(Me.)
There was this one summer during college that I was in a writing group. Everyone wrote stories and then we all told each other what we thought of them. It was spectacular, or, as they say in Italy, spettacolare.
One week, when it was my turn to contribute the writing sample, I emailed out two VERY short stories. I didn't want my group members to read them thinking they were part of a larger piece of fiction, so I made it very clear. I said:
Though you may not think so instinctively, they are complete in themselves. i repeat: there is NO further story to either of these documents. so read them with that in mind.
So crystal clear, right?
Right.
So I show up at Taylor's apartment the next night, and we settle in to discuss the second story. Everyone kind of hesitates to speak. Then someone says,
"I thought it was.... interesting... that you chose to end this story in the middle of a sentence."
Um.
Huh?
I ask to see the copy of the story that someone had printed out. I look at the bottom of the page.
The last sentence says:
"She felt life pouring in through her skin, and she opened her eyes to see"
The end. All modern-like.
It wasn't even halfway through the story that I'd written. The "end" came before anything had actually happened.
And nobody had dared question where the rest of the story was because stinkin Dani had made a big fuss about how there WAS no rest of the story.
STUPID STUPID STUPID.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I really like that you chose to
Wait, who is this other Kristina girl? Are you cheating on me? Does she wear a Snuggie?
And she's funny. I'm not liking thi.
How funny.
Hey! I was going to make a comment that cut off abruptly, but Kristina beat me to the punch! Oh well.
At least you got to rectify your mistake in the end. If you somehow died before your group meeting, those people would have forever been wondering at the meaning of your story.
how do you remember all these random incidents in your life? Do you keep a very detailed journal and then re-read it frequently? A better bet would be that you have the best memory of almost anyone I know.
Post a Comment