Post Four

This is a reflection on our short story unit.

A short story I read that stood out to me was The Veldt . The Veldt is a story about a family living in a technologically advanced house. At the end of the story the two children, Peter and Wendy, end up killing their parents because they consider the house more of a parent than the parents themselves. It was an interesting and surprising twist. The story also made me think about how technology is starting to replace human company. People are always on their devices instead of interacting with the people around them. The story makes the reader think about today's society and how we shouldn't let technology replace us, we should make the effort to care and socialize with one another. This really caught my attention and stuck with me.

The aspects of short story writing that I found most challenging was creating the plot and being able to connect key ideas. I struggled to come up with a story line because there are just so many possibilities and directions a story can take. I couldn't decide what I wanted to write about and which path my story would take. Once I had main points I had to brainstorm ways to smoothly connect them.  I also had to make sure my story didn't get overly cluttered or off topic. All these important aspects made the short story writing challenging but still a fun experience.

I prefer short stories that are not depressing, sad, or evoke any negative emotions. When a short story is interesting without being depressing I enjoy it much more. My favorite type of story is one with a happy ending, or a twist ending. These type of stories grab my attention and I am pleased when I finish it. One might say I like clichés. The happily ever after, cookie cutter endings are fine by me!

I like the drama in my story because the reader isn't sure about what will happen to the main character. I also like the plot and setting in which my character is in. I enjoyed writing my story and I am proud of the outcome. The areas I could improve on is revealing information. I feel like I have trouble showing rather than telling information. I would also like to improve my punctuation skills because sometimes I am not sure when to apply certain types of punctuation in certain situations. Also, if I as allowed to have a longer short story I would make the plot more dramatic somehow.