Pit-A-Pat - flytothesKAI

VIXX Review Shop | CLOSED | HIRING REVIEWERS!
VIXX REVIEW SHOP

 

[16/07/2017: SHOP NOW OPEN!REQUEST NOW!]

 
Pit-A-Pat - flytothesKAI
Reviewed by Suhyo07
Title
 

I can understand your title pretty well; it's because of the sounds the heart makes when it beats, right? But if you want to make it sound like the heart is thumping hard and crazily (like Youngjae's is in the story), then maybe badum badum might be better. Though Pit-A-Pat is fine as well, except it seems a bit...I'm not sure, but cringey? However, because I don't really prefer reading fluff stories, it might be the case, so you can ignore this point. 

Description/Foreword
 

Your description doesn't have really any problems with it, but it somehow gives me a wrong sort of impression. While the story is about unrequited love etc etc, your description gives off a feeling of Youngjae being a lovesick teenager who seems a bit too desperate and constantly daydreaming about his crush. This part is in fact true, and is what is about your story, but you can add a bit of an involvement about Daehyun. You can mention Youngjae sneaking glances at his crush and so on. Just a tiny detail, but it would've been more convincing. 

As for your foreword, there aren't any problems about it so it's fine. 

Appearance
 

Everything's fine and well. I really like the detail of the heartbeat line (or whatever it's called) on the top of your chapter. 

Plot
 

You've mentioned that your story is based on 'In A Heartbeat', so I went and watched the video. So, first of all, I'd like to say that the details of your story and the video quite matched, and you've brought out the idea of the video nicely, so kudos to you about that. 

However, there is something lacking about your story which makes the video better. First of all, your emotions. It just doesn't seem convincing enough. I'll go over the details in the characterisation section, but to me, none of the characters are real, nor are they relatable. Yes, you may argue that characters in a story doesn't exist in real life. But see, well-written stories more often than not can cause a character to come to life in front of your own eyes. However, to me, the Youngjae and Daehyun in your story are mere characters. And nothing more. It's true that one can relate to them when one is desperately lovesick or has a huge crush on someone else, but at least, to me it doesn't seem convincing. (then again there's the part of which I'm not really a cheerful person that comes to notice - ) 

Anyways. 

There are also some plot holes which I'd like to mention. You said that the boys are both in highschool? Somehow neither of them behave like students in highschool. To me, the sort of behavior the two displays can only be seen in America (you know, the cliche highschool dramas which are often about blondes etc etc). It wasn't just their emotions and actions (which can be explained), but the fact that Youngjae doesn't know about the reason of his heart beating that quickly. I know that potraying them as middle-school age would be quite weird as they're adults, but like, I can't imagine any highschooler not knowing or imagine that. 

You also changed the detail of him hiding in the bushes instead of the trash can, which I admit i greatly appreciate. And....okay. The detail which I hated the most. Daehyun, was said to not know who Youngjae was (or at least there was no indication of it). No normal person would've kissed after seconds of meeting them, and especially after a fiasco like this. If Daehyun is trying to comfort Youngjae, he could've easily just hugged him or maybe the two of them could've sat under the tree holding hands like what happened in the video - anything but taking the ripening relationship so quickly. It's not realistic at all, and if this did happen in real life I'd be shocked beyond repair. 

And that's about it for the plot. Your flow is alright though; not too quick or not too slow. 

Characters
 
As mentioned above, I think that Youngjae is acting rather childish for his age. You had stated that he is currently in high school, however you let us believe otherwise. There are some obvious indications; e.g. the reason why his heart beats so quickly, and (alright I might be a bit biased here) the emotions he display, like a lovesick puppy. It may be my own preference, but some of the things he say out loud can be in his thoughts instead. 
 
Daehyun - well, other than him being perfect and handsome, I don't see much character development. It's almost as if he's just a side character, instead of being one of the main characters. And he doesn't speak. This is something which bothered me a little, because dialogue is one of the main points of character development. Surely a person will have his own flaws? While I do understand that due to his crush for Daehyun, Youngjae managed to block out everything negative and instead focuses on all of his good points, but he seems too perfect of a character to be realistic. So I'm suggesting that maybe you add one or two scenes where he trips or bumps into someone, then apologises or something which still causes Youngjae's eyes to turn into hearts. Also dialogue. I can see Youngjae's character development because his reactions, his actions and dialogues define him. His shy reactions and awkward words, albeit to himself, were what cause this character to come to life.
 
As for Youngjae, well, I don't really have much to say, but again that he seems a little too naive and innocent? for a high school student. There are things that should be common knowledge in his age, such as the reason for his thumping heart, as well as his reactions to his classmates abandoning him. I was expecting a more closed-off character, but I guess his optimistic nature is one of the things that define him too. Also, the amount of knowledge he has about his crush. Maybe you don't realise it, but knowing so much about Daehyun, I had been wondering whether he's the other boy's stalker or not. Some actions clearly potray that, especially when he knows all the different times where Daehyun is. Don't you find it a little creepy? 
 
Details
 

The details, overall, are fine. You give enough to let the readers know what is happening where and when, but there could be more that can be added, such as Daehyun's reactions and dialogues etc etc. 

Grammar
 
Your grammar is pretty well, at least on the surface. A normal reader wouldn't bother nitpicking over the details, but I do find some points where you made grammar mistakes. 
 
First of all, the overuse of the characters' names. You don't have to use their names every single time. Instead of repeating Daehyun and Youngjae and all over, you can simply use 'he' (which of course you used but not too often), 'the boy' (which I didn't see you using much), 'the older' for Daehyun, 'the younger' for Youngjae, and more. 
 
