions the poem is perfect to me.

Nice job I love it. Keep writing! *Laugh*
12
12
Review by Shard
In affiliation with SIMPLY POSITIVE NEWBIE REVIEWE...  
Rated: 13+ | (3.0)
Alright man I've finally had a chance to sit down and read your story to review it. I'm still noticing a lot of what I told you in class. Basic grammar errors are still here but just sitting around and profreading or using spell check will get most of that. The prologue needs to be worked on a lot, it doesn't really flow like it could if you sat down and really worked at it. Reading it out loud over and over can help with figuring out what sounds good. The beginning of chapter one is in past tense plus Travis and the Lieutenant speak in the same paragraph: "Time to die," he growled and shoved the sword in his heart. He spins around and stabs another one in his abdomen. But, there were still over two-hundred plus soilders left from Kargoan. "Surrender now or die!" the Lieutenant screams."We might let you go home peacefully," he announced. After that it jumps to present tense. And then there's this: There are dried There was a lone window on the north wall. A beam of sunlight shown through it. I think you were probably editing this and we had to leave class. And in this part between Travis and the King you didn't have to have the break in speech. ,” “ I should have already killed you" You need to work on the Travis/Bartz meeting too there are some pretty basic mistakes in there. Basically I'd just suggest reading through it and doing some editing. If you do it while writing I find it helps you work your plot into your head, which helps with thinking of what to put next, and then you also don't have to do it ALL at the end. But yeah keep it up and this could be a really interesting story *Smile*
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