Hi Sourmaniack 
I thought I'd poke around in your portfolio to find something I could return your reviewing favor with and I came upon this masterfully interesting story.
I have to say, retelling Snow White with a male lead is a wonderful, and surprisingly uncommon idea. I wish I'd come up with it myself and I see why it's got a ribbon. Although I'm not sure what I think about him having so many wives...
I did notice a few technical things - no misspelled words, of course, but a few phrasing things that could use a small bit of tightening up. If you'd like me to point those sentences out, I'll revisit and send those suggestions over.
Your word choices throughout are good and made this even more of a pleasure to read. My favorite sentences by far are: "They moved like lightning, dancing with deadly grace. With a slash and a turn, a riposte and a jig, they cut the men down and surrounded the Queen." because they sing, just like poetry.
I also liked the alliteration of "...sinful sway." quite a bit. It was super descriptive and told me more than enough about the queen's character.
I'd very much like to see this story expanded and to see you push the boundaries of the story more. Right now, as interesting and well written as it is, it feels a bit like an outline, just a narrative version of a plot outline that screams "write more!" from its core. I mean, it feels like that till about the half way mark when the dwarfs show up and I start trying to figure out those characters. I believe that this story has the potential to be a much longer piece and could stand much deeper character development - that is if you wanted to do it. From what I see here, I believe you can and want to encourage you to do so if you're even the least bit inclined to do so. (And if/when you do - let me know you've done it, because I'd love a peek at it.)
And furthermore... Although I like the twists to the Snow White story you've put in, the story would be even stronger and perhpas even more interesting if you push the story to be more independent from the Snow White story structure - kind of like you did nearer to the end of the story. I mean, use the Snow White plot line, but change things up more and make it more your own so that people are slightly less aware of what your base fairy tale structure is. You could possibly do that by changing the gender of each of the main characters (Coal loses his father instead of his mother - the new King is the baddie - the hunter character becomes something else - etc), and by perhaps changing the mirror to something else magical like a magical harp that when he strums it... The dwarfs could be gypsies, the hunter could be a maid or something of the like... the possibilities for this Coal Black story line you've created are positively endless. But, if you decide to go that route, I'd definitely hang onto this version of the story - because you've got some great stuff in it (specifically character related stuff - the queen, the hunter... and that great imaginative stuff about the dwarfs...).
Anyhoo, those are just my suggestions (read "opinions") and whether or not you decide to keep the story as is or change things up a bit, it's still a solid good story I very much enjoyed reading.
Thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed reading it so very much and have to say that it's helped inspire me to write again. It's been a long time since I worked on anything new, but reading stories like this make me want to write again. So thank you.
Happy writing,
Jen
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