Feb 12, 2014 Original Short Stories
Thanksgiving
(See story-prompt at the end of my story)
©2014 Vijaya Sundaram
January 31st, 2014
Rob and I are driving to Maynard, racing to get there in time for Thanksgiving supper with his folks, something I always dread, because I’m vegetarian and they’re not, and I’m complaining to him about this charade that happens every year, when I see that I’m driving straight at a man who is standing on the road, swaying, covered in blood, but I don’t know how to stop, when I hear a horrible thump, and someone flies into my windshield, his face in front of me, eyes wide open, mouth open, blood pouring from his head, and a scream is filling my car, but I don’t know whether it’s his, mine or Rob’s, for Rob is telling me to drive on, and I do so, screaming hysterically.
Three hours later, at the police station, after I’ve answered all the questions, confirmed the date on which I have to appear in court, being assured that I probably won’t be charged for a hit-and-run, I’m drinking a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee kindly offered to me by someone, and my heart is returning to its normal rate, even though I know it’ll never ever be the same again, because I just killed a man, for God’s sake, when Rob says in what he thinks is his joking voice, “Mother will be upset, you know. We’re always late, and now we’ll never be able to make it up to her.”
I think of the dead man and burst into tears.
_____________________________(250 words, including my name)____________________________
Here are the details of the prompt for this technical exercise:
TECHNICAL EXERCISE 2
The challenge is to write a two-part story.
Scenario:
Part I.
There are two people, a driver and a passenger, in a car moving along a dark road. It is very late at night or very early in the morning. The two people know each other rather well. They might be friends, blood relatives, romantic partners, or work colleagues.
The car hits something, and both people realize that the car hit a human being—and that person is dead.
The driver slows or stops the car.
The passenger persuades the driver not to get out of the car and to drive away from the scene of the accident.
Part II.
Part II begins at least a week after the accident, but as much time as a year may have passed since that night. Let the reader know how much time has passed.
The two people are together. Maybe they are still in a relationship, or maybe they are not. You have to establish where they are and why they are there.
Something happens—this might be as apparently insignificant as a gesture, a sound, or a spoken phrase, or it might be a more dramatic event—that reminds both of them of the accident.
Write the story. Assume your readers know nothing about the characters or their situation when you begin.
Limits
- No more than 250 words. Yes, that includes both parts I and II.
- Part I must be at least 125-words long. (Along with your name, please include the word counts for both parts I and II on your story.)
- Use first-person narration. Both parts of the story must be told by the same character, either the driver or the passenger.
- The narrator must use the present tense to tell both parts of the story.
- One more limit: Part I must be a single, perfect sentence—that is, the sentence must adhere to the conventions of standard grammar and syntax. And forget about semi-colons; they are not needed.
Tags: #Original Short Story, 250 word short story, Creative Writing Exercise, Flash Fiction, Michael Downing, Micro-Fiction, Thanksgiving
Feb 11, 2014 Original Short Stories
So, this is the set of instructions and prompt that we were given for the first story. Scroll down below for my story, based on these assigned limitations:
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(Via Michael Downing)
Here is the scenario:
There is a woman in a room. There is a door, a window, and a chair in the room. A man comes to the door. He says, “We’ll be with you in a few minutes. Don’t open the window.” He leaves. He returns. The window is open.
The assignment is to write a story that begins after the man returns. Do not assume that readers know anything about the scenario. That is, you will want to let readers understand that the man previously told the woman not to open the window. Your story begins as the man returns and sees that the window is open:
The technical requirements are these:
–No more than 250 words.
–Past tense.
–Third person (limited or omniscient—and if that distinction is not meaningful to you, don’t worry about it; the idea of third-person narration is simply to use a narrator who is not a character in the story)
–Use only monosyllabic words. (Really.)
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My Story:
The Thing That Flew Down From The Wall
Vijaya Sundaram
Anne had been there for a while. Her hands were clasped, knees pressed close. She was not used the wait. Her coat was placed on the back of the chair. Her heart was loud with real fear.
