Friday, April 12, 2013

Second Story Critique

I am in a Fiction Writing class, and part of the assignments given is to write two stories, with the total amount of pages for both being 25 pages at least. I successfully achieved that after turning in my second story, which is cool.

I had my story critiqued yesterday, and the reactions were... mixed. Some people were like, "Oh my gosh, it was so awesome!" And other people were like, "I am so confused."

Yes, it had science fiction elements. After all it was set in the future. But it really wasn't all that confusing when I added a HUGE note saying, "Hey, this is just a small part of a much longer novel I have been working on for a while now." It's not like I wanted to send the whole freaking novel to them, (minus the fact that it is mostly written in my head rather than on paper.) I just wanted to give them a glimpse of the little world I was creating.

Mostly the questions ranged from, "Why are all the soliders white?" Well, they weren't white. They weren't any denomination... so I can't really answer that.

"Why are there different races?" Because the little world I created there are three different kinds of humans. One with no genetic enhancements, one with some physical genetic enhancements, and one with genetic enhancements that change how their minds work. Pretty simple stuff people.

"That still doesn't answer why." <Face palm.>

"I'm lost... is this in the future? Because they are riding a train." Oh, my god. There are still trains. Why are you acting like they don't exist?

"So, like, your characters have similar names. There is like... a letter R in two of the character's names." That isn't really constructive.

"Is this an allegory about racism?" If you mean, is this about skin color? No. I am really unconcerned about skin color. Biologically speaking, medium toned people deal better with a lot of sunlight, which the soliders have to deal with. Too much Vitamin D leads to rickets. What good are soliders with rickets?

"So it's not an allegory?" I just said no.

"I am really confused... so there are like three different kinds of races? I didn't pick up on that." Each race has a name for themselves... that is used really frequently throughout.

"Can you like, write about the super smart race more?" Obviously I am going to since this is a part of a much larger work.

"I really like this line: 'His eyes were rimmed from alcohol.'" Okay. Cool?

"So, I am totally not interested in this story unless it is part of like a novel." <Face palm...again.>

Yeah... basically that was my class. I realize that sci-fi isn't for anyone, and not all of the things I write are sci-fi. In fact most things I write is more mundane, but this story seemed more fun and amusing. And far better than time-traveling kids trying to stop a magical dragon from being born.

Anyways, if anyone would like to check out my other blog where I keep my (mundane) writings, just click this beautiful, amazing link!

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