 Au Printemps 2002-12-25 . chapter 1I've just got the review window up while I'm reading this, so I cna point out good or bad things as I go along.
First off; this is one of the ugliest expository mistakes I see writers make. Don't panic; its common, and I can't say I haven't been guilty of it. But only in times of extreme need do you want to say that "John Doe was (insert adjective here). It truly makes a difference if you show it instead of tell it.
And you did; you said she was observant, then talked about her hushed observance of the grasshopper. Because of the grasshopper scene(which was well-written, by the way), we can guess already that she is intelligent and observant without telling us straight out. That just makes for redundancy.
Sorry such a long rant on such a tiny glitch; I tend to overdo myself on these things. And there really is no shorter way to say it without confusing myself and everybody else included.
I caught at least two fragments in the second paragraph, you might want to think about looking to that.
Her mother and father use martial arts against each other in their fights? Oh my. That got me giggling; was it meant for comic relief? Even if it wasn't, it worked well. Very strange image.
The sudden betrayel of Mrs. Fey caught me by surprise. It didn't fit in as seamlessly as it might have; it felt suspiciously like a deux ex machina--something just popped in to get the plot where you wanted it to go.
Instead of just telling us straight out what the incident was that kept the villagers from speaking to Lyra, why don't you get us a bit more into it, maybe by telling about it in a scene of a dialogue between two villagers, in which one explains to the other why they can't?
So where does Lyra come into this? It seems Dark Moon is the protagonist-to-be here, in which case we wouldn't need to know anything about Lyra. But I'm sure there's a reason that isn't apparent right now; maybe its what motivates Dark Moon? Vengeance? If so, this whole prologue might be better communicated as a flashback taking place in Dark Moon's head; or maybe she's even telling it as a story to some of her followers?
These were just ideas of mine--don't be afraid to get creative. This prologue is rather bad. I'm sure the story will be better, but I'm not sure as many people will read it as might have if you just left out the prologue altogether. Remember, the first part of your story is the most important. It's what gets people to continue reading. Give them no motivation to continue reading and they won't. I'm not saying your prologue won't work; in fact, I think it's a great idea. I always love seeing the story behind the story, so to speak, and I've always thought that such things contributed to enjoyment of future plot twists. You just might want to consider re-writing it in a new, more pulling way. A good prologue can do wonders.
I hope you don't hate me now, if you're even still reading this. The plot idea is honestly intriguing; I'll make sure to keep reading. |