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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 350 words.
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- Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
Writing a “Short – Short” story is definitely not as personal as writing a Non-fiction story, but it can be just as entertaining to read. Three models of “Short – Short” stories were placed in the book, each one more different than the other.
ReplyDeleteThough Crossing the River Zbrucz was a fictional writing, Isaac Babel wrote his story through firsthand knowledge of the gruesome war between Russia and Poland. Written in first person point of view, the story catches the attention of the reader faster than 2nd or 3rd person because we want to know what happens through the protagonists eyes. The vocabulary also plays a factor in this short story especially when describing the dead man’s body lying next to him. Being no more than 2 pages long, it definitely leaves a chill on your spine.
The Baby, by Donald Barthelme, gives a shocking approach to children’s discipline in the beginning of the story, but changes its tone to more of a parody. The details of the story inform the reader that the baby lives a very good life, but is simply just a child. Barthelme describes the parents in a way that is quite absurd and makes the reader question their way of parenting.
The third and final story is Marzipan, by Roberta Allen. At first the story seems to merely be about a man and lady hitting on each other while eating marzipan, but the marzipan has a secret meaning to it. The characters sense of smell brings about memories of his deceased mother. The readers can almost smell the sweet marzipan and feel sorry for the young man. In some way we can all relate to him, whether it be getting distracted by a memory or just not letting something go.
Other elements such as structure, characters, and dialogue create the short story to make it more appealing. The downside of short stories is that they can’t explain much about the plot of the story or how it ends, most of the time we have to improvise how we see the story ending. I personally think writing a short story looks harder than writing a non-fiction story, you are limited to a certain amount of space and can lose the readers interest at any time if it doesn’t catch their attention.
- Alyssa Ramos
The few things we need to know about the short-short story, was explained behind-the-scenes. Starkey does a wonderful job in explaining what the differences between words like fiction, creative non-fiction, genre fiction, and many others mean. With the ability now, I know about characters and new skills and it opened my eyes and I realized that I was confused all there writing types prior to this year. Starkey does not lose me at all; he makes me understand more of the concept. As he then writes about the elements, he ties it up with the short- short story model examples.
ReplyDeleteFor the first short story, “Crossing the River Zbrucz” by Isaac Babel, was a very interesting story. Short sentences and long sentences, brief explanation yet very detailed, kept me on my toes while I read out loud. This short story was dark. Fiction was the genre, yet it sounded real like it did happen. Babel’s writing point of view included us the readers in a way where experiencing this war at its finest moments. The second story, “The Baby” written by Donald Barthelme was actually funny in a weird sense. It made me laugh because it is like real life experiences, we are human and we are bound one way or another to be with someone or not and have a kid or not, but there is always something we will have to call “our baby”. Barthelme listed events an average family would go through, which made it more realistic. And in example the way the story started seemed reasonable and I loved it, it caught my attention, a simple moment with a simple explanation was all he used. For the third short story, Roberta Allen’s, “Marzipan” I got a bit confused for the reason of this being written. Yet this short story has a lot of dialogue, and with that Allen made it possible for a single event or moment to come true. Yes people would have similar experiences, maybe not with a marzipan, but definitely with something else. Allen did an excellent job while she wrote this because during her dialogue she would step out and describes the things around during that instant, and gives the thoughts of regret for the man hitting on the pretty girl.
-Maria J. Salinas
I never realized how structured writing really is. There are so many rules, do’s and don’ts that define and differentiate each genre. After reading the “elements of fiction” portion describing structure/character/dialogue/setting/point of view… I get the feeling this upcoming assignment is going to be tougher than the first. I feel like yes although creative writing is about expression and writing however we want, there are a lot of factors that hold substantial weight when evaluating a short-short story. Just in the elements alone I think sometimes we as entry level/novice/amateur writers already unknowingly do some of the things mentioned, but now that I am aware of all the other parts that need to come together in order for our writings to fit the category it is a little more daunting, definitely not as easy as I thought it was prior to realizing what has to go into the writings and development prior to even starting the work.
ReplyDeleteMost of page 102 is what really stood out to me. My biggest difficulty when it comes to writing is getting the ball rolling, once I can get that initial beginning the whole ordeal starts to get a move on. I like all the descriptions and analogies used on page 102 about writing a short-short. I feel it is most informative on how to go about writing a short-short and what all should be included as well as what should be achieved in the story.
