Half Life Chronicles

A

akaryu

Guest
this is my first attemped at writing anything and i decided to do a story based around people who excaped from black mesa. there on the run from some goverment agency to cover up the whole alien thing. i decided to to tell there story from black mesa all the way up to the seven hour war then if things go good ill write another just about the war and maybe more. i will be hoping for feedback good or bad is welcome. i also took libertys on the timeline of events if you know for shure i get it wrong tell me and i may make adjustments to my story i hope you will like.
heres the beggining of my book just a rough draft lots of spelling errors
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A man sits alone in his dark living room the only light was from the tv now on mute. suddenly an image flashes across the screen and the man sits bolt upright shocked at what he see's he un mutes the tv and listens to the news caster. in today's news the research lab known as black mesa has had a catastrofic accident goverment officials at the seen said that a reactor in the main complex over loaded then blew up wich caused unkown error's through out the complex killing almost every person working that day the amount of survivors is unknown at this time other than this information the goverment agents had nothing else to say about the incedent. in even stranger news wich may have something to do with the black mesa incedent wierd storms have appeard over the complex and we are now getting reports that these same strange storms have started to appear all over the world wether these are random coincedences or tied together somehow we have no further info at this time. at that point the man turned off the tv and sobbed quietly in the darkness his daughter worked at black mesa right near the main reactor so he new she couldent have survived. he cryed for about an hour then went to his bedroom heart broken he had already lost his wife to lung cancer wich he felt the blame for since right up till she was diagnosed he had been a smoker but he quit as soon as he found out but it was to severe and she passed six months later now six years later he finds out his daughter was killed he felt he couldnt get no lower. thinking about there deaths for a half hour he gets off his bed goes to his closet and pulls out his 45 colt puts one round in it and goes back to his put the barrel to his temple and struggles to pull the trigger then works up the courage he needs to pull the trigger but just then the phone rings.why now he yells into the darkness but he picks up the phone hello he says half heartedly daddy its me christine a little voice says at the other end of line. the man hearing his daughter's voice start crying again. oh christine i seen the accident on the news the reactor blowing up i thought you were dead. daddy she says im in trouble the goverment is after me and the other survivorsi cant say why now but can you meet us at the old abandoned warehouse near our favorite spot and take your old truck thers alot of us.ok baby im leaving now and im bringing my gun. but dad click the man hangs up the phone he knows the goverment and even though his daughter doesnt like the fact he has the gun he kept it knowing the world can be dangerous he found that out the hard way when working for the very same goverment now hunting his daughter taking no chances he grabs the boxes of shells in his closet as well as his shotgun and ammo for that as well. thinking the goverment might be watching his place he turns off all the lights then suddenly out his windows he sees a little red light out in front of his house stupid rookie mistake lighting up a cig while staking someone out he thinks to him self siiting down he waits ten minutes before going out the back window to his truck hoping anyone watching would think he went to bed. thanking god it was pitch black out and that the city still hasnt come to fix the only light on the street where he lives. and to think he would always bitch when the city said they would come and fix it but now he thanks them for being to lazy and being the religous type thinks to himself every thing happins for a reason and god wanted him to save his daughter. after pushing his truck for five minutes he turns the couner leading to the main road and gets in and starts his truck. hoping that would be far enough away from his house that the men watchin it wouldnt hear his old truck backfire when starting it. now he wishes he had givin it the overhaul when he had the chance but after five minutes of driving and no other cars in sight he felt safe. ten minutes later he arrived at the warehouse not knowing where she was he didnt feel safe honking the horn but then out the corner of his eye he noticed the big door was open just enough for the truck to fit through he pulled his truck inside and waited for a minute or two then he heard whos there james thomas he says into the darkness. then suddenly he knocked to the ground when looked up he realized it was his daughter who was that he said to her oh that was billy hes a scientist or was a scientist at black mesa now that its gone he no longer works there. i prefear bill if you dont mind she always calls me billy and i keep telling her to call me bill but your her father so you know how stubborn she can be. bill you only have it half right even as a girl she tryed to tell me what to do and even now she look's after me with out her i dont know what id do. daddy your embaracing me enough with the life story and lets go ill entroduce every one on the way christine sad. ok fine no more embaricing storys baby but where are we going james said. idont know daddy i thought you have worked that out on the way here. im sorry christine he said but i was so worried about you and trying to make sure i wasnt followd i didnt think about anything else. well daddy lets just get out of town and you can think of somewhere to go. fine every one in james said then to his amazment he watched five more people come over and somehow get into the truck. the people who couldnt fit in the cab laid down in the back end and coverd up whith an old tarp to hide themselves. twenty minutes later james his daughter and six other people whom james had never met befor pulled out on to an old dirt road a mile from the city he figured this road would be the safest way to go.---- please give me your feedback on this thanks
 