From the square of light at Anne’s back blew in drifts of snow, as she grew more and more cold.
She was scared, for she had just seen a thing that could not be real. Yet, here it was, large as life. And it had done what she had been told not to do.
She found her voice. She screamed.
A tall, dark man rushed in. Scorn curled his thin lips.
“Why did you do it, Ms. James? I asked you to sit there, and not let in fresh air!” he snapped. “Yet you did. Why?”
She tried to speak, but fright had made her jaw clench.
He walked to the back of her chair, and shut out the snow and cold air. His eyes mocked her. “Well?” he asked.
Now, she found her voice. Fear died away. A strange calm was in her now.
“But I did not,” she said. “If you want to find out who let in fresh air, don’t look at me. There’s a thing you have not seen. When you see it, you will scream. I don’t need your job. Good day.”
As she walked out, a huge, black thing flapped and flew down from the back wall.
He screamed, as it plucked out his eye.
________________________(250 words, including my name)_______________________
Tags: Flash Fiction, Michael Downing, Micro-Fiction, Story-Prompt, Third-Person Limited
Feb 10, 2014 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries, Reading, Writing, Thinking, Teaching and Learning
So, one of the nice things my school system does is to offer various workshops and seminars through a lovely Professional Day program. We sign up, get chosen to go by lottery, and then choose from a menu of wonderful offerings. If we are fortunate enough, we get what we want from that menu, and even if we don’t get our first choice, we still get to go for excellent seminars. I’ve gone for several workshops and seminars (many of them which offered me my first choice) over the past ten or more years, and every single one was satisfying to me as a teacher and as a student, because I always brought back ideas, both into my own personal practice of writing, and also into my professional practices as an English teacher.
I was fortunate this year, because I signed up for, and got to go to, a creative writing seminar with Michael Downing, author and Creative Writing Professor at Tufts University.
I missed the first Friday, because we had parent-teacher conferences. I went for the next two Fridays, and both were excellent. The focus was on Flash Fiction and Micro-Fiction. Mr. Downing gave excellent prompts, as well as deeply satisfying talks and feedback on the process of creative writing. I came away, feeling both inspired and somewhat overawed by the uphill slope I have to tackle as a writer.
I won’t go into all that here, however. I just wanted to say that I had such a good time, I wondered why I was not doing more writing. Yes, yes, I’ve written on my blog almost every day, except, oddly, for the past three weeks. However, I do need to get out there, and attend more workshops, create or join a Writing Group, meet with said group, give feedback, receive feedback, and read more.
I want to do all of this, as well as teach 8th Grade English, grade hundreds of papers, practice guitar, go on walks in the woods with family, cook, clean and be a good, home-schooling mom to my wonderful little nine-year old daughter, take her to swimming and dance class on the weekends, because my husband takes her everywhere else during the weekdays, while I’m teaching, and generally be upbeat and organized. Now, we’ll soon be adding a Standard Poodle pup to the mix, and I think I know I shall officially be the most distracted person on the planet, at least for a few weeks.
I’m upbeat, however. My problem is that I love doing all of those things. I love writing, I love teaching, I love being a mother, a musician, a housewife. (I could do without grading and other administrative tasks attendant upon that).
Choose! I can hear a disembodied voice saying to me.
But I don’t want to choose! I want to push the edges of the day in either direction, maybe add about four more hours to it, and have those hours book-end my writing.
Mmmm … that would be most satisfying.
(Shakes herself out of dream-state, and looks briskly around).
Right. Where were we?
Ah yes, the workshop. My next three posts will be the prompts that Michael Downing gave, and my two drafts of each of the three stories I wrote. Hope you enjoy them.
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Tags: Distraction, Flash Fiction, Michael Downing, Micro-Fiction, Work and Play, Writing, writing workshop