I think two of the aspects that will make writing short-shorts most challenging is appropriately using dialogue… not too much, not too little, and more importantly making sure the dialogue is necessary. Secondly, I think deciding which point of view to write in will be the next difficult part. I would hate to write a piece, complete it (or THINK I have completed it) only to discover it’s in the wrong point of view or it would be better from a different point of view. Along with the point of view, Starkey mixed the tone and style in with the POV. So, when I say the POV will be challenging I surely am also stating setting the tone and using the right style is going to be loads of fun as well.
-Alfredo Montemayor
Isaac Babel’s, “ Crossing the River Zbrucz” was an extremely dramatic piece that crept inside without much notice. This whole piece has a haunting feel to it, since the very beginning. “ A high road built on the bones of muzhiks by Cazr Nicholas I” sets the tone for the whole story. It will be a sad and deathly read, just like this journey of the author. The ending to this story is nothing but grim, since the author realizes that he’s actually sleeping next to a dead person. But this doesn’t even scare the author because he’s seen war before. He was at war. He was at war with himself to cope with what’s happened.
ReplyDelete“The Baby” by Donald Barthelme was a very serious tone to it, and frustration developed reading it because if this was a teen or an adult they’d probably listen to you right away and stop tearing pages. But I think the author wanted us to get frustrated reading this because children are frustrating. And in this game of two, it’s easier to just give in instead of controlling the situation. I think it’s also safe to sat that the baby is also having fun, even though it’s not what it looks like throughout the story.
“Marizpan” by Roberta Allen was a very interesting to read. I liked it. I think the moral of the story is be who you are, so when people get to actually know theyre not cofused by the way you acted before. This guy was obviously more himself when he said the story about his mom, rather than talking about those other stories. And when he became himself it was too hard to handle because he isn’t comfortable with himself.
-christopher capello
Starkey begins by giving us key elements in which we need to use to write a successful “Short-Short Story”. These are the same elements that we used in writing creative non-fiction, which are structure, character, dialogue, setting, and tone. In anything you write, you must have a concrete structure that gives the piece flow and so thing make sense for the reader. Through structure, Starkey mentions that you can create suspense and the audience would “find it painfully delicious”. Which then will create emotion in the story and make the reader wanting more. In “The Baby” by Donald Barthelme, the structure was quite odd because the first line feels like it should be incorporated later in the story. “The first thing the baby did wrong was to tear pages out of the book”. The reader has no background of the baby and the structure of the story felt a little off. Structure is one element I feel I need to improve on and now after reading what Starkey had to say; I hope it helps my flow in writing. Dialogue is also an important element that is much needed in fiction writing. In “Marzipan” by Roberta Allen, there is great usage of dialogue in this short story. I enjoy how Allen kept the dialogue short, sweet, and to the point. Using dialogue can also create imagery as it did for me when reading “Marzipan”. According to Elizabeth Bowen, dialogue should be brief, keep the story moving forward, and convey relationship between people. I feel that Roberta Allen did all three of these in “Marzipan”. One of my favorite elements I like to look for when reading is tone. In my opinion, tone is what creates the setting and feeling of the short story. Starkey defines tone as “the mood or atmosphere of a story” which is true. Through tone, I think it sets up what kind of characters, setting, and dialogue you will have in fiction writing or in anything you write.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Garcia
I had never heard of the short short prior to reading this chapter. I guess for a long time I had been writing short shorts, but I didn't know the requirements to making a good short short. I would have liked to have been told what length a story can be and still qualify as a short short, but I guess being told a limitation like that would drastically effect the piece. I am interested in practicing short shorts because I see it as a challenge that I would like to overcome. I've often found that when I'm working on a particular story I find myself over detailing because I'm trying to paint a vivid image to my readers. In doing so I have to go back in the final cut and delete sometimes two or three pages of writing because they aren't crucial to the story that is being told. I feel that if I can practice the short short and master it, I would save myself a lot of time in the revising section of my writings and therefore I would save myself frustration. There's a lot of good in this chapter for developing a sound story with fully developed characters. If I'm being completely honest, I don't feel that I'll be able to work on all these details over night, I'm definitely going to have to take it one aspect at a time and see if I can perfect the structure and design aspect of my writing before moving onto refining my character development. All in all, I think the information in this chapter is necessary and useful for any inspiring writer
ReplyDelete-Brian Odom
Reading Writing the Short-Short Story section in the book and now having a better understanding on writing a “short-short story” and knowing how to properly approach it the right way. The examples they provided us in the book shows a break down of the different short-short stories we can take to our own writing techniques.
