Thread: Tale of the Psi
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Radium

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Jul 2, 2007, 02:43 PM
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Okay. I kept a list of things that struck me as particularly awkward.

First of all, you have a few awkward sounding sentences. Such as this one:
Quote:
This figure was about 6 feet tall, wearing a black robe, with a veil over his face preventing you from seeing it.
This sentence is worded kind of weakly. I'm not sure the exact English rules for placing adjectives (as in, there are none), but at first read it sounds like the veil itself is invisible because it's over the man's face, since veil is the subject of the clause.

Also, the horse. It was a little confusing at first when it started talking. When I first read "before his horse said, 'Idiot.'" I misinterpreted the "before" as the location form (such as "he lay before his horse") and that confused me a bit later.
And - continuity error! The horse can't talk, but it warned the guards about Keiy, led them to him, AND made the guards think it was possessed. Sounds like it could talk.

Quote:
2 tore through his arm, causing pain to wrench across his arm.
Write out numbers for any number under 20. This came up a few times other times, too. Also, it reads a bit mechanically, you might want to shorten that second "arm" to "it".

When Keiy pulls out the scroll it didn't make much sense to me. First of all, don't let Dungeons and Dragons logic overwrite real logic. Most people can't pull out a scroll and instantly cast a spell, even if they do have a high enough wisdom modifier. Casting a spell presumably involves reading it, understanding it, and doing some magical thingy.
And why did he fall unconscious afterwards? Heck, why did he pass out like three other times too? He's worse than Eragon, and that guy spent like half the book unconsious.
And why is Keiy out being a ranger in the first place? If he's the son of a king, he should be sipping champagn and doing other important, pricely things. Your description sounds like he hasn't even bathed since he was born. I'd either add some more explanation for why the prince is out meleeing orcs or, if it's a plot point for later, make it clear that you're currently hiding the reason (as opposed to making it look like you have no reason for him to be there).

Anyway, there's this bit where you talk about the horse meeting the town guards and warning them, then the setting moves back to Keiy. Don't change the setting for one paragraph; instead, if it's only a quick or temporary change, try to keep it centered on Keiy. It'd be easy enough to have the horse summarize his journey to Keiy when he got back.
Also, was it a quick change of setting? The story makes it sound like the horse was gone for all of six minutes. Keep in mind ways to show the passage of time, like Noyes did with "Riding - riding - riding".

There's this part where you describe the town as small and with a 15 foot wall. You also go into the relative wood density in varying places. Unless the narrator has a degree in engineering, leave this out in favor of more general descriptors, like "a large wall of wooden posts". Furthermore, only focus on what's important. Describing the door's strength isn't important, since it gets ignited a page later.

Anyway, moving along... you have some problems with fire. To increase your realism, find some good videos and descriptions of stuff burning. Or take some levels in Pyromania.
Quote:
The town gate had erupted into a fireball, burning at least a dozen houses around it. Three brown cloaked figures walked in through the burning gate. They walked down the road, drawing curved scimitars.
There's a few steps between something catching on fire and people being able to walk through it. Mainly, it has to collapse first. Fire doesn't make wood instantly vanish, or fireplaces would be worthless.
Oh, and scimitars are curved by definition. You don't need to restate that.

Quote:
His sight came next, and what he saw watered his eyes. The entire room was ablaze, smoke curling up from the carpet and beneath the bed.
Technically, unless fire makes him very sad, it's the smoke and heat that's watering his eyes. The sight is just very glowy and orange.

Quote:
He ran to the door, hoping to pull it open. Just before he touched the metal knob, he remembered the heat, and instead hacked the flimsy door down.
NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!. If you touch the doorknob and it's hot, that's how you tell there is a blazing fire behind that door and if you open it you will pass out from smoke inhilation and burn to death. Breaking the door down is the last thing you'd want to do, since that would let the smoke get in before you had a chance to get out.

Quote:
He jumped from his bed, grabbing his sword
Quote:
Keiy drew his swords
I think you can see the problem here.

Quote:
The strange Psi still held the sword backwards, clumsily aiming and lowering Keiy's endurance.
Lowering isn't a good word; it makes me think of a spell effect. Try adding an adverb (like "quickly lowering") or using another word (like "draining").

Quote:
“Pathetic huma-” the Psi was cut off, as glass fell away from above his head, and wine poured down his face.
“Lousy things,” the innkeeper said.
Did the inkeeper smash a bottle over the Psi's head? This wasn't quite clear to me. Furthermore, has the innkeeper encountered these before? His statement makes it sound so. He certainly doesn't seem to care about the fire.
... Furtherfurther more, why is Keiy in an inn? I kind of presumed he was, like, in a hospital. To get that narcolepsy looked at.

Quote:
Keiy bolted out the door, quickly stabbing the Psi to make sure it was dead.
Strange order. Either he turned back to stab the Psi, or bolted out the door after quickly stabbing the Psi.

Quote:
he fell into unconsciousness from the fist that had just connected with his jaw.
Hitting someone's jaw does not knock them out, as far as I know. And hitting someone in the head to knock them out usually kills them. Don't let movies fool you, knocking someone out with blunt force without killing them is pretty hard to do.

Quote:
“Those swords don't kill you know. One showed up in my office a week ago.”
I think the problem here is self explanatory.

Oh, my list also has that you typoed "blue" as "blew" and "came" as "cam".

Quote:
Keiy picked up the nearby lamp, swinging the end of it like a spear.
What kind of lamp is this? A gas or oil lamp couldn't be used as a spear, and I think lamps that hold candles are called something different.

Quote:
Grabbing Keiy's head, he rammed it through the thin glass window, sending shards spinning in all directions. Keiy kneed the Psi, but it merely smiled at him.
“Idiot. Don't you realize we don't reproduce?” he sneered.
First, it could use some more description, like saying that Keiy's head was rammed backwards through the window or that Keiy kneed the Psi in the groin.
Furthermore, let's make a list of things that don't reproduce:
-Monks
-Emo kids
-Mules
-Ligers/Tigons (usually)
-Nuns
-Robots

Now let's make a list of things that don't get hurt when you knee them really hard in the groin:
-Robots



So, that's everything I can think of. Dang, this is a long post. Keep writing, you'll get better.
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