Another is your use of punctuation. In the second paragraph, where you had wrote 'because whenever he drank hot drinks the glasses would become foggy and everyone would laugh at him and think he’s a dumb.' A comma should be added between 'drinks' and 'the', as such shown below: 'because whenever he drank hot drinksthe glasses would...' 
 
Using your previous example, there are also mistakes in your use of tenses, which is common amongst authors so you don't have to worry much. 'He's' is a short form for 'he is', instead of 'he was' which should be used here instead. 'His train of thoughts halted when he heard the bell chimed...', where 'chimed' should be written in present tense instead of past. Or you can say 'when the bell chimed', if you want to keep 'chime' in its past tense. 
 
Prepositions! 'He wanted pretty big eyes but he guessed these would fine...' should be corrected to 'He wanted pretty big eyes but he guessed these would be fine...', and 'Youngjae never thought himself as handsome.' to be corrected to 'Youngjae never thought of himself as handsome.' Also ' He preferred food than boys.', where 'than' should be corrected to 'over'. 
 
There are some sentences which missed an article. For example, 'His sister told him to go on diet'. You left out an 'a' after 'on'. 
 
Also a sentence where you left out the verb 'to be'. 'He knew Daehyun liked cheesecake and scared of bugs.' This should be written to '...and was scared of bugs.' 
 
And a few more; 'Only when he was sure Daehyun sat on the table a few feet away from him he got to breathe normally.', changed to 'Only when he was sure Daehyun sat at a table a few feet away from him that he started to breathe normally'. '“What’s wrong with me?” Youngjae whispered to no one in particular. His heart thumped uncomfortably and he was confused because this was the first time he got this kind of feelings. ' to '...Youngjae whispered to himself. His heart thumped unconfortably and he was confused because this was the first time he encountered/had this kind of feeling.' 
 
One easy way to spot grammatical mistakes is to read a passage out loud to yourself. This way you can know where you have mistakes, or you can simply hire a beta-reader to proofread your entire story. Overall, your grammar is quite good, but one more thing - do twist your words and add a little more detail because the whole thing just seems to be dragging on. There were no effects placed on the words, (such as personifying some inanimate objects to make it look more lively), so there were parts which were quite tiring to read. 
Flow
 

I think I mentioned it in the plot part, but the flow of the story was alright, not too quick nor slow. Still, I would like to see more character development on Daehyun because he just seems like a surreal character. 

Overall Enjoyment
 

So first of all I really like the idea of incorporating the video's theme and idea in your story, but somehow you couldn't bring out the underlying message. Still, I quite like the whole idea of the story.

However, there are many places which you can improve on and which I wish to see improvement on, especially Daehyun. I also didn't really like that everything seemed too perfect - and your choice of words and writing style a little dragging. 

Daejae is one of my favourite OTPs, and I'm glad that you pulled off Youngjae's dorky nature ^^ 

Overall, this was quite a nice read, but again there are scenes where everything seemed a bit too perfect and plain. I hope I don't sound too harsh throughout the review > < 

If there's anything you want to ask, please do so in the comments and thank you for requesting at our shop! Please don't forget to credit us on your foreword, and comment below once you've received your review! :)

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
SnowWhite_Queen #1
I love Vixx and thank you for making a shop named after them!! \(^-^)/
stellarstarlight
#2
I've always been curious about review shops. I could never do it myself. If you don't mind my asking, how did you come up with what to focus on? Like, how do you decide what parts to review?
chariseuma
#3
Chapter 11: Hello there! Thank you so much for taking your time to review my story - it means a lot to me. This review had been very helpful as I failed to realize the sudden changes in tenses OTL pls forgive me as i am very horrible with tenses ;A; I'll have a reread and checked the mistakes needed for me to fix it.

once again, thank you so much! i have posted a credit on the foreword ♡
XxLittleKittyXx
#4
I requested! :)
XxLittleKittyXx
#5
Title: South Side Mafia
Story Link:https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1288620/south-side-mafia-gangsters-southkorea-childhoodfriends-kidnapped-gangsterromance-revengeromance-violenceandmurder-streetlife-ganglifehorror-policeforce-aileebts-killernamjoon-bapbts
Author: XxLittleKittyXx
Profile Link: https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1644599
Length: I'm Aiming For 50
OnGoing/ Complete?; Ongoing
Theme's/Genre: Romance, Drama, Violence
Character's/Pairing: BTS x Ailee/ B.A.P X Ailee
Additional Comments: I only have one chapter done right now, but I wanted to see someone's opinion first ^,^
Is English your first language: Yup
Preffered Reviewer: None
Passwored: Dowonkyung
flytothesKAI
#6
Chapter 10: Thanks for the review :) will credit you when I get to my laptop
chariseuma
#7
Title: a fingertip away
Story link: http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1282759
Author: chariseuma
Profile link: http://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/242416
Length: oneshot
Ongoing/Completed?: completed
Themes/Gender: angst, friendship
Characters/Pairings: yoongi x OC
Additional Comments: - let me know if u accept my request, then i'll allow text selection
Is English your first language?: no
Preferred Reviewer: -
Password: Dowonkyung
flytothesKAI
#8
Chapter 3: Title: Pit-A-Pat
Story link:http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1276359
Author: flytothesKAI
Profile link: https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/1001526
Length: oneshot
Ongoing/Completed?: completed
Themes/Gender: fluff
Characters/Pairings: Daehyun x Youngjae (B.A.P)
Additional Comments: - I'll allow text selection after you accepted my form :)
Is English your first language?: no
Preferred Reviewer: -
Password: Dowonkyung
Denisebyul_92
#9
Chapter 9: I received my review already! Thank you so much. Your words are really appreciated! :)