I need feedback

Hsinat

Casting a 'Have a good day' spell on you!
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Hello, everyone! This is my very first attempt at writing a novel, and since English isn’t my native language, I would greatly appreciate your honest feedback. I’m aware there may be areas that need improvement, so please let me know how I can improve both my writing and the story itself. Your guidance would mean a lot to me!

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Rookieqw

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Are you ready to be reborn somewhere else?

Nothing wrong with unique story beginnings. But this? https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1409452-the-walkers-series--reborn/chapter/1409461/ it is excessive. Maybe when you become a well-known author with myriads of fans who know your style, it'll work. But right now? It scares readers away, IMO.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1409452-the-walkers-series--reborn/chapter/1409454/

Her emerald eyes in adoration of her baby dressed in the cute outfit she borrowed from the neighbours were the only indication that she was her mother.

Maybe shining in adoration?
The blonde woman in a coat stood there with a solid face that spoke the word 'NO'.
And
"Really? Then I wonder who broke the vase that Aunty Vanessa gifted us?" She wondered, even though she knew who did it.
It took me a little while to understand that it was the mother who said that. You need to add some sort of pleading or questioning, because the dialog usually goes back and forth, and while the girl is begging, it is still a little confusing.
 
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AmbreaTaddy

Your Local Strange French Woman
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Jan 19, 2025
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First thing first, please number your chapters. I want to know where I stopped reading, and when you have only titles, finding the exact one where I left off is a true pain. So please please please, number your chapters ! You can keep the titles and do something like 'Chapter 1 : Ashley's last birthday', but put numbers in here. When your webnovel page looks messy, it doesn't make me want to put in the effort to read.

I didn't want to make any comments on the grammar or any english mistakes or stylistic errors (after all, I'm french, what right do I have ?), but... Ok, let's be honest, I'm halfway through the prologue and I don't understand anything. There is a girl kneeling in the mud with an old uniform, and her mother on the phone, is it ? But for the rest, it was way too convoluted and too much exposition at once. Is there a reason why everything is in italics too ? It's a bit hard to read. Normally, italics are used for thoughts. Exemple :

She bent over and picked up the bracelet. 'Is it the one Julie lost ?', she wondered while dusting it off.

There is a lot of repetitions :
clamped her hands around the gremlin's face, messing her face up and down
my baby is growing so fast that I can't record it, but I don't want my baby to leave
Those two exemples are only a few lines apart, and it's the same for the whole chapter.

I didn't understand, was there only one monster or several ? And that much destruction happened in a split second ? I mean... She says 'I will be alright dad, right ?' he doesn't answer, she turns around, and suddenly a hundred people are dead and there's blood everywhere. In a second ? While the girl didn't hear any scream or suspicious sounds ? And she was walking towards the helper to go on the boat, from what I understand, but the helper is the monster, so she should have seen it, right ?


Overall feedback : It could be a very good chapter for a prologue. Starting with a happy family, and then suddenly everybody is dead and the 5 year old girl is jumping off a cliff to survive. That has the potential to hook the readers, for sure ! The problem is the execution. You spend way too much time on details that we don't really care about and that are not important for the story, but you barely describes the real important things. Without talking of the repetitions and the stylistic choices, what you should do first is trim the exposition, and flesh out the important scenes so that we can understand properly what is happening.
 

Hsinat

Casting a 'Have a good day' spell on you!
Joined
Jan 26, 2025
Messages
268
Points
93
Nothing wrong with unique story beginnings. But this? https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1409452-the-walkers-series--reborn/chapter/1409461/ it is excessive. Maybe when you become a well-known author with myriads of fans who know your style, it'll work. But right now? It scares readers away, IMO.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1409452-the-walkers-series--reborn/chapter/1409454/



Maybe shining in adoration?

And

It took me a little while to understand that it was the mother who said that. You need to add some sort of pleading or questioning, because the dialog usually goes back and forth, and while the girl is begging, it is still a little confusing.
1- Intro seemed like a pretty cool in my head and I wanted to be creative in attracting my readers, but I didn't think of the consequences. Thanks for taking a note of it!

2- Really? I have been using Wordtune as my grammar checker, and it would put an underline under those dialogues and phrases. Like just now I was writing my draft for the next chapter. It showed an error under the phrase "Her smile radiated in delight" to "Her smile brightened." I had a feeling that something was wrong with the dialogues, but I couldn't point it even though Wordtune said it had no errors!

SO THANK YOU FOR PROVING ME RIGHT AGAINST WORDTUNE!
First thing first, please number your chapters. I want to know where I stopped reading, and when you have only titles, finding the exact one where I left off is a true pain. So please please please, number your chapters ! You can keep the titles and do something like 'Chapter 1 : Ashley's last birthday', but put numbers in here. When your webnovel page looks messy, it doesn't make me want to put in the effort to read.

I didn't want to make any comments on the grammar or any english mistakes or stylistic errors (after all, I'm french, what right do I have ?), but... Ok, let's be honest, I'm halfway through the prologue and I don't understand anything. There is a girl kneeling in the mud with an old uniform, and her mother on the phone, is it ? But for the rest, it was way too convoluted and too much exposition at once. Is there a reason why everything is in italics too ? It's a bit hard to read. Normally, italics are used for thoughts. Exemple :

She bent over and picked up the bracelet. 'Is it the one Julie lost ?', she wondered while dusting it off.

There is a lot of repetitions :


Those two exemples are only a few lines apart, and it's the same for the whole chapter.

I didn't understand, was there only one monster or several ? And that much destruction happened in a split second ? I mean... She says 'I will be alright dad, right ?' he doesn't answer, she turns around, and suddenly a hundred people are dead and there's blood everywhere. In a second ? While the girl didn't hear any scream or suspicious sounds ? And she was walking towards the helper to go on the boat, from what I understand, but the helper is the monster, so she should have seen it, right ?


Overall feedback : It could be a very good chapter for a prologue. Starting with a happy family, and then suddenly everybody is dead and the 5 year old girl is jumping off a cliff to survive. That has the potential to hook the readers, for sure ! The problem is the execution. You spend way too much time on details that we don't really care about and that are not important for the story, but you barely describes the real important things. Without talking of the repetitions and the stylistic choices, what you should do first is trim the exposition, and flesh out the important scenes so that we can understand properly what is happening.
Regarding the chapter numbering, I wasn't planning to number as each tittle mentioned is as equivalent as the other and are a form of foreshadowing, and it also tells at what time did the events took place.

The lowercase symbolised it was in the past while upper case in the present.

The italic font symbolises flashbacks, dreams, voices of the past.

Since you're French I think you will hate/like the idea of using the italic font as an accent on words in dialogues. (I have tons of friends who speak French, so I dedicated this character Viella with regard to them.)

The first chapter is a nightmare. You know how arbitrary our dreams are like shift to another, I tried to replicate it in the prologue.
Ashley is 6–7 years old keep in mind. That's why Her mum's and her actions are fogging like in the memories.

In the upcoming chapters, Ashley will retell the same incident again with the characters. And the monster transformation happened right during the boat ride.


In the end, I sincerely apologize if this chapter feels a bit rough or unpolished. I will edit it as per your suggestion. Thanks!
 
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