A horror story idea I came up with, I hope you enjoy the creepy creativity that has slithered forth from my imagination!
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 81 x 120px
File Size 11.2 kB
I'll just comment on things as I read them, so forgive me if this gets long.
--Not to be rude or anything, but that whole introductory passage is incredibly boring. If this is a horror story, there's really no reason to start it by describing his work day in detail. Waking up and brushing your teeth is not a hook, zombie dream or no.
--From reading on, it becomes obvious that the old woman is important, but we get little clue to that until she starts planting things in his garden. You should be able to fit her in in some other, more exciting fashion. Like... I don't know, maybe he dreams about her? In which case, you could start with the dream to catch our attention, and then move on to these other things. But he should have that woman always at the back of his mind somehow, to avoid having it just be an account of his day. Even if it's just a brief little bit where he catches her smiling at him mysteriously, or something like that. Something that says to the reader, "Pay attention; this is where I'm going with this," rather than, "That old lady sure is old and cranky," which is where it stands right now.
--'my pretties'. It works in the Wizard of Oz, doesn't really work here. Stephen King always makes people creepier by cussing. Maybe you could try that. Right now I'm not convinced, though. A bit on the corny side.
--"Johnathan groaned in what could be discomfort of a physical nature as the vines burrowed into his flesh and fed on his blood and bone marrow." That sentence is incredibly awkward. I like "Jonathan groaned as the vines burrowed into his flesh and began to feed on his blood and bone marrow." And then adjust the next second to compensate. This is just... heavy.
*side comment: be careful not to mix up tenses. Always keep it in past if you start in past. EG: "Or perhaps he was merely experiencing a nightmare that may or may not be induced...." should be "Or perhaps he was merely experiencing a nightmare that may or may not have been induced...."
--"I didn't have time to stand around and figure out" Needs something before it. Maybe, "Either way, I didn't have time...." It just calls for a transition of some kind.
*side comment: Beware of comma splices, and look over the rules for apostrophes again. You're consistently making the same kinds of mistakes, and it's distracting.
--"I glanced to the side of my house and noticed something that I didn't remember." It sounds like he's saying that afterward, when thinking about it, he didn't remember it. Maybe "something I didn't remember having been there before," or something similar. Weird sentences like these are all over the place: make sure you're saying what you mean to say.
--"It occurred to me it wasn't really much of a life, droning in work and coming home to watch television the rest of the day before sleeping...." Blah blah blah. What's the point of this bit here? It comes out of nowhere, and doesn't seem to add much. Unless it's a weak attempt to let us know we should be feeling sorry for this guy, or something, like, "Oh, what a waste, that he will die before having accomplished anything, boo hoo." Maybe just cut it.
--"I opened my eyes at the sharp pains...." Need another break, maybe with a time again, before this. It's not good to jump between points of view like that.
--"the bones near dissolved by the vine's acidic dissolving" dissolved, dissolving... Change one of those to make it less clunky.
--"the still alive man" Don't try to turn words into adjectives by hyphenating them (side note: still-alive should have been hyphenated). Maybe turn it into an appositive or something: "the man, still alive, before...."
--"I personally think it was that neighbor of his, came in and poured acid on him until he burned up or something." This whole thing about the neighbors isn't very well established. If you're going to mention them at all, make sure you get it across very clearly that they're not to be trusted. Otherwise, it just sounds like you're making excuses.
--"'Sexy lady'' She regarded to herself, and took out a piece of what looked like a red plant from her bag. She bit a chunk of it off as she put the car in gear, smiling sweetly as blood dripped down from the bitten end." Great ending. I love that.
Hopefully you can use some of that. I think the main problems are the beginning, the pacing, and the insertion of seemingly random details. This piece is short enough that it should hook right off the bat, keep your interest all the way throughout, and contain only the necessary information. Right now it's not doing any of those things.
But the ending is brilliant, which tells me that you know where you want to go with this. Just not how to get there. So maybe some of these comments of mine will help with that.
Good luck.
--Not to be rude or anything, but that whole introductory passage is incredibly boring. If this is a horror story, there's really no reason to start it by describing his work day in detail. Waking up and brushing your teeth is not a hook, zombie dream or no.
--From reading on, it becomes obvious that the old woman is important, but we get little clue to that until she starts planting things in his garden. You should be able to fit her in in some other, more exciting fashion. Like... I don't know, maybe he dreams about her? In which case, you could start with the dream to catch our attention, and then move on to these other things. But he should have that woman always at the back of his mind somehow, to avoid having it just be an account of his day. Even if it's just a brief little bit where he catches her smiling at him mysteriously, or something like that. Something that says to the reader, "Pay attention; this is where I'm going with this," rather than, "That old lady sure is old and cranky," which is where it stands right now.
