89 / 111
May 2021

Thank you :slight_smile:
And don't worry about being to harsh.

Regarding the one page: I draw this comic in pages and since I am a hobby-artist more pages will lead to slower updates.
Do you think something like 4 pages once a month works better?

And for the green, I like that the chapters are separated that way but I guess I should really tone it down...

Thanks again^^

Come check mine out if you want!

Cool, here's mine - thanks for this opportunity! I'm late to the party so it's ok if you can't get to it

Unfortunately, the first page did not pique my interest. However, I read a bit further regardless. I wanted to see how you handled dialogue and get a better understanding of your pacing.

Honestly, I liked your black and white panels better than the colored ones. The shading in the black and white panels looked more atmospheric. In fact, the lighting in the colored panels were quite jarring. Especially the panel where you tried to do rembrandt lighting.

I gotta say, your story really reminds me of Death Stranding. Is that intentional? The whole cross country vibe is what makes me think that way.

Sorry for taking so long to review your work. It seems trying to make reviews off a template is not the most efficient way for me. From now on, I will only write what I want to say and nothing more.

Thank you for participating and I wish you the best of luck in your creative journey!

I read your story before but I forgot to review it. Very sorry about that. I wanted to reread it so I can refresh my memory but it appears you have deleted it. It's a shame, I thought you had a pretty decent story. What happened that made you give up? I hope you will one day make a return. I hope you have a good life and remember that there will always be people to support you when you are having trouble.

I. QUALMS REGARDING THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

It's not a striking introduction. It does set up your story, albeit clumsily. It felt like I just showed up uninvited to somebody's funeral. Honestly, my first instinct after reading the first paragraph was to do something else. I'm not saying this to discourage you. However, it is important to understand that the introduction alone should have a hook that keeps the reader interested. I can't even tell you how many stories I have dropped after reading the first paragraph.

One may argue, don't judge the book so quickly. The story may get better later on. There is merit in that argument. However, I am only judging your first episode. For obvious reasons, the first episode will be the most viewed episode in your story. Therefore, I want to give you advice on how to make your first episode the best it can be in order to hook the largest amount of readers from the get-go.

The two things I consider when writing an introduction is tone and color. The tone creates the mood for the scene and is reflected through your choice in setting, character expression, and activity. The color is based on your choice of words (diction) and usage of literary devices. Color should be used to support the tone you envisioned. Color, when misused can easily go against the tone you are going for.

AN EXAMPLE OF COLOR BETRAYING TONE

Alice stabbed Jason like cutting a hole from the center of a donut before frying it. The fluid from Jason's mouth was as red as strawberry jelly. Jason lay on the ground lifeless. Slowly simmering as his jelly-colored fluid poured out from him.

As you can see from the example above. Color can transform a murder into something that came out of a food show about donuts. Jason basically seems like a Jelly-filled donut thanks to this.

You should apply this advice to your introductory paragraph. Set up the scene before jumping to dialogue. The tone will stay the same but you will notice a major difference in color. When you begin your story, the reader is still unaware of your tone. Which is why beginning your story with dialogue is unwise. The dialogue itself lacks punch and is doing double duty of both trying to set up the scene and progress the plot forward. Don't rely on dialogue to build your scene.

Imagine your story as a graphic novel. Starting with dialogue first is like making the reader read the speech bubbles before getting to see the illustration. Pretty unappealing don't you agree?

II. INTRODUCTION OF TOO MANY CHARACTERS

I reviewed some other stories that had this problem. The problem of introducing too many characters at once is that none of them end up being memorable. Even when the characters are expressing their sadness and desperation, I can't feel anything because it feels like I just showed up to somebody's funeral uninvited like I mentioned earlier.

I think you are being too hasty to get to the meat of your story. Slow down, take your time and pace your story properly and give us time to grow attached to the characters of your story. Introduce your characters gradually and give each character a distinct personality that can help us identify your characters through their actions.

II. OTHER THOUGHTS

Story Potential: You must have read some stories of witchcraft and developed an interest to tell a story like that. There is a lot you can do with a story with fictitious and mysterious mechanics. Even though the rules are loose, do not get carried away with your story. Always keep in mind what you want this story to be about and do not lose sight on that. I have seen too many cases of writers losing sight of their creative direction and end up lost. Be the one in control of your story. Do not let it control you.

