Yes, another novel thread. Deal with it...

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Smagmuck_

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Aug 25, 2009
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Yes, I know this isn't search bar aproved but who cares...

Anyway, I just need an honest opinion on this here chapter from a novel I'm working on.
All thoughts are welcome, just no flaming, thanks...

Chapter 2


Most of the trip down was uneventful. If you could say plummeting through the atmosphere of a planet in a pod that?s practically on fire uneventful. The drops are surprisingly long. Just because the pods are launched out of a starship and incredible velocity take at most a few hours. Enough times for some men to go over their battle and mission plans, think and in a few cases read a book and sleep. Mal, one of many ODSTs, liked to listen to music. But, Mal had a different taste in music, an age old genre called ?Rap-core?. It died out nearly three-hundred years ago but there were still remnants of their fan bases all over the UNSC colonies. Mal took a liking to an ancient band called ?Hollywood Undead?. Their music was vulgar, hateful, and emotional at times. And in Mals? opinion the best damn band in human history.

His headphones, which were integrated into his helmet, blared their music. With Mal humming along melodically. Everything for the drop was going fine. While listening to the music, Mal pulled up the mission plan.

The mission, if it could be called that by ODST standards, was to take back a city under insurgent control. It wouldn?t be that hard. If it weren?t for the fact the city was damn nearly a third of the terrestrial surface. It was would not be a surprise to the pigs up at CENTCOM. Mal continued through the plans. While most of the plan seemed tame. Mals? Company. W Company. Or to the few Hispanic ODSTs in the company, it was known as Wevjos Company. Wevjos in Spanish meant the male reproductive system or any derogatory term for it. W Company would set up snipers while the rest of the division would sweep the city. These in turn split up every seven man squad and reform every platoon. An idiotic move so to speak. Leaving Mal with men he had never fought or worked with. Then something seemed odd.

Maljevik refocused his vision to see beyond the text that scrolled across his screen. His eyes widened in horror at what he saw. Flying at his pod, or at least tumbling at his pod was a chunk of space craft. It was enormous in size and was getting closer. Mal braced his armor clad boots against the hatch of his pod. He gauged how far away the chunk of space debris was. At least four-thousand meters and closing. A trick of sweat ran down his cheek. The debris slammed into another group of pods. Destroying them.

?Shit, shit, shit, shit.? Mal said to himself in a panicked tone. Mal noticed something, the debris seemed almost off. Maybe it would just miss him. He was wrong. The space debris closed in a matter of seconds. It hit the first pod of his group, then the second. The third, fourth and fifth. He was next. It closed in. Closer and closer until the very edge made contact. It hit with such force that Mals? visor slammed into the hatch. Cracking his visor. This was a feat considering it could take a several NATO rounds before failing. Mal, nearly blacking out from the force of impact, checked his vitals. He had a large laceration stretching from just behind his ear to above his right eye brow; he also had three cracked ribs a fractured skull. Mal began to feel an intense pain near his reproductive system. He looked at his last injury. A blown testical too.

?Great.? Mal said, trying not to scream in agony. He then noticed that his pod seemed upside down. No, wait. The pod wasn?t upside down. He was. He then looked out the pod window. Just in time to see another, yet smaller, chunk of starship, slam into him. Maljevik felt his pod tumble in the atmosphere of the planet. He was stuck in his jump seat due to the high G-forces. Something that had plagued man since the air campaigns over Nazi Germany almost six-hundred years ago. He couldn?t move. He had to enjoy the ride.

?I am so fucked.? Maljevik said. Helpless but to watch his pod tumble and the smear of colors. Blacks, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, flew across the view screen. Mal sat there surprisingly calm in his dire situation. Just thinking about his life how he had wound up in such a predicament. It was almost serene to Maljevik. The smear of colors, the slow rhythmic breathing from him. It would be almost peaceful if it weren?t for the extreme amount of pain in Mal?s groin. But he put that pain in the back of his head and concentrated on the moment at hand. He slowly crawled his way back to his original position up right in his jump seat. It took him several minutes. He then took control of his pod via his helmet interface system or HIS. He activated the maneuvering rockets to slow his pod?s spin. It slowed and stopped.

