J17: Short Story Freewrite (7 minutes)

Hmm...I'm not sure where I want to go with this project. I would like to develop the tale of the mailman, but like we discussed in class, there's the fear of it not turning out as good as I want (and you expect!). That's something we need to discuss more in class - that fear thing. If I'm having problems with it, then perhaps some of you are too. But back to story ideas. The funeral beginning that I read might work as well, but I feel bad that I have no idea where I originally wanted to take it (of course, that is called plotting and Stephen King seems to be against it - see On Writing). I guess I could take up where I left off four years ago and see where it takes me. Both of those ideas seem a bit unfair though. I'm anticipating most, if not all, of you are working with fresh ideas and thus I should be as well. But at the moment the spring is dry. It's hard to feel like a writer when grading, lesson planning, family, and graduate school are all taking up all of my time. Maybe there's an idea in all that. Perhaps the story of a first-year teacher trying to make it - that way I can feel like an experienced expert next to whatever yahoo teacher I create. I don't know. You might have noticed that a lot of my ideas take tragic turns. I probably shouldn't risk letting teaching take that route. Anywho...my seven minutes are up and so begins the public journals for the reading pleasure of my minions. I mean writing students (although minions does have a pleasant ring to it). See y'all next week.