Comments | lilmissmagic71: LJIdol 10: Topic 6: Heel Turn

lilmissmagic71

LJIdol 10: Topic 6: Heel Turn

Jan 19, 2017 20:10

LJ Idol 10: TOPIC 6: Heel Turn

The old woman makes her way down the familiar block, past crumbling buildings and neglected brownstones. She keeps her eyes on the sidewalk, though it isn't to avoid meeting eyes with her neighbors. No one is out this evening. It's more to shield her aged eyes from the blinding cold. Everyone piling up together on ( Read more... )

ljidol10

Comments 15

tonithegreat January 20 2017, 02:48:20 UTC

Ooooh. Ouch. A sad tale indeed. Well done!

lilmissmagic71 January 23 2017, 04:04:28 UTC

Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

adoptedwriter January 20 2017, 13:18:27 UTC

Heart-breaking but so descriptive!

lilmissmagic71 January 23 2017, 04:05:25 UTC

:) I'm glad you got into the details. :) Thanks for reading!

rayaso January 22 2017, 22:05:56 UTC

This was so fantastic! I loved it. The descriptions were so sharp and evocative. This was a truly hateful woman, whose only goodness was to hide this from her children while they were growing up. Imagine what their lives would have been like if she had let everyone know how she truly felt. Great job!

lilmissmagic71 January 23 2017, 04:06:23 UTC

Thank you so much for your kind words! Imagining how the children were raised was actually the perspective that started me on the path...

uselesstinrelic January 23 2017, 02:19:22 UTC

I was actually really feeling for her at first. We definitely put a lot of pressure and expectation on women to be mothers and to feel fulfilled by motherhood. Certainly there were women in my family who, looking back, you could tell which of them never wanted to be mothers. It's so sad seeing how detached they were from their kids (who never asked to be born to someone who felt obligated) but maybe if she'd ever been given an option, she wouldn't have chosen to have kids and put them in that position. But certainly by the time I read that she was punishing the babies by leaving them in their diapers... HOLY CRAP. And it only went downhill from there.

What... a bitch. XD

lilmissmagic71 January 23 2017, 04:09:06 UTC

:) I'm glad you hated her. Strange to say that, but that was what I was going for... in my first draft, there wasn't as much detail, and my husband said he felt sorry for her at the end. "Rewrite!" cries I. This character study was about an irredeemable narcissist. If she's sympathetic, I failed. :) Thanks so much for reading and such thoughtful comments!

m_malcontent January 23 2017, 15:23:50 UTC

She isn't sympathetic in the slightest, but she still seemed to have done as well by her family as she could given her nature...so maybe grudging respect