What is your opinion?
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
"There's a terror involved in writing -- in fact, in any creative process. There's the fear that what you write isn't good, that you'll always be an unknown, starving-artist-in-the-garret -- and the flip side, the fear that, when it is good, that you'll trade your muse, your voice, your unique narrative for the crassness of marketing, the evisceration of editors and the clamor of critiquers on Amazon and Goodreads. In HAPPILY EVER AFTER, author Ruth Carter takes this fear and kicks it up several notches by trapping her protagonist in a tiny room, forced to write, to create, for someone else's profit. With haunting repetition, clever use of alliteration and tight pacing, Carter lets us peek into a world where creativity and insanity are knife-edges apart -- and dares us to see ourselves as the nameless writer whose own personal narrative never really ends."
Paying attention
"The story kept my attention and that is a good story overall. It was interesting wondering why she would not run when the door was finally unlocked. There was lots of detail to put the reader in the room with the person being forced to write. Grammar and punctuation was excellent. Great job Ruth!."
Great work!
"I really enjoyed this. A familiar fairy tale plot that's slightly and disturbingly askew. The story flowed very smoothly. It was eerie, engrossing and just damn cool. A fine entry in the End Game contest."
A fascinating take on writing stories
"This piece read very much like a tone poem rather than a narrative, which I don't mean as a bad thing. The story is an effectively eerie take on the idea of keeping a muse captive for profit. In terms of thematic elements, it reminded me quite a bit of the Neil Gaiman story Callipole, which deals with similar subject matter without the same intimacy of POV. The story is paced well, but it's a little bit too dreamlike and ethereal, especially given the brutality of the narrator's treatment. Still, it's a lovely piece of writing and I'd definitely recommend it."
The End
"I liked the way the story ended in that it didn't end. You never knew where this story was taking you so in that sense it was suspenseful. The last part came as a total surprise as the story morphed from somewhat routine at the beginning to almost chaotic at the end of what didn't actually end."
The Story continues
"This has so much potential for a fully engaging story with its short sentence structure and somewhat hypnotizing repetition. My first thought was something along the lines of Alfred Hitchcock or the Twilight Zone. As the story progressed, the hopeless and mystery increased wondering what is going to happen to the main character and her state of mind. The turnaround in the end to send the plot into an unexpected direction added spark and left me wanting to read the sequel. In the end, it is a glimpse into the mind of a write and the compulsion to write more and more and more....because a story never really ends and a writer never really discovers everything regardless who profits from the work."
Happily Ever After
"A short but well conceived plot. Clever use of language and word choice. The words are knitted tightly together to create a vivid image of the attic and its inhabitants. Not quite sure where it is going as it develops which is refreshing in that it keeps you guessing. Suspenseful and unending, just as a true tale should be."
