Week 7 Blog

Week 7 Entry

This week our class continued reading flash fiction stories. We each got into groups and were assigned to present a certain story. As a group, we discussed foreshadowing, characterization and setting. After discussing each, we were to write our own flash fiction. Our class also did an exercise where we made our own inkblots. We were to find 10 images we could see in our inkblots, and then write a short story about them. At first I thought the exercise was silly...I couldn't come up with any type of image that made sense. Then as I rotated my inkblot, I began seeing tons of different images. With the time remaining I quickly thought of a short story. I really enjoyed this exercise because it forced me to think and view simple things (like a blob of ink on paper) in a completely different way.

We have been reading short stories in the Indiana Review and also on oncourse. I find the readings very interesting because as we write our own short stories, we also learn more about what flash fiction is all about. There are so many different ways of writing flash fiction stories. I’ve realized that a person can take any object and turn it into literally anything to fit what they’re writing about. Being creative and viewing simple every day things differently gives one the ability to give an object more than a purpose, but also a personality. This class is beneficial and helps me understand that there is more to writing than just one’s choice of words.