ReplyDeleteIn the first piece Crossing the River Zbrucz written by Isaac Babel. I had to read and reread this piece a couple of times. I found myself a bit lost in the text. It’s a very descriptive story. The author shares with the reader how quickly the two Jewish ladies get up to clean up the mess he was talking about. Then at the end of the story he realizes that he was sleeping next to the pregnant woman’s dead father. The pregnant woman devastated by her fathers’ horrific death.
In the second piece The Baby by Donald Barthelme is author is letting the reader into his parenting life. Showing us how he disciples his daughter because she has a tendency to tear out multiple pages from her books. She started at one then moved on to two and three pages of tearing. The author caught on to his daughters antics and noticed even the smallest tear on the side of the page would give her an additional four hours confined in her bedroom. He even calculated the time and came up with the year 1992. At the end of the story he realizes his daughters in her room that he isn’t spending much time with her. So he forgets the punishment and starts to tear pages out of her books with her.
The third and final story is Marzipan by Roberta Allen. This story really came from left field for me. The ending especially; I didn’t foresee the Englishman telling the pretty girl “My mother killed herself in 1978.” That deep secret was easily reviled by a simple fruit. Marzipan. Then the last sentence seemed cold to me. “As he turns to walk away, he tosses a piece of marzipan into his mouth, but its taste gives his no pleasure. Perhaps he’s numb to his mothers’ absence?
- Monica Barbosa
The information provided in the writing the short short story was very insightful and very engaging. It was all very obvious suggestions but the way in which Starkey outlines each aspect of the short short story makes me think that writing an engaging and powerful short story is as simple as following the rules. I’m looking forward to using his insights on dialogue. Writing dialogue has always been a bit annoying but seeing as how it can move the story forward without shoving that information down the reader’s throat makes approaching dialogue a new challenge. The fact that it really allows the writer some literary freedom, pertaining to grammar, will make me feel like I am delving in to the more creative aspects of my writing.
ReplyDeleteCharacter development was very much something that will be helpful in future writing projects. I can relate to interjecting myself into some of the works of fiction that I have written before. Not having to keep a character as true to the person in which I am basing them off is some creative freedom that I am ready to part take in. Majority of the time that I write I feel like every character has to have a name and at least some sort of introduction or description, but as Starkey has pointed out, sometimes less is best.
I could relate to the paragraph elaborating on how sometimes the story is being created as we write it. I have often started writing and then look back and think that maybe the start of the work isn’t as strong as it could be. Looking at the work as a whole and seeing that an effective short story will be strong with engaging information promptly introduced. It is not a new concept, for as long as I could remember, instructors have been preaching about capturing your audience. However, the points that Starkey makes helps to develop that idea in a much more detailed way. The chronological order, and placing the start in a way that will make that strong ending that much better will be an aspect that I will now be incorporating into my future writing projects.
-Alvaro Pulido
These stories are definitely a different breed of short stories. Starkey explains how uniquely structured short stories can be and how rules make the stories better. I like how he lets the readers know a bit about the authors in these short stories and gives a biography on them. The three stories are a bit similar in telling some gruesome, dark, grim parts in their stories and all have a bit of a plot twist in the end. These fictional stories are a trip and give a bit of feelings on how the real world can be.
ReplyDeleteIn Crossing the River Zbrucz, Isaac Babel describes the story through a Russian army officer whose mission was to find a pregnant woman and two red-haired Jews. It is a tale of the officer shouting in his sleep kicking the pregnant woman's father in his sleep. He dreams of death that his commander killed the brigade commander shooting him in the eyes. I would think it is because of his experiences in war he dreams of things like this. Soon he realizes her father had been dead and she tells them her murderers had no mercy. She seems to have a hard time letting go since she tells him she wants him to tell her "where one could find another father like my father in all the world!" I did not expect that. It is sad but crazy she is keeping the father there instead of burying him.
In The Baby by Donald Barthelme, he writes an ironic story of parents who take discipline to a extreme level. They punish the baby locking her in her room because she tore pages off a book. It seems too much to do for a baby. Babies don't know much better but I guess every one parents differently. But soon they worried because she did not stop and eventually realized it was not a big deal. It was funny in the end when the parent ended up joining the baby in ripping the pages leading to breaking car windows. Not sure what happened there but parenting changed again to an extreme way.
