Metacognition: Short Story Process

Whenever we decide to commence an intellectual journey--trying to achieve something that so many before us have done so well--besides a sense of challenge and a little bit of excitement, we--or I for certain--have a tendency to feel slightly overwhelmed. Embarking on the adventure of writing my short story, or the preliminary drafts of it at least, was no different.

In a previous blog, I imagined what if I could tell a story well?  I was unaware that the opportunity for me to make an attempt would reveal itself so soon. With that being said, when we first got this assignment, I was really excited that I would be able to write in an expressive fashion and really hone my ability to tell a story that might actually interest people.

I never imagined myself as being so bad at it.

I say that with a smile on my face because even though I'm still trying to get the hang of it, I do really love this kind of expression, even when I'm reading it and especially while I'm writing it. I deeply believe that it opens up doors in our mind and allows us to explore a part of ourselves that is seldom explored and share it with others in a riveting and resonating way.

The subject of resonance brings me to improvements that could have been made during or considered before the writing process. I connect this to resonance because initially, I used an image that resonated with me and tried to construct a story around it. I was mistaken and realized such when I couldn't even figure out what the middle--nevertheless the end--of my story would be. What I needed to do, and what I am currently attempting to do, is build images and description around a series of events, otherwise known as a story, that resonates with me for much more time than just an image. While attempting the latter method of writing a short story, I realized that there was much more opportunity for risks that would be rewarded with what I like to call "Yes! moments" as a writer when an element of the story clicked. While I am still waiting for the payoff, I am much more confident that it will come using resonant events or occurrences/events as opposed to a single resonant image and trying to construct an entire story around it. Although Jane Eyre is by no means a short story, I think that Charlotte Brontë's ability to really capture the reader's attention in any given chapter by putting pressure on Jane and giving the reader access to all of the ensuing internal dialogue is a great example of how short story writers can capture their reader's attention.

Not so much a criticism as it is an observation, I now recall thinking about my short story in moments when I wasn't writing far more than almost any other piece in the past. While it is still far from finished, I believe this connects back to the resonant series of events that I originally pictured and used for my story. Despite the story's overall tragedy, or maybe because of their overall tragedy, I found that my mind--in free moments--sometimes just went immediately to my story and considering how I should fill in those details. I like this a lot because it's an assignment that really gets me thinking without sitting down to just do the assignment and allows me get creative. Each of these are rare things on their own. But getting both of these benefits out of one assignment? Unprecedented!

As I keep repeating, the process is not yet complete. However, I'm already seeing some of the really cool effects such an adventure has on the mind. With a few improvements, I think that this can be one of my best pieces yet, and my favorite too.