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Grading Session for Week 97

Redfin

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New Grading rotation. Look at the direction of the arrows! Look at them!

[Be] <- [Oc] <- [Aq] <- [Be]

The grading groups and their graders are currently as follows:

[Ca] Castus - Inactive Members

Castus List
Bish
Bunz
Cheese
Dil
Doc
Freckles
Griff
Hiren
Kaze
Lambo
Loko
Nella
Puppet
Resh
Sev
Shade
Shrub
Sparx
Switch
Tetsu
Zerieth


[Oc] Occultus - Finny
Bob
Iron_Void
Ketch
Moon
Regulus
Thread​

[Be] Bellator - Will
Berri
Dys
Kago
Minj
Rob​

[Aq] Aquila - Hare
Raph
Thana
Val
Vin​

The Rotation for the month of June 2016 is:

[Be] <- [Oc] <- [Aq] <- [Be]

Please post your thread titles beginning with your grading group, then the week number, like follows:
[Ca] Week 01: Title Should Be Here

Grades are due by 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday.
 
Ketch + 50 brytjh
Resort: I don't know, you have no word count. 95% score.

Well, that was a brutal beat-down. It's really well written in both action and inner thoughts. Too bad I never got to see one day of business at the Gun and Game before it got forcibly closed. Why does this feel like some kind of action movie? The revenge starts soon and Tycho has a very particular set of skills. Business acumen is not one of them.

Technically week 98 writing: 120

Alright, someone Tycho knew and felt semi-close to died. This is now full on action movie territory.
 
Dys - 490/497 + 150 Faction

Haha. Ran to the Sea of Occidens, eh? The trip from Terminus to Avelyn is seven to ten days by foot caravan. Even if Harper runs to the closer inlet, that's still 3-5 days of travel. It would also take longer than roughly three days to cross the ocean. If you reference the trip again, you should probably pad it out to at least two weeks total: 4-5 days on the run from the guards and the rest spent in the ocean.

That detail aside, I loved these chapters. The idea of a spurii's mixed heritage being such a hindrance hadn't occurred to me, and I like how you described the trip through the ocean, being pulled by the waves and currents. The not-so-pretty eating was also described well. The pain of the transition from underwater to back on land was great, as well. Before all that, the fact that being a wanted person actually made life hard for Harper was an appreciated detail, when most of the bounties seem to be ignored. I spotted a few small errors that looked like you had started to write one thing, then went with another. Not so much typos as leftovers.

There were similar small errors in some of your turns in the Money Speaks collab. I unfortunately don't have a lot to say about this one. 'Val' rearing her head again helped maintain some consistency, but I like that the persona didn't take over. Ignis and Deni still have good chemistry together.

+150 Faction

Money Speaks (1150) 112/115
Tides (3820) 378/382

Kago - 574/577 + 150 Faction

Pieces are falling into place, but nowhere that I expected them. I'm unclear on why Sorena would care enough to watch Dio for four years, although it seems she's also been busy building up her little empire of sorts. I hate that I have so little to say on a long chapter. It was good, and the twists and turns kept it lively throughout. I do have a personal aversion for the "I could kill you now, but I won't because I want to do something worse" scenario, though. If it had been more of a standoff, I could buy it, but with The Baron and his cohorts both dead to rights, it's hard to justify them walking out alive, despite the obvious bad blood between him and Sorena.

The follow-up meeting felt like it was full of bluster on both sides. It might be fitting for both characters, but it's actually pretty cringe-inducing to read two people trading empty threats and boasts back and forth. I guess it's a feeling that the ones who are actually threatening don't usually have to tell you how threatening they are. That aside, the actual plan seems both logical and poorly advised. It should hopefully lead to good times, though.

+150 Faction

Actum Tempus (4324) 430/432
The Gambit (2885) 144/145

Minj - 85/107

Lots of small errors throughout the chapter. It's clear that you didn't proofread it before posting. A small one is to avoid writing with chat emotes like *gasp*. One of the repeating errors is that your dialogue punctuation is off. I can tell that you wrote this in Word, because it still has Word's "smart quotes" in it, so that explains part of the problem. Word, unfortunately, auto-corrects dialogue punctuation incorrectly when you are transitioning from questions and exclamations.

