Writing My Own Short Story

When writing my short story I started off with the completely wrong process. When my professor explained to just start writing about a place describing it by using what it looks like. We were supposed to make something up about a certain place where if someone read it they would know where it was. I began explaining myself on a long trip to Wyoming without saying exactly where we were going. Then when we were introduced to having to create a character and explain them I had to restart my whole little story. I changed everything to focus more on imagery. I didn't use any references to any characters until half way through the short story, then I switched from a place to a person perspective. This was much easier to focus on each separate concept then to try and combine the two right away. This process taught me that fiction short story writing was much more organizational than I thought it was. It is a much shorter space so you have to really think about how you want to write a story and what you want to accomplish. It isn't as easy as just writing any story, it has limits. I have much more respect for short story authors now that I tried to also write my own story and make it some what decent.

Fiction Packet #2

The second fiction packet that we had to read for class was much different than the first one. These pages contained three longer stories. The passage that really caught my attention was part one of the Internal. We are introduced to the young intern who is working in a mental hospital for a man named Rauch. When he first takes the job many people warn him about this man and tell him that something just isn't right. Due to the fact that the interne's job is to give medicine, and more legalistic duties he finds himself avoiding Rauch as much as possible. Rauch right away is treating his new intern differently and almost favoring him. He gives him a special job of observing his own brother and gives the intern an apartment right next to that of his brother's. It is explained how the brother is the nervous type, the depression type, and the suicidal type, and that he needs extra attention so that he doesn't try and hurt himself. Right around this time in the text we also see how the intern is starting to explain everything like a psychiatrist would. He is putting percentages to many things, and examining all situations from a perspective of someone like we would think to be Rauch's. When the intern gets to his apartment the author makes it seem like he is trapped. He gets into this weird cycle of doing the same thing everyday and counting steps, and repeating certain numbers. When he goes exploring down into the basement he finds a drill. He uses the drill to make holes into the walls to the apartments next to him to spy on this so called brother. He finds out that there is no one living here and there hasn't been anyone there for a long time. This part kind of started to creep me out a bit. It makes it seem like the intern is going crazy when clearly Rauch is not clear on who is brother is and that there is no one next to the intern's apartment. The intern at the end of part one makes up the percentages of the brother of all 0%. This is just the first instance where we see the craziness of Rauch really start to affect the intern,

Literally this reading was very good, yet I found a little difficult to follow. Just the way it was written kind of made it hard for someone who knows nothing about psych houses to follow along. The imagery was great though and I really got a look at what was going inside of the intern's head, even when he did start going a little crazy.

Fictional Short Stories

After reading this fiction packet one of the stories that I enjoyed the most was the very first story called survivors. It is about a gay couple who are both on their death beds basically. They are arguing over who was going to die first. We see the perspective of one of the men, he wishes to die first. There are many different reasons why he wants this. He goes into poetically explaining how he wouldn't want to be stuck with his partner's family. The father was and ex-military man who beat his son, and clearly was not supportive of his son's sexuality. The mother was very judgmental. And the two older brothers also disapproved of the situation. The man talks about how if he didn't die first that he would have to deal with the family and how he would have to change things about his house because he knew the family wouldn't feel comfortable with it the way it was now. He thinks maybe he will remove some of their items and maybe even set a parrot free. The parrot creates another almost metaphor for his partner. If he opens the window and lets him go, and be with the other wild and free parrots. But then he would be all alone. The parrot is basically just like if his partner would pass away and be free, going to be with other free people, flying away. It sounds like he would be going to a better place, maybe even implying heaven. And if he passed first this man would be very devastated. He would be alone stuck in this place where no one else understands him like his partner did. The story finishes by reading "dear God, he thought, let me die first, don't let me survive him."

This short story really made me reflect on what so little words can create such a big message. My explanation of the passage was close to or longer than the actual passage. It was how thought out and poetic the text was that makes it a great fictional statement. There were multiple symbols and representations of actual things that happen in real life even if every word was made up. That is the magic that fictional writing can create.

Fiction Packet

Walking the baby into the liquor store. The first thing that catches my eye while looking through the fiction packet is the story of a man bringing his baby on a journey to the liquor store. It caught my eye because it was so odd and random. This made me think about what fiction writing is all about. To entertain a reader and to make them think about something crazy that may be out of the usual normal. It describes how the baby loves sitting in her stroller on her way to the stores, comparing herself to Cleopatra on her way to Rome. This really gives us a comical, silly image that is enjoyable. The author then goes on to describe how he returns home with his baby and they drink in the kitchen and do dishes. It almost describes how simple the babies mind is when he mentions the only words that the baby knows are mommy, daddy, banana, and doggy. It almost becomes poetic as it tells the story of a baby going to the liquor store.