In Marzipan by Roberta Allen,her short story was pretty deep and turned dark in a depressing way. It all starts with a bright blue eyed boy flirting with a girl eating marzipan. He like telling stories to capture girls attention. She kept asking him for stories as he peeked her interest but soon the boy ran out of stories. As he looked into the distance he spaced out and and his mother came to mind. He blurted his mother went suicidal and totally killed the flirty vibe. He apologized and walked away with the grim taste in his marzipan because he remembered his mother like marzipan. This story did not end well as I thought it would but the biography gave me the heads up it would turn dark.
-Adelisa Fuentes
Wow! Starkey really opened my eyes on this one. I am such a novice writer and this chapter chastised me in a few places. I read this chapter already knowing characters of round and flat, climax, medias res, and how the rising action works. I relate the section about building a character to the “magic if” in acting, where you pounder who your character is and how they would react in various scenarios. On page 100, Starkey lays out the difference between LITERARY FICTION and GENRE FICTION; the first is ambiguous as the latter seeks to resolve. We are going to be writing stories that “Short-short” and ambiguous.
ReplyDeleteMany of the terms that I stated above are literary terms which I already knew but Starkey delved into writing basics that I haven’t heard of before.
The first one that blew my mind was the dialogue. I have come this far in my college career and I am ashamed to admit that I did not know how to properly approach writing each person’s dialog as a knew paragraph (page 126). I know I had seen it in books; however, when it came to my own writing I have the tendency to shroud dialogue in with action. I did this to hide my uncertainty, deep down I’ve always felt uneasy about being bolder and direct with character dialogue. I don’t like speech tagging and have often switched up using “said” and “says” in order to avoid seeming repetitive, Starkey points that out as a novice mistake. I completely highlighted page 127 so that I may refer back to it give some basic grammatical rules about dealing with grammar.
The second writing basic, didn’t catch me as far off guard as dialogue but is still worth the mention, is style and tone. I often get the two terms confused and mention them as if they are the same thing, but I realize that tone is “the mood or atmosphere of the story” and style is the “author’s selection and placement of words” (page 138). These two elements work together but I sorta take it to mean that tone is the feeling a piece of writing gives a reader, while style is the way the words stack up against each. Together these two create a flow. I didn’t get any particular heavy revelations in this section of the reading but it did reinforce what I already thought about literature’s structure in terms of compatibility paragraph, sentences, imagery, and tense.
Brenda Gomez
Isaac Babel’s “Crossing the river zbrucz” is really interesting the way he doesn’t use that much dialogue in his story. He also uses a lot of gory imagery which is fitting because it’s a war time story. It’s kind of depressing to read the first paragraph about him and how he was taken and then later executed and thrown into a communal grave.
ReplyDeleteDonald Barthelme’s “The Baby” kind of freaked me out a bit. It’s written like he’s telling the story to someone in front of him. The story doesn’t really make any sense, like why would you leave a baby in her room for eighty eight hours?!?
Roberta Allen’s “Marzipan” is really sad. I love how the whole story revolves around marzipan. I really like how the story has a lot of dialogue in it and a lot of imagery regarding the girl and the marzipan.
- Lowen Sauceda
RR#5
ReplyDeleteI feel the author has come to the conclusion that life is short and realizes it towards the end when the father adds up numbers of how long the baby will get out of the room. It seems as this is coming from a parent’s point of view of continuing to set rules and sticking to them. And for the baby to continue tearing page by page out; maybe it was like a sign that this is how life is. No matter what you do in life there will always be a consequence…but to just live the world and experience it day by day hence towards the end when the authors says, “the baby and I sit happily on the floor, side by side, tearing pages out of books, and sometimes just for fun, we go out on the street and smash a windshield together.” What I think the author means is that there’s only so many opportunities you will get a baby and just to enjoy life.
I feel as if the marzipan is the object of the story. I like how the author incorporates this sweet as the story of how two people randomly met. I really enjoy how they used this. I like how the author brought in a nerdy character that met this beautiful girl while at the shop. Towards the end is where all the scents come into place because he remembers his mother and maybe this type of scent brings back memories which is why he didn’t enjoy the marzipan. Yet is he not only back in his reality of being at libraries, he feels as if he has ruined this and is back to all that. I like how the author mentions senses and you can actually paint a picture in your head of what and how.
-arianna tabares