For example, see the bolded part below:

“So where are we going exactly today?” The redhead asked thrusting her arms and legs awkwardly in the water.

Should be:

"So where are we going, exactly, today?" the redhead asked, thrusting her arms and legs awkwardly in the water.

Other errors were a combination of typos, other punctuation issues and so forth, but I think those are negligence. You'll see them if you proofread.

As for the actual content of the chapter, it was interesting. I read Dys' chapter first, so this is the second piece I've read tonight with a spurii learning to breathe underwater. Both were handled differently, but both did a good job of capturing the somewhat jarring nature of transitioning from lungs to gills. I will note: if this ruin is meant to be older than five hundred years or so, caelitium wouldn't be featured in it. Terra Regia was discovered after the Cataclysm. Also caelitium is one of the rarest materials in the world, don't be tossing it around casually.

Not a lot has happened, yet, so I can't comment on the plot itself. I would have liked more context on where they were, what the plan was, and so forth, but it's still a good intro to a promising story.

A Fond Memory (1072) 85/107

Hare - 240/243

It's a little confusing to me how no one can piece together that Kincaid was part of the jailbreak. Masks and codenames aside, Kincaid acts like Kincaid. I don't actually have a lot to say about the collab. It was well-written, a good establishment piece for the guild's founding, with few technical errors.

Money Speaks (2431) 240/243
 
Zeta
Tsunami 65/75

Alright Zeta. So, for such a short chapter there’s some obvious parts that need work. I don’t know if you rushed to write this piece or not, but it feels like it was rushed.

I recommend going back to week 85 and re-reading the comments I left for you there.

Moving forward, be sure and make your characters at least somewhat fleshed out. I have no idea what Sam looks like other than that they’re a spurii, and that doesn’t tell me a lot about how they look. The only reason to forego any sort of description is to keep a sense of mystery, although this can be frustrating to your readers as you are willingly holding out information that they should have in the 3rd person narrative.

With this portion of your story, you could have just as easily removed Sam all together and put Xen into a scene where he’s working aboard the ship (side note: I hope there’s going to be more crew than just Xen and Sam, as aircrafts are not necessarily small. If Sam’s is you should explain that at some point) and in deep reflection over recent events or on some personal struggle. I hope to see more of Sam in the future, but a bit better fleshed out. As it stands, his attitude comes across as contradictory, and only there because your plot needs him there so Xen can get to Terminus.

The lack of description really hurts your chapter, as does the lack of dialogue markers, tags, and trait words. My biggest recommendation is for you two write something without worrying about deadlines, bonuses, or grades, and just try to present the best piece you can.

Lastly, about enlil (bird folk) and any descendants thereof:
Enlil characteristics said:
“...Rarely, a bony ridge protrudes from atop the mouth, matched by two smaller ones at the bottom of their mouths; these are vestigial remnants of beaks that ancestors of the enlil once possessed.”

Just making sure you’re aware.

Vin
Gambit 145/145
+25

The fact that Furi keeps a jar of ears is unsettling in-and-of itself.

I see why Will noted that the collab felt a little cringe-worthy, despite both the Baron and Furi’s personalities being as they are. Personally, had I been writing Furi, I’d have shot the Baron in the knee just to see what he did.

Overall I was a bit happier with this piece, though I still found a lack of descriptions in certain parts, there was an obvious attempt made. I’m wondering if you held back so as to not overlap with some descriptions Kago made, or just to avoid repeating yourself. Either way keep working on expanding your descriptions of Furi’s surroundings, her posture, things that she might take note of from the potential employer’s outfit, to smells of food, or the sounds she paid attention to (glass shattering, jokes/threats in her bar, etc) or tastes (Furi’s drink might not have been the same as was given to the Baron, for example). I’d also like to see something in future descriptions about Furi’s voice. Though she’s a very clipped person, is her voice soothing, does it have an accent, maybe her voice invokes a feeling?

Just one more description that you can add to help flesh out more of your writing.

Really looking forward to seeing Furi’s confrontation with Dio. It should be interesting to see what the contrast between the two characters is.

Val
Money 187/188

Mostly a technical error here or there, but aside from that, your writing was on point. Descriptions of Deni did feel somewhat lacking, though. It was nice to see Deni’s thought process and how it included Ignis. Nothing else to say except have fun in the arctic. Don’t freeze to death.
 

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