I need to write a short story for Creative Writing on Monday. Last week or so ago, one of our student teachers had us do a writing exercise. He told us to come up with a character and write a few things down about them, then a setting, then another character, all in a few minutes. He then told us to start writing a story that revolved around one character giving the other character earth-shattering news. My wonderful twenty-minute story is as follows:
Robert observed Nina's every move. It seemed so calculated, so purposeful. She stirred the coffee four times, then neatly placed the spoon adjacent to the cut in a perfect vertical line.
"Did you get your hair cut?" Robert asked.
"No," Nina replied simply.
"I can't put my finger on it, but something seems different about you."
"What?"
"I don't know."
"That's too bad."
Robert sighed. Nina never seemed to give helpful answers.
"I hope you are feeling better," she said.
"Huh?" asked Robert.
"Your back. How is it?"
"Oh… it still aches," he replied.
"Have you gotten it checked out?"
"No, I don't think it's a big deal."
"You should have it checked out. Do you want me to call the doctor?"
"No, I'm fine."
"You should see the doctor," she insisted.
"I know," Robert sighed.
Nina sat down across the table from Robert. Robert watched as she brought the cup to her lips, set it down on the table, brought the cup back up, set it down. She seemed so emotionless, so different from the Nina he thought he knew.
He felt another sharp pain as he sat back in the chair. "Excuse me a moment," he said and went into the bathroom. He lifted up his shirt and looked at his back in the mirror. He felt his shoulder blades and traced a line to the middle of his back. He felt a bump and flinched as he touched the raw skin. He bit his lip and touched the skin again. It started to come off in flakes. And then, there was something cold, metallic, underneath the skin.
Me
The last paragraph was rushed, and I never got to the earth shattering news. Can you figure out what it is? I'm not sure if the student teacher knew, but he commented "Great work Jenny. I am excited to read your final story. Nice use of dialogue and your characters are excellent."
What? Looking forward to my story? That's the worst possible thing a teacher could write! They are expecting me to succeed and if I don't, then the fall is even worse! And how could I possibly make my new out-of-thin-air short story as good as one that's been tumbling around in my mind for years?
Well, I do have another story that I quite want to do, but I've always seen it as an elaborate rock opera.
All my stories, songs, whatever, have twists in the end. I found when I was writing this piece that because I knew one thing about the ending that the reader didn't know, everything I wrote was for a reason. And umm… I guess that's what a real writer does. Anyway, this other story has a twist as well, and I suppose I could do it. It's a much longer story than this short one, expect that I have no idea what the plot is. Sigh. As always.
Anyway, I guess I'll attempt to write a story now. Hoo-rah.