Okay, here's a couple of suggestions.
A: Work on that spelling and grammar.
B: Black Mesa was secret! No one outside of the families knew about it, and the military was trying to cover it up.
C: See A.
D: See A.
 
thanks for the suggestions but like i said i took libertys with the story line but also i said it was a rough draft. and sence i dont have microsoft word and using im using wordpad i dont have spell check. that is a big problem for me as i cant spell or type to save my life. but i dont care im more of an artist than a writer. when im done with it ill go back and correct everything like spelling adding paragraphs splitting it into pages and chapters i just want it typed out first then ill worry about that stuff just be lucky im adding periods which i dont normally do but any help and critisism is most welcome. feel free to hate it like it or enjoy it im just trying to make it my own.
 
but i dont care im more of an artist than a writer.
You should always care. :) Basic grammar is respected wherever you go. You don't want to look a fool just because it isn't your strong suit; practice makes perfect, like with everything. Personally, I'm more of a writer than an artist; writing comes naturally to me while drawing does not, so I practice hard to be a better artist because that's not my natural talent.

I'll give you a few tips:

Paragraphs. Large blocks of text look really bad. Break up the action with paragraphs. Every time there's a shift in setting, new paragraph. Every time someone new speaks, that's another paragraph. Any time the flow of the story changes, or there's a "break," new paragraph.

Try to break up some of those run-on sentences as well. Whenever there's a change in idea or new information, it probably warrants a new sentence. There's one sentence you have in there that goes from the man crying, to talking about how his daughter worked at Black Mesa, to how his wife died from lung cancer, and how he was a smoker but had recently quit...all in the same sentence. There's no pacing. You should stage your information, give it to readers piece by piece.

Learn the difference between there, their, and they're. Out of all spelling mistakes I see people make, it's these (as well as your vs. you're). "There on the run," should be "They're on the run." They're is a contraction of "they are." They are on the run; "they're on the run." There indicates a place, or subject matter, or introduces a clause or sentence; "Over there." Their is possessive; "We rode in their car," for example.

Another quick spelling pointer is any word that ends in y, when it's plural, the y becomes "ies." "Libertys" should be liberties. Storys would be stories, and so forth. Similar thing with past tense words, like the part in your story, "he cryed for about an hour." The word would be cried.

Put quotation marks around dialogue. Let me show you how to make one scene in your story better just by adding quotation marks, paragraphs, and proper grammar (with no changes to the actual content):

The man, hearing his daughter's voice, starts crying again. "Oh, Christine, I saw the accident on the news. The reactor blowing up; I thought you were dead!"

"Daddy," she says, "I'm in trouble. The goverment is after me and the other survivors! I can't say why now, but can you meet us at the old abandoned warehouse near our favorite spot? And take your old truck; there's alot of us."

"Ok, baby. I'm leaving now and I'm bringing my gun."

"But dad...!"

Looks better, doesn't it? :) And I mean quotation marks like these: " ", not actual
formatting. I did that just to make it easier to see.

Anyway, just Google some lessons in basic grammar. They're all really simple and they help you become a much better writter.

