Temptation by Max Pipsy - Short, Sci Fi - A man and woman debate the fate of the world in a locked room.

Things are not what they seem. - pdf format

Writer interested in feedback on this work

Luci is what Amendadiel calls Lucifer in the TV show of the same name, so I know where this was heading quite early on.

It meets all the requirements nicely and started to get interesting from about page 5 onwards, then kind of ended abruptly. I think if you ditch the pretense at the beginning and lay the cards out straight away, you'll have more time to explore the more juicy aspects.

What I thought was particularly clever was the idea that God was using Lucifer to thrust humankind back towards embracing Him more. This was clever and I'd like to have seen more like this rather than the food and boobs temptation. Don't get me wrong, that's classic Lucifer and should be part of it, just not the main thrust. Main thrust? Oooh, detective!

Good job, enjoyed this.

-Mark

Cool story.

A small typo on Pg. 6

MAN
When we first met, times where
simpler.

times were*

Loved the reveal where Luci comes out as Lucifer and things become really interesting after that. Well done.

Nicely done. I wasn't sure where this was going but figured it out before the reveal. A lot of good banter but some dialogue (for me) was just a hair too long and slowed down a really good pace.

Reigned in should be reined in, I believe.

Is a religion/Christian based short considered Sci-Fi? Perhaps more drama? And the prompt...hmmm...things are what they seem.

Very good - enjoyed it. Good job, writer.

This was okay. So much of this dialogue was exposition. Them telling each other things they already know just so the audience can play catch up. I like the themes behind all of this I just think this conversation would be different between two old foes who know each other well. It seemed to follow all of the parameters which wasn’t easy, so cheers to that. The writing is quite good otherwise. You set the scene well. Nice, focused descriptions. Just a tad too much reminiscing about the past to make this one of my faves.

James.  

The writing itself I wasn't a huge fan of, to be honest with you. Much of the expositional dialogue felt very "on-the-nose," plus there was a deal of grammatical errors that slowed the read down for me (i.e. missing commas, run-on sentences, etc.).

The story was interesting. Once Luci got a name, I had an idea of where this was going. Good on you for devising this in under ten pages. That was very impressive! I liked what they had to say and the back-and-forth was solid. I just would have like less exposition and more 'natural flow," so to speak. Like, the Hawaiian pizza line. I laughed out loud at that. You just kinda threw it in there and it worked perfectly. Would have liked even more of that.

Overall, I think this concept was tough for an OWC, but I think you did a good job.

Greg

Good effort here. A few spots where the dialogue was exposition heavy - but all in all a good read and an interesting premise.

I wouldn't have gone with the name Luci - it reveals the reveal too soon, IMO

I think the writer has a good sense of the "natural rhythm" of dialogue. In general, the content of the dialogue was a bit too expository for my taste, kinda "on the nose."

Great descriptions, the scene was set well.

Typos:
p.g 5 "You're good health" - maybe I just didn't understand this line.
p.g 5 " Humankind have to..." - "Humankind has to..."
Sorry, I saw like two more, but I forgot to mark them.

Man has two longer monologues that are a bit hard to read, one on p.g 6 and one on p.g 8.

Overall, an enjoyable read, I liked the twist.

Very nice. I agree with Claudio that you have a natural ear for dialogue.

Parameters met.

A few moments pulled me up - sometimes too lengthy responses when the shorter concise retort would have done the job in a more fluid and impactful way. Some overdoing it via dialogue at times to get a point across, but easy fixes with edits and the foundation is all here.

I haven’t seen you in like ages. Like? Eh.
I'd personally delete the reference to the Kardashians - it tarnishes the sophisticated noir style you have going here. I'd be a little less specific with an example.

The all-caps is too much imho. Use underlining or Italics, but this is probably just a personal dislike of mine.
Few typos throughout.

The problem with using: BANG BANG BANG, I instantly jumped to it being the sound of gunshots, not someone banging on the door.

The pizza bit was a big iffy for me, and the final line didn't quite do it for me - a bit of an anti-climax.

Spruce this up after the challenge though and you've definitely got a nice intriguing noir that could be filmed delightfully in vibrant colour, or red on B&W.

Well done, Writer!

More orphans than a scene from Annie! You can clean those up When you have one word at the start of a new line.

As soon as you used Luci I kinda figured it was the devil. You actually could have used Lucy and in that way throw it off a little depending on your intentions.

It was nice talking heads back and forth but some on the nose like you're quoting  book references and I don't mean the bible. Some dialogue seems long winded.
As far as sci-fi I'm not really seeing it.

Not bad and not great either
Good job on entering.

I spotted where this was going early on, Luci as a name then confirmed it... but I'm not really sure it detracted from anything as it still worked well.

The dialogue worked overall, but I did think that it was written for the reader (us) rather than the viewer as they skirt around facts and history with no real reason to be so circumspect.

But a good effort and kept my attention to the enigmatic ending.

Well-written scene about what a meeting between Luci(fer) and the Man might look like. The Man’s unwavering belief that there’s nothing Luci can say or do that will tempt him to turn his back on heaven is convincing. And that’s the problem. The first time around, the Man lost everything, including his life. What does he have to lose, now? His life? Done that. The Man needs someone or something he’s afraid of losing, or else there’s no story here.

I like the opening dialogue best. It has an old school feel--Humphrey Bogart. The flirtation works well.

When we realize that this is a matter of good and evil, the speeches are effective, but there might be a little too much verbiage. A little goes a long when when it comes to the battle for the human soul.

Nice end. I love that pizza is part of the temptation.

I want to see how this turns out.

This was very cool. Really enjoyed it. Loved the noir vibe. Interesting back and forth between them. And really good writing. So smooth. Don't have anything to add. Just very nice job writer!!

good job here but I think this would benefit from stepping out of the parameters. It's just heavy on the background story and because of that some of the dialog read heavy to me.
I think it would be much better iif some of it would be taken to another location and there will be more characters involved, not just these two.
It was still good.