Fantastical/Foreign Words: When writing fantasy, people like to make up words, including myself. However, you must make sure that the readers can visualize the meanings of your made-up words. The only made-up words that usually do not require clarification are names. What I said above also applies to foreign words that the reader may not know about. Feel free to disregard what I said if you are confident your target audience knows what you are saying.

WORDS THAT NEED ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATION

  • Knyaz

  • Bolyars

These two words, while not fantastical, required me to do a Google Search to understand what they meant. There is no guarantee that the reader will continue reading your work after that Google Search. So minimize that possibility.

Tense and Grammar Errors: I noticed that some sentences used the wrong tenses. There are also some fragmented sentences in your story. I encourage you to continue editing it.

Overuse of Punctuation Marks: Too much Exclamation Marks and Ellipsis (...)

III. CONCLUSION

Your story could benefit from more attention to detail. Think about Tone and Color like I have mentioned in my first section in order to make your story come to life. The rushed pacing does not give any time for your characters to develop nor is it enough time for the audience to grow a sense of attachment to them. I believe once you find a rhythm that works for you. You will be able to make a good witch story based on the knowledge you have accumulated on the subject.

Thank you for participating and I wish you the best of luck on your creative journey.


Remind me to read your novel, I'll do it when I have some free time :blush:

Thanks for reading it :slight_smile:

I've never been great with color lol I started getting better with the lighting toward the end but at first I was only using flats and trying to rely on my inking to give more depth. The reason I went black and white is because I just don't have the time to do color anymore but that does let me put more thought into the shading and atmosphere so I'm glad you think it looks better :slight_smile: I'm able to let the things I'm better at shine more.

I started this comic before Death Stranding came out lol so that can't be intentional :stuck_out_tongue:

In the hopes of catching a glimpse of the world Alist is living in, be my guest.

If you want to review my first episode I can definitely return the favor.

1 month later

Hello my fellow creators. I haven't been active on this forum lately but I want to change that starting today. I have revised the criteria I will be using to analyse your first episodes. Essentially, I will be analysing these three things.


HOOK

Listen, I am only reading your first episode. I don't care how good your plot develops later on. If you want me to care, do it in the first episode. Your view count drops massively after the first episode as well. Hence, I think you get my point why the first episode is the one you have to get right. I'm not expecting anything legendary. Just give me a reason to care, and a reason to continue reading.

CHARACTERS

I'm not expecting anything crazy here. Honestly, I like the conventional approaches the best. Naturally introduce the characters in your story and give them some personality. Enough personality for me to at least distinguish them from each other. Some advice based off some mistakes I've seen. Don't introduce several important characters at the same time. It's overwhelming for the reader. In the same vein, don't introduce too many characters in the first episode. You only have 15000 letters to write your first episode, don't spend most of it to introduce your entire cast.

PROSE

Formatting is also merged into this category (As well as Art if you are making a graphic novel). Simply put, I want your writing to have a good flow. Sentences should flow naturally to the next. Avoid redundancy and utilize deep POV. In my opinion, this is the most difficult category. It is like a game of broken telephone. Your prose is the process of transcribing the scene you have in your imagination into words. To be able to perfectly transcribe our imagination into words is a mental state coveted by all authors.


Creative writing may be difficult, but in the end, you will have some fun and learn something out of it. In the world of web publishing, don't treat it the same as traditional publishing. No one here is obligated to read your story. We are not your editors who are obligated to criticize and revise your writing. We are not publishers who want to find the next best-selling story, nor are we judges who are paid to read your story in order to fairly judge which of the submitted books were the best. We are readers who just want to find a story that suits our interests.

You must accept that not all of us will like your story. However, you will gain a following as long as you write consistently and strive to improve. It may not be an overnight success, but the greatest successes are earned rightfully and gradually. I hope you will all continue to write alongside me as passionate writers who want to get their story out to the public. I wish you all the best of luck in your creative endeavours and have a great day!

Ooh, I love critique threads, feel free to shred it to pieces :grinning:

Feel free to review mine! Any form of feedback is greatly appreciated :smile:

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Also, here's my life's work. Hope yall like it.

I will also review the webcomics of those that reviews my work or at least comments lol. However, when I do review your work I cannot promise I will always like it. I don't like to be dishonest about a work someone is putting so much effort in. I feel like constructive criticism if it needs it is always a plus. I will be honest and pick things I like and maybe if any, address things that could improve. Unless, you prefer me not to. Just tell me beforehand lol