《Essie's Critiques》A Silent Plea | Aashu_Bal01
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It's always said that the youngest of the family are loved and adored the most, but it was a totally different story for Nikolai Ferrari.
Being bullied at a young age, going through abuse from the hands of his own parents and getting ignored by his brothers changed a once happy and bubbly kid to an introverted and shy person.
Nikolai has lost hope, and gotten completely shattered into pieces when he found out that he had a miscarriage after a beating by his bully and supposedly father of the child.
His brothers have found out the truth, and will they be able to save the teen?
Your cover is excellently structured. It's clean, has a minimalistic feel to it, and the title is creatively presented with the font and placement. This is a safe option for your cover, meaning it could represent any story, not just yours. It also doesn't hint at the genre of your story. It could be in the romance, poetry, or nonfiction genre, etc. Your cover may attract a wide variety of readers that may not stay if they feel the cover does not match your story. Just be sure that the image used or the mood of the cover fully represents your story, and if you ever choose to find a new cover, it should be unique to your story. This could be a representation of a specific character, location, thing, symbol, etc.
I can easily see the contribution the title has to your plot. Your protagonist is clearly struggling and is seeking help without consciously realizing it. This is a pretty basic observation and connection from your story to your title, and, like your cover, could apply to any story. There are so many stories with struggling teenagers that could fit perfectly with the title. I appreciate that it hints at the mood of the story (it doesn't exactly sound like the story would be all sunshine and daisies) and that I can see the connection, but that's all I see. I don't see a deeper theme running through the title from your blurb or your chapters. This seems like a pretty safe option, and you can keep it as it is, but if you choose to rename your story, try to dig deeper into your story—what is a moral of the story that might not be as obvious? What is a title that may be mysterious at first, but will click with your readers when they finish the last chapter?
Your blurb is a little confusing. You had several grammar errors that I found right off the bat. For example, in the first sentence, "are" should be "is," as you're referring to one person, not several. Additionally, you could improve upon the structure of your blurb and sentences. How can you make them more clear and not awkward? I suggest going through each sentence and experimenting with restructuring to find the best way to convey something. Additionally, you can go to the grammar section and apply my suggestions to the blurb. Once all your mistakes are cleaned up, you can try showing off your writing style in an interesting way. This can have a good impact on your audience and draw in more readers.
You started off with reflection in your first chapter, but it barely scratched the surface. You included many questions without having your protagonist truly pondering them. Additionally, you introduced your character as though a contestant on a game show or as someone's profile when applying for a job. You shouldn't have to tell your readers any of this. Right now, it isn't relevant to your plot, and you're telling, not showing. Your readers can learn Nikolai has eight brothers when he calls one of them, or that he lives in Italy by describing the surrounding scene. Your audience has no idea who this guy is, so why would they care about his age or his personal information? It's important to reveal these details at the right time, and not all at the same time. Additionally, at the end of your first paragraph, you need punctuation to end the sentence. I typically suggest writing out numbers as well, at least from one to ten, to remain professional and not break the flow of the story. The main thing I'd like you to focus on is expanding upon your descriptions. Nikolai hates life, but could you describe that further? What does living feel like to him, and how can you portray this in a creative way to hook in your audience? And by the end of the hook, your audience should understand why you decided to start off the story this way--because it's relevant to the protagonist's current predicament. (Also, since no one pointed this out for you in your comments, for your prologue, "Prologue" is incorrectly spelled).
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You struggled with your punctuation and capitalization with dialogues. If your dialogue is accompanied with a dialogue tag (he said, she yelled, they shouted, describing the way someone says something), the dialogue tag is a continuation of the dialogue sentence. For example, it doesn't make sense for the clause, "She said," to be a sentence by itself. Therefore, it's part of the dialogue sentence. The dialogue should end in a comma to indicate that the sentence isn't complete, and the start of a dialogue tag is not capitalized, as it's not the start of a new sentence. The opposite goes for action tags. If your dialogue is accompanied by an action tag (she grinned/he sighed/they walked away, basically an action), the action should not be part of the dialogue sentence. The dialogue doesn't help the action tag make sense; the action tag should be a sentence by itself. Therefore, the dialogue should end in a period to signify the end of the sentence, and the start of the action tag should always be capitalized, as it's the start of a new sentence. Of course, the punctuation may vary. Exclamation marks and question marks can end a dialogue regardless of the tag accompanying it, as long as if it's a dialogue tag, the dialogue never ends in a period, and for an action tag, it never ends in a comma.
Example of dialogue + dialogue tag: "'I'm okay,' she said." OR "She said, 'I'm okay.'"
Example of dialogue + action tag: "'I'm okay.' She forced a smile." OR "She forced a smile. 'I'm okay.'"
