Response Paper #2

This week, we were given a response paper to write about a piece of fiction, except for the Hemingway story we read in class.

The short story I chose to do the paper on was "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which I read in high school. I didn't understand the story back then, because I was too young to really grasp the concept. I found the story online, re-read it, and I began to appreciate it better than I did when I was a teenager.

The assignment itself proved to be exciting for me, and, even though it was a bit of a challenge at first trying to find a story I could use for it, I think I made the right choice by picking "The Lottery" as the piece to write the paper on. I was considering looking for a piece in one of Literature books I used in the Creative Writing classes I took in Middlesex County College, but I think "The Lottery" is appropriate for this paper.

This week, we were supposed to do a new short story based on one of the exercises in the book. I started out doing the Johnston exercise about a wife cheating on her husband, but that didn't go anywhere, even though I rewrote it a couple of times. So, I decided to do the Hassinger exercise. It's a bit of a challenge, but I think I'll be able to do it.

Naming the World

Just recently, I read the chapter in Naming the World about creating short stories and did the exercise on writing a story based on a picture.

After searching online for a good picture to use, I found a picture on a site about vacationing in Alaska and I used that as my backdrop. I found this assignment to be very intriguing and I enjoyed doing it. Creative fiction is awesome!