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!

For my first writing assignment for my English class, we were tasked with writing an ending for a short story that ended rather abruptly, without resolution. I decided it would be best to do what the author didn’t, and end the story completely unambiguously. In my ending, the main character ends up in the forests of peru, being hauled up and placed a stone altar, and being sacrificed under a full moon. That’s got “the end” written all over it, right?

Is this a weird first impression to make on my teacher? I guess I’ll find out tonight!