HW 24 - Short Story 1

Please write and post a short story about a really cool student in the 11th or 12th grade at a small public high school in NYC. Portray the protagonist as whatever you think of as "cool" - could be a lover or a fighter - a poet or a philosopher or just a regular kid.

The exceptionally cool protagonist should be a model of coolness that you actually admire. If you, instead, write a story showing a poor sucker trying to be cool, that's fine too, draw from your own experience.

Remember the writing tips I emphasized:

1. Show don't tell (action and dialog instead of narration and description) aka "Starve the narrator."

2. Compress the coal into a diamond by using pressure of time, space, and characters. Like in the A&P story, keep the location and time and characters compressed.

3. Make a muffintop story where the past and future spill out (like in A&P, which now that I've re-read it, seems much better than I told it).

4. Remember the Buddha's flower - enlightenment happens wordlessly.

5. Consider resisting the culture of ridicule - try writing a story with a really admirable person.

Please post by Friday 8:30am.