pickup for kireitenshi
Title: How to Fix a Broken Heart
Author: kireitenshi
Reviewer: Baekhyun_Biased
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First Thoughts:
- Title: The title doesn't really stick out to me as being anything particularly special. I've heard many titles like this, and it doesn't really set your story apart from the rest. Titles are what grab the reader’s attention, so if you have a boring title like this, people will just pass right by it. Try to encompass what is special about your story in the title, what sets it apart from others. Make it interesting and impactful.
- Description: The description is very straightforward and tells the reader exactly what they're getting. But, there wasn't anything that grabbed my attention. If you make the description more interesting, I think the story will appeal to more readers. After all, the description what readers look at first, so if it isn't interesting, people will blow right by it. Like the title, make the description catch the reader's attention by showcasing what is special about your story. So far, I'm not too hooked
- Poster: This poster is very aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. It conveys romance very well with the colors used, and the moving effects on it makes it look even cooler. The quote on the front is powerful, and combined with the rain it makes the story out to be dramatic. Whether or not the poster conveys too much drama is what I'm worried about. You said in your review request the genre included light drama. I'm worried you may have conveyed to much drama with the poster. But, at the same time, it looks very pretty.
Plot: The plot of the story was entertaining. It's not the most original thing I've read, but it was a cute love story. The way Ara left her and Hyungsik’s relationship up to fate, and they ended up meeting again was adorable. I also loved the addition of the promise ring. here were parts that I think you could've gone into depth with more. Like in the first chapter, when Ara and Hyungsik go on a trip to Hwacheon, you didn't do into detail with that at all. You simply described what they did, but I think it would've improved the story more if you created a chapter or two about their time there. In your a/n you said that you were planning on having the story be two to three chapters, but honestly I think the story needed to be longer. Three chapters wasn't enough, and I felt like there was so much the reader missed out on. The story could've been longer in my opinion.
Grammar: I picked out some grammatical errors as I was reading:
“‘You have no idea.’”
-Make sure to correctly punctuate sentences.
“Quickly inspecting myself, I saw that I am still fully clothed.”
“Finally regaining some semblance of control, I pulled away from him, suddenly becoming self-conscious and embarrassed.”
-You mixed up present and past tense quite a bit throughout the story (also self-conscious has a dash in the middle).
“‘It’s okay. I’ll take care of it,’ He said.
‘It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me,’ I protested.”
-If the sentence continues like it does in in both of these instances, a comma should follow the quote, not a period.
“‘Oookay,’ I said slowly. So how does this concern me?”
-During parts where the text is italicized, direct thoughts from the character shouldn’t be.
Style: I thought your writing style was easy to understand and would appeal to a lot of readers. You didn't use too many big words, and I didn't really see any sentences that I thought were worded weirdly. Overall, your writing style wasn't too complex, but it wasn't extremely simple either. It fit the story very well. I also appreciated the way you told the story from multiple POVs. I got to see two sides of the story, instead of just a one sided story, which was nice. However, I did think you tried to incorporate too much of the Korean language into your writing.
‘“I’m okay, Omma. Mianhe for making you worry.’”
-I think you shouldn't have used words like mianhe in your writing. Of course, everyone knows honorifics like hyung, noona, unni, oppa, and omma, but words like mianhe are less common. It made it feel like you were trying too hard to make the story fit with Korean culture.
Characters: I have to give you props for your characters. Ara’s character was explained and executed perfectly. She was a round and dynamic character with multiple distinguishable personality traits, and she was overall just a very interesting character. Hyungsik however, needed some work. He was round and dynamic, but not to the extent of Ara. However, as far as most fics go, both main characters were executed very nicely.
Flow and Pace: I felt like you jumped into the story too fast. It needed to be drawn out more, because the characters had already gone on a trip together by the end of the first chapter.And by the end of the second chapter, they were both already in love with each other. It felt very rushed, and wasn't paced well at all. I would've preferred it if you would have taken more time to describe things like their past relationships that ended, or maybe made a few chapters about their Hwacheon getaway. it also skips a whole three months of Ara and Hyungsik’s relationship in the second chapter. The whole fic felt very rushed, and the plot was too long for how many chapters there were.
Overall Enjoyment: Alright, I'm going to be honest, I wasn't too excited about it at first, but eventually the cute storyline won me over. I thought it was a nice fluffy story, and I would totally recommend you do a sequel now that you have things to look out for in your writing.
Tips: Work on going in depth more with the plot and pacing your story better. Those were your two main issues save some grammatical errors, but other than that, I think you are fit to write a sequel. I looked at “Every Time” and I think it will be a nice companion fic as long as you heed some of the advice I've given you. And if you do end up writing a sequel, tell me, because I might be interested in reading it.
*****I'm sorry if there are any inconsistencies, I wanted to get this done as fast as possible. I know you said I could take my time, I just felt bad because you had been waiting for almost a month, and I hadn't been able to read for like three days and yeah.
Thank you for requesting. I apologize terribly if there is any words that you take on account for harshness. I sincerely say that I do not want to be harsh! If you want any more help, feel free to message me privately!
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