Monday, February 4, 2013

Workshop: Meryl's "He Loves Me"


Story Arc:  Amy has a strange relationship with a guy at school and is always getting into an argument with her friend, Sam, over this guy.  Amy struggles with alcohol abuse and reveals that she is pregnant, and after encouragement by Sam, she goes to see a counselor and it is revealed that she was raped by this previously mentioned guy.  Amy ends up getting in a car accident and seemingly dies. 
Compliments:  The story hooked me from the beginning and kept me interested throughout, I was always guessing and wondering where the story was going!  I felt like the dialogue and internal thoughts were pretty realistic and I could hear the tone you were trying to convey.  I also enjoyed the specific details you put in, like the Tarantino’s movies and the comment about needing to recycle.  I felt like Amy’s voice and characterization was pretty strong and clear, while still keeping some mystery as to what is happening to her. 
Revisions:  I feel like this piece would be stronger if it focused on less topics – either on rape+pregnancy, rape+alcoholism, pregnancy+car accident, or alcoholism+car accident – and develop them further.  I felt like the car accident came really suddenly and was an unnecessary and dramatic ending.  I wished to see more of the relationship with her friend, Sam, through interactions other than vague arguments.  I feel like this could show the characterization of Amy even more.  I also would like to see more interaction and dialogue between Amy and the guy/her rapist – the dialogue we see doesn’t really show the tension that would be expected between the two of him.  I just feel like all the scenes could be improved through development - more about her time stalking him in front of his house.  Also, there are some ‘formatting’ issues that need to be fixed, like removing some of the unnecessary dialogue tags and removing all the direct addresses from the dialogue.  

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