Permuted Press

  • May 19, 2013, 05:55:45 PM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

THE FORUM HAS BEEN UPGRADED! Please report any problems or concerns in the Forum Support area.

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Old West Zombie Short  (Read 645 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

cartmanking68

  • Newbie+
  • *
  • Divinity: 1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 26
    • View Profile
Old West Zombie Short
« on: May 24, 2012, 08:23:10 AM »

My first try at writing. Please be gentle.


cartmanking68
Logged

Matthew

  • Forum God
  • ***
  • Divinity: 103
  • Online Online
  • Posts: 7564
    • View Profile
Re: Old West Zombie Short
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2012, 10:10:33 AM »

A couple of points, they don't have anything to do with the story itself, just habits to work on in your writing.

The first is simple. There are a fair number of mispelled words but that's easy to correct. The first step is to run the spell check on your word processor, and note the correct spellings of the words you missed. Do not count on the spell check to catch everything, though. It's a nice tool but is very limited. Re-read the story several times, and read it aloud at least once. Your ear will catch some mistakes your eye has missed, and you will catch a lot of mistaked your spell check has missed.

The sccond is tense. Most of your story is told in the past tense, which is really good for fiction, but occasionally you slip into the present tense. Experienced writers will use the present tense sometimes but always because they have a specific reason for doing it. You never want to slip into it accidentally. Here's an example from the story...

Quote
The warrior’s eyes narrow as he knows what the white mans is right.

To fit with the tense of the rest of the section, this should be...

Quote
The warrior’s eyes narrowed as he knew what the white mans was right.

There are two mispelled words in the sentence also, but they're words that spell-check would not pick up...

Quote
The warrior’s eyes narrowed as he knew what (should be that) the white mans (should be man) was right.

Since I'm using this sentence as an example, I'll point out one more thing. This isn't connected to grammar or spelling so it may be less helpful to you, but...

Quote
The warrior’s eyes narrowed as he knew that the white man was right.

I suggest finding a better word than "knew." While it is true that Three Sticks knew that Quincy was right, the sentence is a little vague about when he came to this knowledge. I think you want a word that suggests that the knowledge came to him in that moment.

Quote
The warrior’s eyes narrowed as he realized that the white man was right.

I hope this is useful.
Logged
Ranger Brad: Oh, say... You don't believe those old legends about the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, do you?

Dr. Roger Fleming: Ranger Brad, I'm a scientist, I don't believe in anything.

cartmanking68

  • Newbie+
  • *
  • Divinity: 1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 26
    • View Profile
Re: Old West Zombie Short
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2012, 10:59:54 AM »

Now thats good feedback.

Thanks a lot with the explanation on past/present tense.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up