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Book Critique – Everyday Dragons

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AmyNotdorft, Wattpad

“Everyday Dragons” is a short story written by AmyNotdorft on Wattpad. She also has a blog here on WordPress, amynotdorft.wordpress.com (This isn’t a link you can tap or click on, unfortunately.)

“Everyday Dragons”, as far as I can tell, is a short story with a series of fairy tales. Obviously, being the fairy tales they are, they are in fact based on [mostly] fantasy. 

I read this story myself, as I would consider cheating not reading the book and attempting to honestly critique it. 

When I say I’m going to critique it, obviously I don’t mean I’m going to scrutinize it in any way, shape, or form you consider as ‘scrutinizing’. As a fellow author, reader, and watcher of anime, I am going to honestly state my opinion and what I think of it from both an author’s point of view, and a reader’s point of view.

I’m not going to say I write any better than her, because honestly I think my writing is crap. I can enjoy my trash writing all I want. I don’t care how many reads I get, I just appreciate the people who do enjoy  my crappy writing. 
Moving on, I should probably start actually doing what I first set out to do. 

Part One – World Domination 

This short story follows the experience of a man by the name of Ridley, who is power-hungry. As you can probably get that much info by reading the first paragraph.

1. From an author’s point of view 

As a fellow author, I can openly state that I do in fact admire the creativity of this story. I can also say that it must’ve been hard. I’m not saying any writing at all is easy. As AmyNotdorft focuses on in her author’s note at the bottom of “World Domination”, her husband “…asked me [AmyNotdorft]to write a story where a character experiences a physical transformation…” Words of AmyNotdorft herself. Being given a topic to write about might make it easier, if you have written something of the same genre. If you’re stepping away from your usual boundaries, and are trying something new, doing so may not be as simple. So I truly do admire how her creativity shines through and how much work was put into it. 

      2. From a reader’s point of view (I’m not very good at writing from a reader’s perspective, mind you)

The story’s words flow, and have a lot of details. Fantasy is definitely not a genre I read on a daily basis. I can say this story is well-written, because even though I’m not very interested in Fantasy, AmyNotdorft wrote in a way that pulled me into the story. That’s one of the things an author needs to focus on if they want readers that truly enjoy their writing. Will this pull the reader in?  The story needs to have certain elements, (ex. Creativity), that will encourage the reader to keep on reading. AmyNotdorft, (from what I can tell. I don’t know her methods of writing), uses these elements to her advantage.

Part Two – The Lost Woods

This short story follows a day in the life of an elderly woman, Audrey. Her body is at the age of 76, while her mind is still stuck at the age of less than 16.

1.       Because I’m lazy, I’m just going to jam the points of view into one.

Audrey is a very interesting character. I always think it’s awesome when I see seniors take a moment to realize they should enjoy the rest of their lives to the fullest. Just because of their age, doesn’t mean they can’t act like their sixteen. They aren’t told what to do. Back to Audrey. Audrey is very childish, and definitely sees everything from an…. Interesting point of view. The fact is, I love how AmyNotdorft can make the reader feel what the character is feeling. Even better, she can also make the reader see the world from the chracter’s eyes. 

With Fantasy/Fiction, that’s a great element to have in your story. In my opinion as a reader anyways, I’ve never tried writing Fantasy or Fiction.

Part Three – Until Midnight (Parts I, II, and III)

“Until Midnight” is a story that follows Elle, an autistic woman, from her eyes. 

1. Hi again, here’s another paragraph for you to read 

This short story reminds me of the story “Rules” by Cynthia Lord. In “Rules”, however, the story follows the experience of Catherine, who has to help take care of her autistic brother David. In “Rules” I only had a glimpse of what it’s like to be around autistic little brothers. In “Until Midnight”, AmyNotdorft gives you the first-class seat in what it’s like for an autistic person. She gives you an adventure to experience to full effect. I loved experiencing the struggles of Elle. It was a bit confusing, I can admit, but I can imagine that’s what it’s like for the character.

Part Four – Everyday Dragons 

This isn’t a short story, but a poem about how Fiction aids a person in their everyday life. AmyNotdorft states at the end of the poem, “This poem is a namesake of Everyday Dragons…” Thus the poem pretty much conveying the whole story. She also stated that, quote, unquote, “sort of my way of trying to convey how I sometimes use Fiction to navigate…” She also says, “I wanted to also portray a day in the life of someone and all those little battles we take for granted.” So not has AmyNotdorft given us a way to understand Fantasy on another level, but she has given us a chance to realize how much those small struggles in life pile up and effect us. 

Part Five – Fairy Story 

“Fairy Story” is creative. I had to get that out there before I exploded in excitement. 

This short story was my favorite. Whether it’s the emotional connection, the sense of humor put into it, I absolutely loved it. 

It was quite sad when – Sorry, I don’t want to give the story away. In my opinion, “Fairy Story” somewhat focused on the struggles of trust a friend that always has your  back. What happens when you leave a friend to hang out with someone else and end up neglecting them?  Well, “Fairy Story” shows you just that. 

I could sense a bit of humor, and I had a laugh here and there. 

Back to the creativity. AmyNotdorft gives you a unique fairy story. She let you see fairies in a new perspective, (which I think was totally cool).

Overall

I think the stories (and poem) deserves a 10/10. As for this critique…. debatable.

Anyway, tell me what you would give AmyNotdorft, after reading this blog! While you’re at it, you can go over on Wattpad, create your own profile, and take an active part in the community! You can read awesome stories like AmyNotdorft’s, or you can even share your very own stories with the world!  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Beautiful Love + Stuff

Beautiful Love is a series I’m writing on Wattpad. This series includes Wife To Widow, a story that currently has only one chapter published so far. 

So that your not confused, the second book and there on are not continuations of the first book.

I will try to update both Wife To Widow (the first book), and Sparkling Tides (the second book) weekly. Please don’t complain if I don’t always update weekly. 

Reading my blogs is really important, especially if you read my stories. Sorry if I sound rude… 
Anyway, I’m not going to be talking about just Wattpad. I’ll talk about other stuff, too. 

Anime, other nerdy stuff…. I’ll also be posting story reviews for Wattpad stories. If you have Wattpad stories you like reading, or if you are posting your own story(stories) on Wattpad, comment down below if you want me to read them and give my opinion.

🙂

Hi!

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I’m a struggling author on Wattpad, an awesome site/app where you can post your own stories. My username is MemoirsOfTrash on Wattpad, if you are a Wattpader, or if you plan on joining the site later in time. You can chat with me if you want to, it’s not like I have anything better to do XD. You can also read my stories, if you feel like it.