I'm here as a judge for the Magazine's Strong Women contest!
Summary
I think your summary quote is very interesting -- I'm always interested in the people who can be strong, but in a way that isn't conventional. It sets the scene well for the content you have and draws the reader in nicely.
Content
The content itself follows on nicely from the summary you had -- it shows that people don't have to be a police officer or a fireperson to be strong. You've got this wonderful mix of characters, and they all have that small part of themselves that makes them their own hero, or a hero to the people around them. From the mother with the child that needs a bit more attention, to the veteran trying to beat what I assume is PTSD, you've got the theme of amazing women going throughout each individual story, and that's absolutely what we were looking for in terms of the contest. You've done a really good job with the prompt at hand, and you've done it in quite a unique way.
What I found particularly interesting was the chapter about the addict. I've never thought about strength in that way, and it was a really interesting read. The fact that just that act of throwing the needle away and choosing consciously to beat their addiction just screams strength, and it's really a different and unique way of looking at the plot itself.
Concrit
The one major issue I have with this story revolves around the site's story guidelines -- although the stories are linked very loosely by the theme of strong women, they are five separate entities and as such, shouldn't be linked together in the one story page. My suggestion would be to move them onto separate story pages, and then link them together using the sequel tool or create a collection for them all. This allows them to be connected together, but still fall within the guidelines themselves.
There were also a few minor typos and grammar mistakes here and there -- I'd suggest doing a quick read-through to catch those, but they aren't terribly distracting from the stories as a whole.
Overall
Aside from the fact that these stories do belong in separate story pages, I really enjoyed this! It's a wonderful example of the separate stories that can inspire the everyday woman to reach for the stars, regardless of what angle they're coming at it from. This was inspiring and lovely. Nice job!
August 28th, 2016 at 08:59pm
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I Will Bend, but Never Break
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Comments
Summary
I think your summary quote is very interesting -- I'm always interested in the people who can be strong, but in a way that isn't conventional. It sets the scene well for the content you have and draws the reader in nicely.
Content
The content itself follows on nicely from the summary you had -- it shows that people don't have to be a police officer or a fireperson to be strong. You've got this wonderful mix of characters, and they all have that small part of themselves that makes them their own hero, or a hero to the people around them. From the mother with the child that needs a bit more attention, to the veteran trying to beat what I assume is PTSD, you've got the theme of amazing women going throughout each individual story, and that's absolutely what we were looking for in terms of the contest. You've done a really good job with the prompt at hand, and you've done it in quite a unique way.
What I found particularly interesting was the chapter about the addict. I've never thought about strength in that way, and it was a really interesting read. The fact that just that act of throwing the needle away and choosing consciously to beat their addiction just screams strength, and it's really a different and unique way of looking at the plot itself.
Concrit
The one major issue I have with this story revolves around the site's story guidelines -- although the stories are linked very loosely by the theme of strong women, they are five separate entities and as such, shouldn't be linked together in the one story page. My suggestion would be to move them onto separate story pages, and then link them together using the sequel tool or create a collection for them all. This allows them to be connected together, but still fall within the guidelines themselves.
There were also a few minor typos and grammar mistakes here and there -- I'd suggest doing a quick read-through to catch those, but they aren't terribly distracting from the stories as a whole.
Overall
Aside from the fact that these stories do belong in separate story pages, I really enjoyed this! It's a wonderful example of the separate stories that can inspire the everyday woman to reach for the stars, regardless of what angle they're coming at it from. This was inspiring and lovely. Nice job!