Blog Post 6: 2/19/15

This week in class we focused a lot on fiction writing, and what makes a good short story.  We read another packet of short stories and a couple passages from writers about short stories.  So far I really like everything we have read.  I particularly liked the Lamont piece that began with Polaroids.  The short fiction stories that we read were from around the world, which was really interesting.  I really like the concept of looking at story telling in a global way.  Every culture has a different view on what makes a good story, yet they all hold the same basic elements.  I will talk about my favorite short story, and the Lamont piece today.

My favorite story by far in the second fiction packet was called 'The Falling Girl' by Dino Buzzati.  This story is from Italy, and is about a girl named Marta who falls from a large building in the city.  In class, we were asked to write about one story from this packet about how character is emphasized or expressed using show, not tell.  The details of the story are what develops Marta's character.  The author doesn't tell us about her life or why she jumps off the building, it us up to us as readers to infer from little things that the author would like us to know about Marta.  There are lots of hints from the author about her wardrobe that suggests she is poor, as well as self conscious about her appearance.  She talks about looking at other girls with better dresses and the price of hers being on sale.  Her comparison of others really shows this to me.  Self consciousness also suggest a history of depression and anxiety.  The shivering and heart throbbing that is described also illustrates this.  Also the fact that she jumps from a building is a pretty good indication that she suffers from some form of mental illness.  Her being so young, but also at the age when you start to gain your own independence could also suggest that she is going through a rough time coming of age, like so many adolescents go through.  Maybe I saw this story as an outward display of anxiety and depression because I also suffer from both, and my experiences shine through allowing me to see it in others.  Or maybe this is truly what it is about.  I like how the story is really up to your own interpretation, because maybe she really isn't falling to her death literally, maybe it's all in her head, as anxiety often is.  I looked at this story from both points of view, and it worked either way.

The Lamont piece captured my attention really well.  It began with a chapter called Polaroids.  I really liked this because it talked about how a final piece of writing does not happen the first time you write something.  It develops like a Polaroid.  There are things you notice and realize need to be added as you go.  I like this way of looking at a piece of writing.  I think it really illustrates this point.  Practice makes perfect. and adding detail takes practice and careful examination. The section on character was also especially interesting and made a lot of sense to me.  It talks about how character development is something you show, not tell to be effective about it.  You drop in hints about their life in subtle ways that show specific characteristics that tell more about a person than one detail you could tell.  This also gives the reader a little more flexibility to take the story where they want.  To me, it allows the reader's own experiences to shape their idea of the character, it humanizes them.  This is important if you want to write a good story.  You don't want to hear "he was tall, arrogant, and knew how to tie a good knot".  These details only give us specific details that we don't need to use our imagination to decide how he is as a person.  The author of this passage also talks about how you can use your own experiences and ideas about what you like in a person to develop a character.  You can also use yourself and the qualities that you possess.  This is really effective because you are using real evidence and the person in the story will really appear real and believable.  This passage really gave me some good ideas about how to really effectively create characters for my stories.  I am going to start by listing off traits, and then from those traits, showing them without saying them.  I think this will really help me come up with some good story ideas.

This week really got me motivated to start writing some short stories.  I feel like I have the right tools at my disposal to create something beautiful and full of real life.  I want my stories to feel like you just experienced what the character did.  I want you to taste the ice cream they just ate, or feel tired from the lack of sleep they experienced.  After reading about how to do this effectively, I'm pretty sure something good will come out of it all.