complicated8
January 07, 2005
Content (15/20)
He said, she said, they said, we said. This is a daylog of the life of
a high school senior, with a subtle gossipy flavor and a hint of
potential. I sense slight promises in your writing, such as the intricate
and long winded explanation of a painful cheating episode. But for
the most part, everything is just…typical. Now, I'm not asking you to
transform out of yourself into some sort of Dickens or Tolstoy or
Eliot; but I'd like to seem some better, more emotional storytelling.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath and feel what it was like
again. What it was like to read Erin's letter telling you how much she
loves you. How the light fell across your desk, how her words danced
across the page. Do you have it in you? Can you pull that out of
yourself? Sometimes the details are everything. How did you feel? How
much did you feel? Try to remove conversational space fillers like
"well". It comes up too much. Flow things together instead. You
already have a hint of a story about your diary. I can get a feel for
you, your life, and your friends. But I think you need to try just a
little harder. Concentrate just a little more. Too much "log" not
enough "prose".
Layout (29/40)
Hanson? I am not a fan of stock celebrity templates. They say very
little about a person. Oh well, it's your choice, it's your taste.
But the colors are awkward. The layout is nice, and the picture is
decent, but pink and blue with that image? Nice army greens and
striking reds would have brought out the picture better. I understand
there's nothing you can do about it, but… it's not a great
combination. And it doesn't flow very nicely. The image is smaller
than the combined width of the content and links boxes.
And there are some issues on the extras page. Your entry page just
overflows onto the links. It's strange. The levels of hell thing is
doing it. You have the same problem on your quizzes page. I believe
it's simply the width. It's pushing your entry box wide. Not really
much you can do I suppose except find and remove the trouble causing
codes.
Overall, I suppose it's sort of a nice template. It's not bad, it's
not great, it's just middling. Credit to the aptly named celeb design.
Navigation(13/15)
Points off for the extras and quizzes interfering with navigation.
Otherwise it's pretty typical. Some links down the sides. Easy to
find, easy to see, easy to navigate around.
Link(5/5)
Yes of course. On the reviews page. With a button! Buttons are quite pretty.
Extras(8/10)
Pretty typical. All the normal sorts of things. Cast, 101 things,
Reviews, Quizzes, link to your el jay, etc etc.
Contact(6/10)
Email, guestbook, notes.
Total:76 /100 Reviewer: Megan