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Ugh...what do you think of my writing?

Okay, this is the beginning of some story I'm never going to work on again. However, it's a good example of my writing style, which is what I want critiqued here. Again, I want your opinions on my writing, not the story!

Please refrain from simple answers like, "It's good!" "It sucks!" "You fail at life, go die!" I'd like to know the reasoning behind your thoughts. :3 (Also, this is a first draft, so I expect you to find mistakes.)

Here goes:

I kicked off my shoes as I entered the room and fell onto the couch. My face landed in a pillow; I didn’t even bother to move from the mildly uncomfortable position. It had been a long day, a very long day, and all I really wanted to do was spend the next ten hours being dead to the world.

“Kylie!”

I groaned as a very energetic twelve-year-old landed on my back and started shaking my shoulders. I tried to swat him away, but my pitiful attempts failed to bring the desired result.

“Jake, go away,” I mumbled into the pillow. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Come on, Ky, you told me we’d go play soccer tonight,” he whined.

I rolled over and glowered up at him. He was a heartbreaker in the making, with wild brown hair that refused to be tamed and large blue eyes that looked completely innocent, even when he was in the middle of replacing your shampoo with a ketchup-mustard-soy sauce combo.

“Can’t we go tomorrow?” I complained.

Jake shook his head and grabbed me by the wrists to haul me to my feet. I went limp to hamper him with dead weight, but he compromised by dragging me off the couch to the space between the dust ruffle and the coffee table. I stayed there, immobile, not caring that my face was mashed into the carpet and the leg of the table.

“Nooooooo,” I droned.

“Yeessssss,” he answered, now pulling my ankles. “I’ll drag you out to the car!”

“Don’t you dare touch my car,” I warned him. “Keep your fingers off my Camaro.”

He immediately let go of my ankles and began backing toward the door.

“I’m gonna put fingerprints all over the windshield,” he told me. “And I’m gonna dump that weird bowl of mac’n’cheese in the back of the fridge in your backseat!”

I was on my feet in an instant, tackling him to the ground as he turned and made for the kitchen. We wrestled on the carpet for a minute or so before I pinned him to the floor with my six years of extra weight.

“Okay, okay, fine,” I panted as he lay obediently underneath me. “Go get the ball while I change.”

“Okay!” he replied happily. He leapt to his feet and darted to his room when I released him.

I made my way more slowly to my bedroom, my feet aching from my sixth night in a row of working. The last thing I really wanted to do that evening was to play soccer with my hyperactive little brother, but it was either that or come home on the night of our parents’ return from vacation to find the house completely trashed and my butt on the line. With much weariness, I shed my work clothes and pulled on instead a pair of gym shorts and an old t-shirt that was already covered in grass stains from past excursions to the soccer field.

“All right, pooper-scooper, let’s go!” I called as I strode down the hall. He emerged from the kitchen, piece of cold pizza in hand, while I was slipping on my sneakers.

“Uh-uh, put it back,” I said, pointing to the kitchen. “I’m not letting Mom and Dad chew me out because you couldn’t keep your paws out of the leftovers.”

“Aw, come on, Ky!”

“No. Eat an apple if you’re that hungry. Go, put it back.”

He groaned and dragged his feet back into the kitchen. I watched him return the pizza to its box and come back to the entryway before I opened the door and ushered him onto the driveway.

Update:

@Veronica: Of course it's boring. It's a brother and sister arguing about playing soccer...that's not exactly something people pay money to see. XD Content isn't the point here, structure is.

@*MissUndead41: I have to admit, "badass" is not a way my writing is typically described. XD Thanks!

@J: You're right. I can totally see where the dialogue needs work. Thanks for pointing that out; I'll keep an eye on it. :3

Update 2:

@smkeller: Thank you. :3

@XXsailorsaturnXX: I know it's boring. Not everything I write is dull, this is just supposed to be an example of my writing style. X3 But thank you!

By the way, could all future answerers please give me advice on how to make my writing better? I only have myself as an editor, and I'm a bit biased. ^^;

Update 3:

@Lindsay: Yeah, Jake should probably be eight or ten; I'm not good with writing young kids at the proper age. It's why I don't usually have characters under the age of fifteen. D: Of course, my brother is twenty-one and still acts like Jake, so I probably had him in mind when writing this. XD

Update 4:

Del, I missed you! I love your critiques. :3

You warned me about overwriting last time; I guess I didn't listen! I'll definitely try to be wary of it from now on.

This actually has a short preface that pretty much told the reader it was going to be some sort of dark fantasy, but I didn't like it, so I didn't bother to include the thing.

8 Answers

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  • Del
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The writing is, for the most part, pretty strong. I like the dialogue but where I think it fails a little is in the tags. The last dialogue lines are handled the way I think they should be. You don't need nearly as many tags before that and I would try to avoid the descriptive ones. If he "whined" make it show in his words, for instance. Actually I think you did that THEN you told us he "whined" You use some words that are supposed to be descriptive that aren't doing the work for you. In the first paragraph, "even" and "mildly" don't really tell us anything and in the process they take away from the impact of the picture you're presenting. Another example of overwriting is after you let us see her fatigue, you bother to start a line with, "With much weariness," trust your reader more than that. It's all part of that "show, don't tell," thing. I think you've done a really good job here of introducing two characters. I like them enough to want to know what happens to them. I think that's the most important thing that a first few paragraphs need to do. If this was going to be more than a family drama, like a mystery, thriller, horror, etc, it might need a small hint as to what the central problem is going to be. If so, the hint would need to be so slight that the reader would likely think later, "Oh, that was what that was about." rather than shoving their face in it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with straight out family drama, however, and with a little rewriting, I would definitely stay with these characters to see what happens next.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    I would. No matter what. As of right now, I just write for myself. Writing is my escape from reality into the deep realms of my mind. Even if I decided to be published one day and was rejected by all or if I never sold a copy, I'd keep writing. Writing keeps me sane. That's pretty much the end of the story. If I didn't have writing, I'd probably end up locked away for the crazy things my brain comes up with! So yeah, I would never give up writing, no matter the cost :)

  • 1 decade ago

    I actually really like it. It sounds like there's going to be a theme with the futal but loving relationship between the girl and her little brother and the fact that the parents are on vacation intrigues me. It sounds like it might be a tear jerker eventually. Suggestions though, 12 is kind of old sounding i would make jake like 8 maybe? 10? since he is staying home alone... i just think 12 sounds kind of old. but thats up to you. other than some grammatical errors though its a good introduction.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    It's not mediocre and boring. It's a first draft and the beginning of the story, and that isn't supposed to be action packed. The dialogue is a little bit awkward. I would rewrite it, but it's a good beginning.

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  • 1 decade ago

    kay i think it great but nothing is happening i hate to say this but it boring. but ur writing is great honestly... next time write something more exciting. am more than happy to take a look at it :D

  • 1 decade ago

    Ignore what ever hatred comments people say.

    Honestly that was badass(: i'd like to read more :P

    I'm a writer myself.

  • 1 decade ago

    I think it's great. You know how to write and well.

  • 1 decade ago

    It's mediocre and boring.

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