--'my pretties'. It works in the Wizard of Oz, doesn't really work here. Stephen King always makes people creepier by cussing. Maybe you could try that. Right now I'm not convinced, though. A bit on the corny side.
--"Johnathan groaned in what could be discomfort of a physical nature as the vines burrowed into his flesh and fed on his blood and bone marrow." That sentence is incredibly awkward. I like "Jonathan groaned as the vines burrowed into his flesh and began to feed on his blood and bone marrow." And then adjust the next second to compensate. This is just... heavy.
*side comment: be careful not to mix up tenses. Always keep it in past if you start in past. EG: "Or perhaps he was merely experiencing a nightmare that may or may not be induced...." should be "Or perhaps he was merely experiencing a nightmare that may or may not have been induced...."
--"I didn't have time to stand around and figure out" Needs something before it. Maybe, "Either way, I didn't have time...." It just calls for a transition of some kind.
*side comment: Beware of comma splices, and look over the rules for apostrophes again. You're consistently making the same kinds of mistakes, and it's distracting.
--"I glanced to the side of my house and noticed something that I didn't remember." It sounds like he's saying that afterward, when thinking about it, he didn't remember it. Maybe "something I didn't remember having been there before," or something similar. Weird sentences like these are all over the place: make sure you're saying what you mean to say.
--"It occurred to me it wasn't really much of a life, droning in work and coming home to watch television the rest of the day before sleeping...." Blah blah blah. What's the point of this bit here? It comes out of nowhere, and doesn't seem to add much. Unless it's a weak attempt to let us know we should be feeling sorry for this guy, or something, like, "Oh, what a waste, that he will die before having accomplished anything, boo hoo." Maybe just cut it.
--"I opened my eyes at the sharp pains...." Need another break, maybe with a time again, before this. It's not good to jump between points of view like that.
--"the bones near dissolved by the vine's acidic dissolving" dissolved, dissolving... Change one of those to make it less clunky.
--"the still alive man" Don't try to turn words into adjectives by hyphenating them (side note: still-alive should have been hyphenated). Maybe turn it into an appositive or something: "the man, still alive, before...."
--"I personally think it was that neighbor of his, came in and poured acid on him until he burned up or something." This whole thing about the neighbors isn't very well established. If you're going to mention them at all, make sure you get it across very clearly that they're not to be trusted. Otherwise, it just sounds like you're making excuses.
--"'Sexy lady'' She regarded to herself, and took out a piece of what looked like a red plant from her bag. She bit a chunk of it off as she put the car in gear, smiling sweetly as blood dripped down from the bitten end." Great ending. I love that.
Hopefully you can use some of that. I think the main problems are the beginning, the pacing, and the insertion of seemingly random details. This piece is short enough that it should hook right off the bat, keep your interest all the way throughout, and contain only the necessary information. Right now it's not doing any of those things.
But the ending is brilliant, which tells me that you know where you want to go with this. Just not how to get there. So maybe some of these comments of mine will help with that.
Good luck.
Definitely helps, thank you very much for your time and I'm glad you at least enjoyed some part of it. I'll certainly try to work on the outlined, and perhaps I'll re-write this piece at some point. As I have tried to make it come across, I'm merely a novice in story writing so any advice helps.
Well, the only place I remembered you mentioned them was here: "I got home and walked for the door, but took a moment to walk over and have a chat with the neighbor. He was a cordial enough guy, but awfully reclusive. He and his wife lived together in their house but didn't come out much save for work or something or another. I didn't pay much attention to them, all I knew was they were freaks and wore way too much black."
Which, frankly, doesn't give much reason to suspect them. 'They were freaks' is ambiguous since it's from the main character's point of view, and wearing black doesn't mean much. They could be priests... who knows, right? So I just meant you should clarify what's so creepy about them. This is where the rule 'show, don't tell' comes in handy. Let us see them in action, and we'll get the picture. Then that last comment makes a little more sense.
Anyway, I'm glad I could help.
Which, frankly, doesn't give much reason to suspect them. 'They were freaks' is ambiguous since it's from the main character's point of view, and wearing black doesn't mean much. They could be priests... who knows, right? So I just meant you should clarify what's so creepy about them. This is where the rule 'show, don't tell' comes in handy. Let us see them in action, and we'll get the picture. Then that last comment makes a little more sense.
Anyway, I'm glad I could help.
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