I noticed that you tended to leave out punctuation in your dialogues. Just like ending sentences, dialogues need to be ended as well. Just because you add a dialogue mark to the end doesn't mean it's a complete sentence. It isn't complete until you add a punctuation mark at the end. I've pointed out some examples of this below.
You had a lot of comma mistakes. Keep in mind that commas are used to separate different clauses within a sentence, whether they're independent or dependent. An independent clause has a subject (who/what is doing the action) and a predicate (the action being done by the subject). Oftentimes, a sentence has two independent clauses, joined together with a conjunction. In the sentence, "I cried then Billy ran away," there are two independent clauses here. One is, "I cried," and the other is, "Billy ran away." Both have a subject and a predicate, and they're joined together by the conjunction, "then." Because of this, the two clauses still need to be separated with a comma, the correction being: "I cried, then Billy ran away."
Dependent clauses are just like independent clauses: they also have a subject and a predicate. However, dependent clauses are exactly like what they sound like; they're dependent on another clause. They don't make sense by themselves. For example, the clause, "I decided not to," has both a subject and a predicate, but it needs more context to make sense. There should be another clause attached or a sentence before it that it depends on making sense. When joined to another clause with a conjunction, the dependent clause should still be separated with a comma as well.
Commas are also used to separate an introductory phrase or word before the main clause. In the sentence, "Today I went to work," the independent clause is "I went to work," where the subject is "I," and the predicate/action is "went to work." The word "today" is not included in the clause, and therefore should be separated with a comma. The correction would be: "Today, I went to work." This is a lot of information to take in, but try to keep these rules in mind for the next time you're writing.
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I noticed the amount of comma splices used as well. A comma splice is joining two different independent clauses together, and separating them with a comma, but not a conjunction. An example of this is: "I went to work, I drove in my car." These are two different independent clauses, "I went to work" and "I drove in my car." They both have predicates and subjects, and are separated with a comma. However, you must separate them with a conjunction as well. Without a conjunction, this turns into a comma splice. You have two options in this case. You can either replace the comma with a period and turn it into two different sentences, or add in a conjunction. In this case, the correction can be, "I went to work, and I drove in my car," or "I went to work. I drove in my car." You have many cases of comma splices in your writing, which I've pointed out for you. There were many that I haven't pointed out, so make sure to do that.
You often slipped up in your tense. Whether your story is set in past or present tense, you need to pick one and stay in it. If you're in past tense, you should use words such as "didn't" and "wanted." If you're writing in present tense, you should use, "don't" and "want." I've shown a few examples where you slipped up your tense below, so keep this rule in mind for future writing.
I noticed that you had unnecessary capitalization, or you were missing capitalization in certain places. The beginning of a new sentence, a certain person, place, or thing, must always be capitalized. The next time you capitalize (or don't capitalize), keep this rule in mind. You had unnecessary capitalization as well. Titles should always be capitalized unless there is a possessive pronoun in front of them. For example, "Mom" is capitalized when used alone. However, when you say, "my mom," it doesn't have to be capitalized. You were confused with this rule throughout your writing, and you also capitalized unnecessary words, which I've pointed down below.
You struggled with apostrophes and contractions. For example, the contraction "let's" and the word "lets" have different meanings, and should be applied appropriate depending on the context of the scene. Before adding an apostrophe, say out the full words "let us" and see if it makes sense.
You struggled with conjugating certain verbs in your sentences. I've pointed out several examples for you in your chapter reviews, but I highly suggest researching this topic more thoroughly on your own.
I found an excessive amount of spelling errors and typos in all of your chapters. I've pointed out many examples for you in your chapter reviews, but there could be some that I missed, so I suggest combing thoroughly for those when editing. You also confused basic vocabulary terms and diction choices. For example, you couldn't tell apart "well" from "we'll" and "there" from "their." I also suggest doing more research in this area, as this is something you're struggling with. You also had a lot of repetition with adverbs, such as "just" and "basically" and other filler words. I've also pointed out some examples for you. Now that you understand the pattern of your filler words, it should be easy to remove them or add them when necessary.
This plot goes against all of my moral beliefs. Right off the bat, I'm admitting that I can't provide a thorough briefing of your plot because of the mature content (I do have younger readers that may be seeing this), and I can't give an unbiased view of your conflict and plot. I don't approve of glorifying or romanticizing incestuous behavior, bullying, rape, etc. While I cannot stop you from writing this, I do have a piece of advice: Keep in mind that you are not the only person reading your own story. While the majority of your audience may be mature and understand to separate fantasy with reality, you cannot stop younger readers from seeing the same material, and there might be unexpected/unseen ramifications. I suggest providing a chapter with all the trigger warnings in depth, and list a certain age for your audience (ex. 18+ or 21+). While this probably won't stop some of your readers, it will warn them, so they know what they're getting into, and those who don't want to see this don't have to. Again, I don't approve of incestuous behavior, but if you have to write it, please make sure to add the appropriate trigger warnings and age ratings in depth, not just briefly at the bottom of your description box where it may be missed.