As for the story itself, it was very rushed. Draw it out a little more, give the characters a little more depth (calling James "the man" for half the story doesn't make your readers identify with him). Fix up the grammatical mistakes, and it'll be a lot better. Just remember to keep practicing. :thumbs:
 
thanks for the tips and grammer corrections darkside i am planning on fixing all of these later and i already said earlier im going to add paragraphs when im done with the first draft cause exactly what it is a rough draft. and any errors on sentaced structure are not intentional i have just been writing this after school so my brain is already tired and i cant focus on writing correctly. but i promis that if i finish it ill make sure every thing makes sence and spelled correctly. and again thanks for the criticism i welcome all types good and bad. i took your advice and changed the begining though no changes with paragraphs tell me if its better.
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James sits alone in his dark living room smoking a fine cuban cigar a gift from his beautiful daughter christine. he was waiting for her come home she was almost an hour late. he had muted the tv just so he could hear when she got home. suddenly an image on the tv catches his eye. James sits bolt upright shocked at what he see's he turns the volume up on the tv and listens to the news caster. in today's news the research lab known as black mesa has had a catastrofic accident. goverment officials at the seen said that a reactor in the main complex over loaded then exploded which caused unkown error's through out the complex killing almost every person working that day. the amount of survivors is unknown at this time other than this information the goverment agent at the site had nothing else to say about the accident. in even stranger news wich may have something to do with the black mesa incedent. wierd storms have appeard over the complex and we are getting reports that these same strange storms have started to appear all over the country. wether these are random coincedences or some how tied together we have no further info at this time. at that point he turned off the tv and sobbed quietly in the darkness. his daughter worked at black mesa right near the main reactor so he new she couldnt have survived. he cryed for about an hour then went to his bedroom heart broken. he had already lost his wife to lung cancer which he felt the blame for. he had been a smoker right up till she was diagnosed but he quit as soon as he found out but her case was to severe to treat and she passed six months later. it was hard for him exept her death and he started drinking and smoking the night he buried her. he stopped drinking a few months later when he was arrested and social serivces tryed to take christine away. now six years later to the day he finds out his daughter was killed. thinking about there deaths for a half hour he knew he couldnt feel any lower. then gets off his bed goes to his closet and pulls out his old colt puts one round in it and goes back to his bed and puts the barrel of the gun to his temple and struggles to pull the trigger. he then works up the courage he needs to pull the trigger but just then the phone rings.why now he yells into the darkness but picks up the phone hello he says half heartedly daddy its me christine a little voice says at the other end of line. James hearing his daughter's voice start crying again. oh christine i seen the accident on the news the reactor blowing up i thought you were dead.
 
Man, I'm bored as hell, I'll just go through and fix the whole damn thing.

James sat alone in his dark living room, smoking a fine Cuban cigar- a gift from his beautiful daughter, Christine. He was waiting for her to come home; she was almost an hour late. He had muted the TV so he could hear when she got home. Suddenly, and image on the TV caught his eye. James sat bolt upright, shocked at what he was seeing. He turned the volume up on the TV, and listened to the newscaster.

"In today's news, the research lab known as Black Mesa has had a catastrophic accident. Government officials at the scene said that a reactor in the main complex overloaded to the point of explosion, causing unknown errors throughout the complex that killed nearly every person working there today. It is unknown how many survivors there are. A government agent at the site had no other comments.

"We are also getting reports of strange storms appearing around the country. Whether or not these events are related is unknown."

James turned off the TV, and sobbed quietly in the darkness. His daughter worked at Black Mesa, right near the main reactor, so he know she coulnd't have survived. He cried for almost an hour, and went to his bedroom heartbroken.

He had already lost his life to lung cancer, which he felt the blame for. He had been a smoker right up until she was diagnosed, but he quit as soon as he found out. Her case was too severe to treat, however, and she passed away six months later. It was hard for to accept her death, and he started drinking and smoking the night he buried her.

After Social Services nearly took Christine away, he gave up drinking. That was six years ago. Now, he found out that his daughter was killed.

He thought for half an hour, and realized that he had nothing to live for. He got off his bed, went to his closet, and pulled out an old Colt. He put one round in it, and went back to his bed and put the barrel of the gun to his temple.

Before he squeezed the trigger, the phone rang. "Why now!" he yelled into the darkness, but he picked up the phone.

"Hello," he said half-heartedly.

"Daddy, it's me, Christine," a little voice said at the other end of the line.

James started crying again. "Christine, I saw the accident on the news! I thought you were dead."

Meh, I took a few liberties with the text here and there. And I guess I changed it from present to past tense. Oh well.
 
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