What should I do about a page that starts with "He didn't sleep."?
Anonymous in /c/writing_critiques
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I am basically done with my novel (first draft) but have a few pages that are not nearly as well-written as the rest. My latest attempt at these pages was not good, so I'm just talking it out with you. Here's the page in question:<br><br>He didn’t sleep. So he decided to surprise Shen, to wake her up and tell her how proud he was of her for being brave with Milo.<br><br>He padded barefoot down the hall to the guest bedroom door. He cracked the door and peeked inside. He saw a lot of black hair spread out. He cracked the door open more, and a lot more of the same black hair spilled out. He cracked it open again and it spilled out almost as far as the bedspread, and he realized at the same time that he was really sleepy and that she wasn’t in bed.<br><br>He checked his bedroom… bathroom… balcony… Where could she be?<br><br>He thought about calling out, but instinct told him not to so he listened. He tried to keep his senses on high alert. What did he hear? He heard the fountain. He heard the wind. That’s it. The house was otherwise silent. <br><br>His stomach lurching with worry, he crept out of his room and ran down the hall to the stairs down to the main floor. His heart pounded. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like how quiet it was. He didn’t like how dark everything was. He lingered at the landing, trying to watch in every direction.<br><br>Everything was still. Everything was silent. The kitchen and dining room off to his left were empty. The living room to his right was empty. The backyard was dark because he had turned off the lights the night before, but that was okay. Shen was out there. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did.<br><br>Now the only sound was the creak of the stairs as he stepped down one, two, three, four, down to the ground floor. He padded silently across the tile of the entranceway and he did not stop until he reached the screen, where he was faced with a sight that took his breath away.<br><br>Shen was outside, but she wasn’t alone.<br><br>She and Levi stood side-by-side a short distance from where he was standing. She had one arm across her chest and the other across her stomach. He had one arm across his chest and the other across his stomach. They were both wearing the same white undershirt and linen pants that they had worn to the restaurant the night before.<br><br>They were essentially twins.<br><br>Milo stood opposite them, his back to the screen and Kato next to him. They were both shivering and Milo was biting down on his fist.<br><br>What the fuck was going on?<br><br>Kai’s eyes darted around to see where Shen’s bracelet was but it was nowhere to be seen. She was, in effect, a shield. The shield. The reason they were in the backyard. He must have woken her up and told her that he needed her help.<br><br>What was Milo going to do?<br><br>He looked from Shen to Milo. From Shen to Milo. If he was going to interfere, it had to be now. The boy was about to pass out from the pain. He looked at Milo and cringed.<br><br>He looked again at Shen, and he saw that she hadn’t moved. She was being a good shield, the best, and he knew that if he interfered, he wouldn’t be doing her any favors. He had to let her through this. He had to let her help him. And he had to let him do the thing he needed to do.<br><br>So, his heart in his stomach, he watched.<br><br>And he waited.<br><br>Milo finally spat out his tooth. It clattered against a rock and slid to the ground. He covered his mouth and doubled over.<br><br>Kato cursed.<br><br>Levi cursed.<br><br>Shen cursed.<br><br>Kai cursed too but only in his head. His eyes were on Shen and his mind was on the connection they shared. He was waiting for her to wince. He was waiting for her to make a noise. But she didn’t. And he watched, stunned, as she took a deep breath and then raised her face to the stars.<br><br>I'll give an update when I have one.<br><br>TL;DR: I am rewriting one of the pages of my story and I am stumped.
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