?Now that we got that outta the way.? Mal told himself. He began recalculating his position. He had been tumbling for nearly a half hour. This had knocked him off about six-hundred miles off course. He began to work in new calculations to fix his trajectory. Then, something slammed into the back off his pod, knocking Maljevik unconscious and sending his pod back into a spin. Below, on the surface of Sigma IX his LZ, or his grave, awaited him?
 

spartan231490

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Jan 14, 2010
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Not much of an editor. Im trying to write a book and when i have my stuff edited, there is more highlighted than not. But you might want to watch out for run-on sentances.
As for the story, i dont have time now, but i might get around to reading the whole thing after work tomorrow.
 

Smagmuck_

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Aug 25, 2009
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spartan231490 said:
Not much of an editor. Im trying to write a book and when i have my stuff edited, there is more highlighted than not. But you might want to watch out for run-on sentances.
As for the story, i dont have time now, but i might get around to reading the whole thing after work tomorrow.
Bookmark! :D
 

BloodyThoughts

EPIC PIRATE DANCE PARTY!
Jan 4, 2010
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Wow, I found a lot...a-lot! of grammar and spelling issues. There are some punctuation problems, and some sentences don't really flow well at all, oh, and there are a few run on sentences. I like it, it's just it feels uncomfortable when I run into these mistakes. I suggest reading it over a few more times Smag.
 

atalanta

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Dec 27, 2009
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I always get uncomfortable posting things like this :c So, um, I didn't hate it and I think it could go places.

First up, using sentence fragments instead of full sentences for pretty much any reason (unless it's a monologue in a hardboiled detective novel, in which case, GO CRAZY) makes me want to chew my own face off in annoyance. Every other sentence in this is a fragment, and it makes this very disjointed and choppy. If you really want to use sentence fragments, use them more sparingly, or they'll lose all their impact.

Second, this is kind of boring, and that's a crying shame. It's like you're in a hurry to get to the next bit, so you're sprinting through all the action. Like this bit here --

But he put that pain in the back of his head and concentrated on the moment at hand. He slowly crawled his way back to his original position up right in his jump seat. It took him several minutes. He then took control of his pod via his helmet interface system or HIS. He activated the maneuvering rockets to slow his pod's spin. It slowed and stopped.
Was it difficult? Was he in pain? Did he have to stop for a few seconds every few inches, or did he just muscle through it? Did he have a little moment of triumph when he finally got there, or did he grimly apply himself to the task at hand (we're not out of the woods yet). Did he accidentally overcompensate for the spin the first time, and have to even himself out? There's just not enough flesh on this story's skeleton.

Third, rethink the asides, or introduce them better. You give nearly as many words to the future history of rapcore as you do to Mal's entire team being wiped out.

Also, "wevjos" -- is that really the word you meant? I'm not a native speaker but I'm pretty fluent, and I've never heard this before. Huevos, on the other hand, is a slang term for testicles.
 

Smagmuck_

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Aug 25, 2009
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BloodyThoughts said:
Smagmuck_ said:
Really, okay then...
Im not trying to be mean or anything, im just giving you some constructive criticism.
Yeah, which sounds almost nothing like you. (No offense) But I'll do as told...
 

BloodyThoughts

EPIC PIRATE DANCE PARTY!
Jan 4, 2010
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Smagmuck_ said:
BloodyThoughts said:
Smagmuck_ said:
Really, okay then...
Im not trying to be mean or anything, im just giving you some constructive criticism.
Yeah, which sounds almost nothing like you. (No offense) But I'll do as told...
When im giving criticism, I am serious. Read what I post for reviews in the review section.

Oh, and read what the user above stated, he makes a lot of points and put in what I forgot to mention. Sentence fragments are annoying. Just try to edit those, and you have a quality piece of writing here.
 

Smagmuck_

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Aug 25, 2009
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atalanta said:
I always get uncomfortable posting things like this :c So, um, I didn't hate it and I think it could go places.

