Early works of a fledgling writer : an honors creative project (HONRS 499)

Abstract

I didn't really begin to write fiction until after I came to Ball State. I'd always had the desire to get my ideas onto paper, but my early attempts were less than successful, rapidly losing themselves in meaningless, superfluous details and a lack of focus on my part.During the spring semester of the 1994-1995 school year, I took the Intro to Fiction Writing class, ENG 405. It was there that I learned a lot of the basics of the narrative art, that it has as much (if not more) to do with being a writer as opposed to merely the technique of writing. I learned a lot that semester, and it provided me with a base which I continued to develop through ENG 407 (the other fiction writing course offered by Ball State) and into the present day.This creative project is a demonstration of how far I've come as a writer. It includes the first story I wrote for ENG 405, as well as a rewrite of that piece. Following those is another short story I originally submitted for 405, reworked for this project. The final piece is a short screenplay for a project that I worked on last semester.Preceding the stories is commentary giving a little background about each individual work.