Metacognition: Short Story Writing

Writing my short story was a fun yet frustrating process. It gave me the opportunity to be free and creative with my writing, but it involved changing my story many times to make it just right. In the end, I know that the changes were for the better.

I began with an idea which, I admit, was pretty unrealistic. But I liked it, so I went with it. After receiving feedback from Mr. Allen, I realized that my plot was so unrealistic to the point where the reader would have a hard time enjoying the story because it would sound ridiculous. I then reread my story, or the story fragment I had written at the time, and kept the parts that I believed were good enough to be rewritten.

I then took those parts, my main character's poor relationship with his wife being my main "pressure," and twisted them around so the story would be slightly different and more believable, but I didn't have to change it completely. I was much happier with this story and thought I would definitely be successful. I was wrong. In this story, the main character's wife died. In my feedback, Mr. Allen commented that her death sounded forced and I should somehow tweak it. I was frustrated with this, that was the biggest push on my main character and I was proud of it, but I knew that he was probably right. I just believed I had a good idea going for me.

I talked to my mom about my story and tossed some ideas around with her. I realized that I had had the idea of the wife dying stuck in my head and it was hard to imagine anything else happening, so it was good to have a fresh mind help me with new ideas and scenarios. We had the idea of the wife going into a coma instead. That way, my story would be more dramatic and pressure would still be put on my main character, but the wife didn't die, so it wouldn't be as much of a stretch.

From doing this project, I learned that if I get an idea in my head for writing, it gets stuck there. I have difficulty seeing my story go any other way, so if I need to change my story, I have to get inspiration from somewhere else. That doesn't mean I take the idea from someone or something, but I may get a flash of inspiration from an outside source. I wish I wasn't like that, though. It makes writing much more difficult because I get stuck in one section of my imagination, as opposed to imagining all different things and choosing my best idea. I like the fact that after taking a break, looking at something else, and coming back, I usually have a more open mind. And although that's an extra step I'd like to take, it's worth it in the long run.