First up, using sentence fragments instead of full sentences for pretty much any reason (unless it's a monologue in a hardboiled detective novel, in which case, GO CRAZY) makes me want to chew my own face off in annoyance. Every other sentence in this is a fragment, and it makes this very disjointed and choppy. If you really want to use sentence fragments, use them more sparingly, or they'll lose all their impact.

Second, this is kind of boring, and that's a crying shame. It's like you're in a hurry to get to the next bit, so you're sprinting through all the action. Like this bit here --

But he put that pain in the back of his head and concentrated on the moment at hand. He slowly crawled his way back to his original position up right in his jump seat. It took him several minutes. He then took control of his pod via his helmet interface system or HIS. He activated the maneuvering rockets to slow his pod's spin. It slowed and stopped.
Was it difficult? Was he in pain? Did he have to stop for a few seconds every few inches, or did he just muscle through it? Did he have a little moment of triumph when he finally got there, or did he grimly apply himself to the task at hand (we're not out of the woods yet). Did he accidentally overcompensate for the spin the first time, and have to even himself out? There's just not enough flesh on this story's skeleton.

Third, rethink the asides, or introduce them better. You give nearly as many words to the future history of rapcore as you do to Mal's entire team being wiped out.

Also, "wevjos" -- is that really the word you meant? I'm not a native speaker but I'm pretty fluent, and I've never heard this before. Huevos, on the other hand, is a slang term for testicles.
Sorry, can't speak much spanish. So I'll edit that. Thanks. ^_^
 

LongAndShort

I'm pretty good. Yourself?
May 11, 2009
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Biggest flaw I found, was you mentioned the character's name too many times. I just kept on reading Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal's, Mal, Maljevik, Mal. It got a bit annoying and unbearable. My old English teacher once said that when you only discuss one character in a paragraph, only mention the name once, use pronouns for the rest because people automatically assume that's who you're talking about.
 

HerrBobo

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Smagmuck_ said:
Yes, I know this isn't search bar aproved but who cares...

Anyway, I just need an honest opinion on this here chapter from a novel I'm working on.
All thoughts are welcome, just no flaming, thanks...
Just so you know.

"They" say that you would fall through the Earth seven and a half times before coming to a stop in the center.
 

atalanta

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Dec 27, 2009
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Smagmuck_ said:
Sorry, can't speak much spanish. So I'll edit that. Thanks. ^_^
No problem.

I have a suggestion for you -- go read "Starship Troopers" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein, "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, "World War Z" by Max Brooks, and "Dune" by Frank Herbert, if you haven't already. Pay attention to how they handle infodumps (Heinlein in particular is great at this -- "Starship Troopers" is much less action-oriented than you would think from the title) and how much detail is given to action sequences. The best way to be a good writer is to be a good reader, and seeing how other authors handle things can help you get a better eye for judging your own work.
 

Ptolemy

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May 19, 2010
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i just checked how long it would take to fall from space to earth,it was 70 min and thats without jet packs or whatever is on a halo pod.
 

HT_Black

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S'good, especially for a fanfic. I'd recommend you tighten up a spot here and a spot there, fix up the NUMEROUS punctuation issues, remove any reference to HALO, add the rest of the story, then sit back and admire the novel you just wrote.

Then, go through an artist's crisis, delete the whole thing, and rewrite it from the ground up. Repeat ad nauseum to achieve official authorship.

Lastly, remember this: as long as it's better than something Christopher Paolini would write, you still have your credibility.

And on that happy note, be sure to pick up Into the Mountains when it debuts, because I really need the cash.
 

spartan231490

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atalanta said:
Smagmuck_ said:
Sorry, can't speak much spanish. So I'll edit that. Thanks. ^_^
No problem.

I have a suggestion for you -- go read "Starship Troopers" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein, "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, "World War Z" by Max Brooks, and "Dune" by Frank Herbert, if you haven't already. Pay attention to how they handle infodumps (Heinlein in particular is great at this -- "Starship Troopers" is much less action-oriented than you would think from the title) and how much detail is given to action sequences. The best way to be a good writer is to be a good reader, and seeing how other authors handle things can help you get a better eye for judging your own work.
Not sure about that last part. Every english teacher I've ever had has said I'm one of the best readers they have ever seen. And I am only an average writer, if that.