jelly_donut: "Count On Me" ▬ Were we right to count on you for a good story?

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Author: jelly_donut
Title: 
Count On Me
Reviewed by: Admin Wafflehyun


 TITLE: (1/2) 

           Before looking at your tags and reading your title, I honestly had no idea that your fanfic would be an angst fanfic. Maybe Bruno Mars just warped my whole thinking of your title, because thanks to his song, I think about happy relationships, butterflies and rainbow unicorns; pretty much anything but angst, so I deducted half of a mark off.

           I also took away another .5 because your title in general, isn't very intriguing. The term, don't judge a book by its cover, will forever be used when you're scrolling down Asianfanfics because the only thing they provide you with is the title, the tags, the author and bits and pieces of the description. And If your title isn't eye popping, no one would click on your story link.

           Some things that I do like about your story title is that it's short, simple and it doesn't give away the plot, so props to you! Hopefully everyone was able to understand that the title, "Count On Me" was about trust, and not actual counting. And after reading your one shot, I realized that your story title reflected Daehyun's exact thoughts on his relationship with Youngjae, and that was quite clever of you to do. Your story title could also work the other way around; when Daehyun is living life alone on Earth and Youngjae is up in Matoki planet or wherever you wanted him to go, Daehyun would be able to count on Youngjae to watch over him... or I'm probably overthinking things, oh well.

 FOREWORD: (8/10) 

           The description/foreword is definitely one of the most important parts of a story. It's purpose is to catch the reader's attention, and you did just that. I usually don't read angsty or boyxboy fanfics, but you got me hooked after I read the foreword (and I think I might just start reading more boyxboy fics, thanks to you). Adding onto that, I loved the last line of your foreword:

           "Because really, it was only a matter of time before Youngjae broke in Daehyun's arms." That line really gets you thinking. Did Youngjae finally trust Daehyun with his problems? Well, that's what I thought at first, until I neared the end of your fanfic, then I realized that he literally broke. The line could have also meant that Youngjae was emotionally breaking too. Let's put it this way: The last line was all you needed to get me reading the story.

           There were a few flaws that I found in your writing, but they were very minor, so there's no need to get worried. The foreword sounded a bit choppy in some places, and I deducted half of a mark there. Also, there was one question that sounded extremely odd.

           "But even though they broke at some point, aren't friends supposed to be the ones who glued them back together?" Turning a perfectly good sentence into a question was unneccessary. Instead, you can try to switch the words around and say: "Even though they broke at some point, friends are supposed to be the ones who glued them back together." And thus, half a mark was lost. Here's a really great tip that my English teacher taught me: Read your work out loud. Whenever you're reading something in your head, your brain won't identify the little errors here and there, but when you read out loud, you can easily catch your mistakes.

           The transition between the third and fourth paragraph was a little iffy in my opinion. I read the first half of the foreword, and it sounded fine. Then I read the second half of the foreword, separately, and that sounded fine. When I put the two halves together, it definitely didn't make a whole. The back story of Daehyun and Youngjae's friendship (the first three paragraphs) was not needed, since their relationship is unfolded as the one shot progresses and it is explained later on in the one shot.  If you read the second half alone, you can see that the story isn't revealed as much, and it gets the reader hooked onto the story even more. So what I'm saying is... less is more. The littlest things can have the biggest impact on people.

 PLOT/CREATIVITY: (7/10) 

           Many fanfics filed under the angst tag usually result with a series of unfortunate events, all leading up to someone's death, and since the plot ended up that way, I deducted a point there. I avoid reading a lot of angsty fanfics because of this, and I'm also a really big softie too, so I tend to tear up whenever a really great character dies. In this case, Youngjae dies. I also realized this after I read your fanfic, but Daehyun's happy aura dies as well.

           When you mentioned Daehyun and Youngjae's container filled with money, there was this little spark of hope inside me that they would actually be able to escape to Seoul, one day, and live their lives together happily and peacefully. This event, to me, foreshadows something else that happens later in the story, and that is when Daehyun places a white lily on Youngjae's grave and says, "When I'm there with you someday, I promise that I'll be there when you need me." The idea of an author building up all of this hope, only to have it crashing down in the end is something that I really enjoy in a story. I also liked your little spin on things when Daehyun's speech at Youngjae's funeral was the actual one shot itself.

           Something else you could've improved on was the portrayal of Youngjae's father. I know that there are some really bad relationships similar to Youngjae and his father's, but his father had the biggest impact on the story, as he was the one who caused Youngjae's death, so I was a bit dissappointed when his only appearance in the entire one shot was during the . If this was planned, why wasn't it mentioned a lot earlier in the story? Youngjae and his father's unstable relationship was unclear as well; why did his father hate him so much? Why did he believe that nobody loved him? Why did his father think that everybody was out to hurt Youngjae? All of these open-ended questions were never answered in your one shot and it was a bit random, so I took away two points on that.

           The B.A.P members were mentioned a lot in your one shot too, but they only served one purpose, and that was to help Daehyun overcome his sadness. Had you focused more on the father-son relationship, I wouldn't have taken away as many marks.

