Title: An Act of Random Kindness by EchoWing
Amount Read: All
Verdict: Reject (4/10)
Reason:

Welcome to our new reviewing format, I suppose?

With that out of the way, let’s get into this review. There were two main issues I saw with this story, and those would be the exposition and the main character.

To start, the exposition. It’s written almost like a storybook, in that it’s 3rd person past and just extremely telly. As such, the story just gets kind of dull and repetitive, since there’s very little to engage you. Getting people invested in an OC is a hard thing to do, especially in a one-shot, and I don’t feel like how this story is told really grabs you and gets you to really identify or empathize with the character.

However, the story’s bigger downfall is the character, Quiver Quill. He has a lot of hallmarks of a Mary Sue: living a rough life, nothing goes well for him, people dump on him for no good reason, he has a chance encounter with Princess Twilight who invites him out of the blue to Ponyville to read his poetry, and everypony there falls in love with it. It’s fairly clichéd and predictable as well, so it’s just hard to be interested in the character because nothing really stands out about it.

So, in short, the main downfall here is that this is a story about a character, but the character itself and how the story’s told make it hard to really have any investment or involvement with him. That doesn’t leave much left to work with, and for those reasons, I am rejecting this fic.

SPECIAL NOTE: As we are changing up our review structure, we ask that any clarifications, questions, or comments about the review be posted here as to allow greater transparency and encourage open discussion.

Okay, gonna start this out by saying that you're pretty fair in that summation. I won't deny, I could have written it better, and the story does read like a lot of Mary Sue stories. I probably could've been better with my subtleties.

I kinda wish that you'd gotten the character's name right, however. Kind of fitting, given one of the frustrations he's had to deal with is people constantly confusing him for someone else or getting his name wrong, but still.

6401012
That’s my bad, I was writing this late at night after a long day. I’ll go back and change it

6401012

I kinda wish that you'd gotten the character's name right, however. Kind of fitting, given one of the frustrations he's had to deal with is people constantly confusing him for someone else or getting his name wrong, but still.

I am simultaneously sorry that happened and slightly amused that that transpired.

Aside from that, though, are you satisfied with the review?

6401266
Yes, satisfied. Saddened, but satisfied.