I just got back my first writing assignment from the class I’m currently taking at SIAST, and I was quite pleased with the result.  We were tasked to finish a short story that ended fairly ambiguously, to the tune of about one page- no biggie.  Being the blowhard that I am, I ended up extending mine to three pages, mostly because I felt I was on a roll.

Essentially, the end of the original short story The Connection by Andreas Schroeder, the character is left stranded on an airfield in central America- and that’s it.  I’m not such a huge fan of things being left up in the air like that, and from the selection of Schroeder’s we read, he rarely gives them a definitive ending, so concocted the most definitive ending I could think of: I had the main character ritualistically sacrificed in a religious ceremony performed by a lost civilization. Naturally.

I was pretty happy with how well it turned out, and how closely I was able to mimic the style of the original author, while still taking the plot in a completely different direction.  I’m (perhaps too) happy to say, that I got a 98% on the assignment, and my instructor decided to read it aloud to the class as an example. 

Sure, this is just a 30 level high school class, but anyone who knows me well is familiar with the total suck that was my original high school career.  Mostly I’m just pleased because after a decade away from this type of environment, I haven’t become completely useless as a student.  I’ll accept this small victory, and hope to hell that my further exploits are equally fruitful. I’ll keep you posted.

EDIT: Isn’t it nice that I’ve had a second occasion to use the tag “ritual sacrifice”! I, for one, am pleased as punch!