Your first chapter, you introduced almost all the characters at once. It felt like reading a profile list of people that are easily forgotten. A reader likely won't remember all the brothers' ages, jobs, and names. I suggest introducing them slowly, and only when it's necessary to the scene. Additionally, you don't include in-depth details of your characters, which makes them seem one-dimensional and not real. Vibrant characters can help your story come to life, so I suggest establishing habits, hobbies, personality traits, etc. By reflecting upon their actions or decisions, your audience can understand and sympathize with them better, and you'll have a greater impact on your readers.
You had many grammatical and spelling mistakes that clogged your writing and made it difficult to understand your narration at times. I suggest thoroughly cleaning those up, and your writing voice will drastically improve in quality. You also have a very minimalistic writing voice, and while it can be great for clarity, it's very common and doesn't help your readers understand you as the writer. By incorporating writing techniques such as metaphors/similes, sensory details, and figurative language, you can have a unique writing style.
I found no awkward transitions within your writing, but your pacing was inconsistent at best. Your story flow was awkward and almost halted to a stop at times, as you tended to have a lot of repetition. Your first chapter itself was just a repetition of your protagonist repeating how useless he was and an info-dump of all his brothers. I suggest going more in depth when describing a scene. Think about the setting, the five senses, etc. If a reader cannot see the scene as though through a camera, then you're telling, not showing. You also included many filler scenes and paragraphs that have nothing to do with your story, so make sure not to go off into tangents and stay on track with the story.
"All of them are in a Relationship and our parents are okay with it." (p.1). You have unnecessary capitalization here. "Relationship" does not need to be capitalized upon because it's not a specific thing, nor is it the start of a new sentence. Additionally, you should pluralize "relationship" as you're describing many people, not one person. That also means "a" should be removed. Correction: "All of them are in relationships and our parents are okay with it."
"They want to look like supporting and good parents.. All an act, to make themselves look like good parents in front of my brothers." (p.1). You'll notice that these two sentences are basically saying the same thing. I suggest combining them to avoid repetition, or removing the first sentence entirely.
"... Father and Mothers always spent most their time in my room." (p.2). "Mothers" is unnecessarily capitalized. You're also missing a filler word. Correction: "... Father and Mother always spent most of their time in my room."
"... in their eyes, I am an attention seeking Ignorant brat." (p.4). You need a hyphen here, and you have unnecessary capitalization. Correction: "... in their eyes, I am an attention-seeking ignorant brat." You also have a repetition of using similar sentence structures, such as the word "shit," the phrase "perfect family," and also "beating the shit..." If you're going to mention those more than once, at least try rephrasing it in a different way.
"I know i am weak, useless and a mistake but what can i do." (p.5). You need to always capitalize "I." Since this is phrased as a question, it should end as one as well. That means replacing the period with a question mark. In formal writing, it's typical and professional to use an Oxford comma. When listing items, the second-to-last item should also have a comma after it, which is the Oxford comma. Correction: "I know I am weak, useless, and a mistake, but what can I do?" I also added a comma before the conjunction.
"I think even the gods don'twant somethings as useless as me." (p.6). "Don't want" should be two separate words. "Something" should be singular, and anyway, isn't he a "someone"? Unless that's intentional. Correction: "I think even the gods don't want someone as useless as me."
"I love them, More then just brotherly love." (p.7). You have unnecessary capitalization here, and "then" should be "than." Correction: "I love them, more than just brotherly love."
In paragraph 8, "Anxiety" and "Panic" should not be capitalized. Additionally, "anxiety" is incorrectly spelled.
"In school, i don't have any friend. Who want a useless freak like me to be their friend." (p.9). "I" should always be capitalized. Your sentence is phrased as a question, so it should end as one. "Friend" should be pluralized as well. Correction: "In school, I don't have any friends. Who wants a useless freak like me to be their friend?" Notice how I also pluralized "want."
"The Youngest of all my brothers, in their eyes." (p.18). You have unnecessary capitalization on "youngest." It's not a specific thing, nor is it the beginning of a new sentence. Additionally, this entire chapter was basically an info-dump. You were either having your protagonist lament repeatedly on how useless he was or giving detailed profiles of all his eight brothers. You shouldn't expect your readers to remember all of this if they do more than skim past this. Instead, you should introduce each brother when necessary to the plot.
"I woke up to the sound of myalarm clock ringing loudly. Ugh. I hate alarms." (p.1). "My alarm" should be two separate words. You also have a tense slip-up. Make sure to stay consistent with past tense. Correction: "I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing loudly. Ugh. I hated alarms."
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