Creative Writing: Short Story Responses

Everyone is Good Man

In this story Chien writes about a tense court case in which a jury is hopelessly hung over whether or not a criminal is guilty of a specific crime. The main problem is Juror Number Eleven who throws the vote every time by voting that the defendant in the case is not guilty. As Chien states " Rising the eyes from the book, glancing at me quickly, just as she had the last seven times rises her hand expressionlessly, the jury number eleven, Miss Sarah Hulsey. "

While Chien does an excellent job in terms of developing their plot setting and characters, Chien does not have a strong grasp of the mechanics of English and does not seem to have checked the paper for grammar and spelling inconsistencies. This does detract from plot and character development somewhat as it is sometimes difficult to understand what Chien meas.

I rather liked the ethics in this story. Sarah Hulsey seems to be written in such a way that she stands up for what is right rather than what is easy. She stands up to the other jurors and makes a point that the evidence does not necessarily match up with the crime, the defendant or what the witnesses are saying. Chien does an excellent in demonstrating how juries work and how the legal process occurs in the juror's room.

In general I enjoyed this story, while there are some spelling and grammatical errors in general. The plot and characters were well written and the story was interesting. I particularly enjoyed the interactions between the members of the jury because Chien depicted very realistic arguments and portrayals of people who might be part of a jury.

71 Days

This story was particularly interesting because Kristina intersperses diary entries in between dialogue and real time scenarios in this story about the military. The story begins with basic training and runs throughout the narrator's military experience including his friendship with his fellow soldier Paxton. The narrator writes about his daily experiences and we see those experiences change as he moves from the relatively sheltered world of boot camp to real life military confrontations in which people die.

One of the more interesting quotes in the story is when the narrator states "I had become numb to the sight of death. It was all around us. The island was a fluid graveyard." This quote expresses the experience of every soldier who has been involved in a military conflict who has seen death over and over again.

Kristina manages to fully capture the dehumanizing process of the military experience. We see her two main characters, the narrator and Paxton move from being new recruits who are deeply affected by their battle experiences to hardened veterans who scarcely bat an eye when one of their fellow soldiers or one of the enemies dies. Kristina also has a deep understanding of how the military experience can bond two people together as they face death on a daily basis.

This story is very well written and detailed. The dialogue and the diary entries are realistic and sound very much like the experiences of a young soldier facing his first battle. This creates the sense that what Kristina is writing about is real. In general I enjoyed this story and it is overall a good story from a unique perspective.

Relationship

This is an interesting story about a road trip taken by two people who are romantically involved. The narrator appears to be the one who is driving; he is quiet contemplative and enjoys listening to music that his girlfriend wrote the girlfriend seems slightly bossy yet shy about her musical talent. James writes eloquently about a couple that truly enjoys traveling and who has been to London Paris and many other adventures together.

The story is mainly about growing up both in terms of the relationship and in terms of chronological/psychological maturity. The narrator states "It was an incredible relationship in terms of how much we both grew within ourselves." He also captures the idea that relationships change and that what is once calming and a positive influence when one is an adolescent or college student is not necessarily the type of relationship that someone needs as they mature and grow up. This is seen in how the main character changes his view of the relationship during the years between high school, and the present day when he is a young CEO/Entrepreneur starting his own business. While he is happy in the relationship when he is with his girlfriend her behavior when they are not together is rather like a stalkers with her calling and texting him every minute of the day.

I quite enjoyed the dialogue and the interplay between the characters in this story. James does an excellent job in capturing how couples interact with each other especially when the boredom of long road trips is introduced into the scenario. The narrator and his girlfriend are realistically written and the dialogue shows how the two characters see each other.

In general this was a well written and interesting story with strong dialogue, strong plot and interesting characters. James shows a strong grasp of how to write dialogue and portrays his characters very realistically.

Hamilton Park

This story is a touching story about what life is like for an elderly person living in a nursing home, Hamilton Park. As the main characters states "I had been in Hamilton Park Nursing Home for about four months at this point. After one to many glasses of champagne and some bath oil I underwent hip surgery." The characters are well written and Gabrielle makes the everyday routine of the nursing home seem interesting. She writes as if she has experience in working with the elderly and interacting with the elderly.

This story is touching and interesting and offers the reader a unique perspective on how the elderly think and act. The dialogue is strong and I particularly like the interactions between the main character/narrator and Dolores and Joe. It was especially sad that the narrator did not get much of a change to develop her relationship with Joe. The story had a strong plot and included a great deal of humor.

In general I enjoyed Gabrielle's writing. She has a strong grasp on how to write a story and manages to develop unique and interesting characters. She also has a strong grasp of grammar and the ability to write good dialogue. This makes the story seem more interesting and adds greatly to the setting of the story. The plot and characterizations of the people in the story made it clear that age does not change who we are, people are still people no matter their age and still have the same hopes dreams and fears as they did when they were young. Gabrielle's writing impressed me as well because she used vivid description and dialogue in such a way that the characters seemed to come alive on the page. This was a very good story.