 GRAMMAR: (6/10) 

           Throughout your story I found loads of misplaced commas and run on sentences, for example: "So, as he walked up to the front of crowd of six to give his speech, though Daehyun felt each step get heavier and heavier and the blows to his heart become strong by each passing second, he held back his tears." As you can see, this is a run on sentence and there were extra words that made it sound really choppy. To fix this, you can break up your ideas into two sentences instead of combining them into one. Example: "Daehyun's foot steps got heavier as he walked to the front of the crowd, ready to give his speech. Each passing second made his heart beat faster, and tears were threatening escape his eyes." Those sentences make a lot more sense, and all I did was rearrange a few words.

           Also try getting into the habit of writing out fanfics on Microsoft Word; it is an author's best friend. It can help with poor sentence structure, spelling mistakes; everything that has to do with grammar. I know that I mentioned this already, but don't neglect reading your work out loud! It will make a difference.

           A lot of authors on Asianfanfics don't do this, but for future fanfics, try to start indenting your paragraphs. Your story will look so much nicer and organized. Other than these things, your grammar was overall, pretty good.

 SPELLING: (6/10) 

           I ran your one shot through spell-check and there were quite a few careless mistakes on a few simple words, and honestly, that bothered me a lot. I would suggest for you to start writing with stronger words as well to improve the quality of your fanfic.

 FLOW: (6/10) 

           Most of the story flowed quite well, but parts were more rushed than others. During the when Daehyun had defeated Youngjae's father, I noticed that specific scene flowed much better than the rest of your entire one shot. Think of a fanfic as a tree; although its leaves (in this case, the ) stand out the most, the roots, the trunk and the branches (the beginning, middle and end) are just as important. And If those three things are weak, the entire tree will fall. If the flow of your fanfic is inconsistent, your fanfic will fall.

           Since so many different things happened in this one shot, I think that it would've been better to make it a two, or even three shot.

 OVERALL ENJOYMENT: (7/10) 

           I enjoyed reading your one shot, but as I mentioned before, some parts were rushed and unclear, and as weird as this may sound, I do enjoy reading fanfics with tolerable grammar, so I deducted some points there. You also almost managed to make me tear up at the end.

 BONUS: (3/10) 

           When I saw that your one shot was filed under the angst tag, I silently chanted to myself, "I'm not going to cry. I won't be sad at the end. Oh no, not this time." And you know what you did? You proved me wrong. I was saddened; not over your writing, but over Youngjae's death. You've managed to pull at my heartstrings and make feel the same way that Daehyun felt. (This was also one of the few B.A.P fics that I've read, woo!)

           I felt a bit apprehensive at first, but when I finally got to the end of your one shot, the storyline ended up being quite beautiful. We were definitely right to count on you for a good story. Thanks for requesting!

 FINAL TOTAL: (44/62 = 71%) 

           Unfortunately, your story didn't make it to our "Reviewers' Choice" section, but no need to be upset... keep on writing!

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lemontree
Sorry for the lack of reviews! Admin Soupjong is currently on vacation, so I'm trying my best to keep on top of everything! - Admin Wafflehyun

Comments

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candiedwebs
#1
Chapter 13: Wow thanks so much for the review! I can't believe that I actually made someone cry. I'm still kind of stupefied at the idea. ^^"
I wrote this fic at the start of the year and I had a deadline to work with. If I remember correctly, I wrote 4 chapters at one go because I had to rush to finish it. My writing style has matured since I have written that, but it's still nice to know where I have gone wrong with it.
Thank you so much! Really appreciate your help. :) Hope you have a nice stay in LA!
KShowJjang
#2
I'VE REQUESTED!!
thesmartass
#3
I sent in a request.
Thank you.
soldaeseoul
#4
I've requested ^^
oceanic-cactus #5
Hi. I've requested. :3
candiedwebs
#6
Chapter 12: Thank you so so so so so much for the detailed review! I enjoyed reading through your comments (probably even more than you enjoyed reading my story. C'mon, let's be honest)
Regarding the question about Jongin's character, he was supposed to be feeling conflicated about his relationship with Kyungsoo and his duties as a citizen of his society. So he kind of wanted to be with Kyungsoo but didn't want to endanger/further betray his people. Stuff and nonsense like that... so... yeah. :/ Sorry if I wasn't very clear about it.
And awwwwww 'absolutely breathtaking'? You flatter me too much I'm blushing from my toes to the roots of my hair. Come, let me gush over you until the cows come home.
I will shamelessly request for another review when my new oneshot comes out. OTL I'M SO EMBARRASSED ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE WANDERERS AND MY NEW ONESHOT GAK GAK hahahahahha
Freefallingdeep
#7
Chapter 11: Hello!^^

Thanks for your review! :D I'll keep those pointers in mind next time and work harder :DD I think that your help will really help me improve:) Thanks Again ^_^
ErisChaotica
#8
Chapter 2: I requested. Thank you!
maeanneda123
#9
Chapter 1: I requested!! Thank you so much.