Mikaela's Creative Writing Blog ❤️

  Scene Transitions help flow a story along, and without them reading would be like walking on a gravel beach; sharp and bumpy. In the short story by Dashiel Hammett, “One Hour”, there are a plethora of scene transitions that move the story along. The first transition that sticks out is the transition between the detective’s investigation at the Hall of Justice and Chrostwaite’s departure there from. “Chrostwaite spoke again, still regarding his knees. 'Damned nuisance!' he said. [...] He picked up his hat and gloves from the desk. 'Find 'em, will you? Damned nuisance going to jail!' And he waddled out.” (Hammett) In this scene it sets up the end of the investigation and Chrostwaites anger at the investigation, it also leads to the detective also leaving to restart the investigation, but with fresh eyes and with a suspect eliminated. The second scene that is a good transitional scene is the one where the detectives work leads him to Newhouse’s printing establishment...

  Dennis’s Apartment Setting Revision The apartment Dennis lives in is an uncomfortable and unchangeable 63.5 to 74.5 degrees and is always between being too hot or too cold to his liking. The floors are linoleum, they line the whole apartment, with scuff marks that expose the old concrete finish. Dennis’s feet have a persistent white dust on them, and a few calluses due to how rundown the floor has been kept. There are only four rooms in the entire apartment: the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Dennis likes it this way because it is simple, and it is functional. He does not have friends, nor a spouse, so there is no expectation of there being a whole lot of decoration, or other frivolous things. All except for the giant mirror in front of the doorway. Dennis has tried for the last five years to move this thing, but it’s mounted to the wall in the most impossible ways. He’s dubbed the mirror “Hell”, because the first thing when he comes hom...

A&P by John Updike “A&P” by John Updike, is a short story that follows Sammy, a sarcastic cashier who is not a huge fan of his job but creates the best out of a bad situation by creating scenarios about the customers that he is confronted with on the regular. Through these internal monologues with himself, he characterizes these three girls that come into his job one day. Out of the three girls he becomes hyper fixated on one of them whom he names “Queenie”. This young woman to Sammy represents what he wants, freedom. Throughout the story Sammy is constantly reminded that he is not free from the grocery store and Queenie is the solution to that inner conflict. To him she’s a rich carefree girl who gets to live a life of freedom. Living in a small town where everything is the same all the time, and of course, having to conform to his surroundings, Queenie coming in and wearing a bathing suit is ironic and a break from the reality that Sammy must live in. Throughout this enco...

  “Obst Vw” by Sharon Solwitz is an interesting read where the viewpoint of the story is in this Third-Person Limited Viewpoint but is written in a way that recalls a very important memory between the main character, Demian, and his father because Demian must write a college essay. The story starts out with introducing Demian, a teenage boy of about 17 years of age (who is also the narrator of the story) and his girlfriend. They’re upstairs in Rachels room, fooling around while her parents are downstairs arguing. This leads to Demian being late coming home and him and his father having a blow up over it because Demian was grounded. Demian reflects on these sorts of moments between the two as to why he hates his father so much, even on his death bed! As if recalling the memory, he describes the day-to-day life he once had to justify the one he wants to have. This story is long and drawn out to describe small details of the setting and plot. For instance, at the end of the story Dem...

  Giving criticism and receiving feedback is how people learn from there mistakes, however, how this advice is given will dictate just how much someone is going to learn from it. Likewise, learning how to receive advice is equally, if not more important. There are two articles that come to mind when thinking about these topics:   1)           “To err is human – and a powerful prelude to learning”, By Claudia Williams, To err is human - and a powerful prelude to learning (hechingerreport.org)   2)        “Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback”, By Marshall Goldsmith. Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback - MARSHALL GOLDSMITH   In the first article, “To err is human – and a powerful prelude to learning”, by Claudia Williams, she makes an argument about how making mistakes is a part of learning as opposed to having done something correctly the first time. There is research into the subject that Williams ...

  “The Specialist’s Hat”, by Kelly Link, is quite the gothic short story. Set in this ethereally dark old manor that is called, “Eight Chimneys,” the house is a suffocating world. There are 100 windows, but no light, people who visit the manor, but are moving mannequins, and everything in the house comes off to be damp and old-timey, including the people who live there. Truthfully, the story setting feels like the color, “smokers yellow”, a house that was probably once a beautiful home with vibrancy and life that is Life , but the walls overtime became oversaturated with nicotine. Any existence that was left was replaced by decay, rot, and just a shell of an object, and every encounter made by the main characters is an unhealthy rush of adrenaline. The author captures this perfectly when they describe the chimneys that lead to the attic of the house as they, “seem too alive, somehow, to be contained in this empty, neglected place; they thrust almost angrily through the roof and att...

  Rwanda, by Stephen Minot, is a story that crosses the themes of culture, with moral dilemmas faced by the characters. The story starts with a group of (what is presumably) American friends who are living in Uganda, Africa. They are as follows; Katy and Max, a couple who are studying animals, Francine and Frank, whom are a couple also who both used to be volunteers, and Katy, a forgetful college student. They’re out and about, complaining about life in Africa as compared to life in America, comparing and contrasting about both continents while going shopping when suddenly, Katy forgets her wallet at home that has two months’ worth of rent money at home… which is two hours away. It should be noted that Katy is very forgetful and not a very organized person. Francine tries to assure her it will be okay, but it is not because their house boy, Thomas, is in the house and can possibly steal the money. This thought doesn’t stop the group though, because when they get back home from sh...

 Let's talk about making mistakes and giving feedback for a minute.  Mistakes happen everywhere; in art, literature, life in general – it happens! But because they happen, people are going to let their opinions be known, whether we like it or not. There are many times when someone tries to give criticism, but it comes off so cheap, or as an attack that it is not wanted, and no one learns from it. There are many ways to give an author feedback, some good, some bad, but learning how to give feedback is a skill that helps people grow into being the best that they can be. There are two articles that exemplify this; “Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn” by, fs, and “How to Provide Great Feedback When Your’re Not In Charge”, by, Eduardo Briceno, that are wonderful examples of giving constructive criticism and making mistakes. Upon further reflection, here are the key takeaways from both articles for the too long, didn’t read: Why Understanding These Fo...