Creative Writing essay 
Week 1
The first idea for a pending short story is to make it somehow related to Christmas and a view that anything is possible during Christmas. Hence, it can be called a Christmas miracle happening in the life of an ordinary young woman who struggles with her job and cannot stand one of her colleagues whom she considers to be arrogant and unbearable. The second idea is to transform her hatred of the man into a love affair through some accident that changes her view of him. Although this motif may sound a bit like a cliché, it seems to be an eternal topic and the overwhelming majority of people dream about love. Therefore, this choice of the theme may appeal to the audience and smoothly combines with an idea of a Christmas miracle. The third idea is to place the story plot in a typical office setting with some reminiscences by the narrator.
The protagonist is a young woman named Abigail Smith. She considers herself to be plain and virtually invisible to the world except for her professional duties that she performs perfectly well. She is 26, a blonde with big blue eyes, which is the most distinguishing feature of her appearance, but her figure is normal, neither slim nor excessively big. By profession, she is an English-German interpreter and works in an office of a well-known interpreting company in New York. She works a lot as she comes from a typical middle-class family from Seattle and still has to pay back her student loan. Thus, she has no time left for romantic relationships and even dating, which makes her feel extremely lonely sometimes. In turn, the young man whom she sincerely believes she hates is named Leonardo Morgan. He is an opposite of the woman as he is handsome, rich, easy-going, ambitious, self-confident bordering on arrogant, as well as being popular with women. He works as a junior attorney and quickly climbs the career ladder. The greatest secret the woman has is to find her true love, yet she will never admit it even to herself as she considers herself to be a modern and highly pragmatic woman oriented on building her career and constantly improving herself. Her greatest joy is to visit her parents, but she rarely gets to do that. The man’s secret and simultaneously biggest fear is to be abandoned by a woman with whom he falls in love. Besides, he hates to fail in anything, which is why he strives to be a winner and to dominate in everything. All his lovers were left by him without remorse. The reason of such behavior is unhappy childhood because of the parents’ divorce, which has made him fearful of creating his own family and keen on becoming the best attorney in the city. The two characters have been in conflict since they met four years ago in the university. A stressful situation that sets the story in motion is a project to which Abigail has been invited as an interpreter by an international law firm in New York.
Week 2
I have decided on the first-person narration by the protagonist, i.e. Abigail, who will unravel the plot as she sees it. Although third-person narration from the perspective of an omnipresent narrator might have allowed revealing the way the antagonist, i.e. Leo, thinks, it is still more interesting for me to cover Abigail’s story in more depth. The reason is that she is the one whose secret dream will come true as a result of a Christmas miracle. The story will unfold rather rapidly and will have a framing structure in the form of reminiscence. Abigail will recollect her last-year Christmas period and how it impacted her personal life. The reminiscence will cover one day that was the most outstanding and fateful in terms of bringing her and Leo together. The story will end in the present time with the couple visiting Abigail’s parents for Christmas in Seattle. The story goal is to show how animosity and hatred may turn into love and these two strong emotions often go hand in hand. In turn, the plot is a story of how Abigail and Leo come together through their constant quarrels and struggles. Some internal obstacles faced by the characters that might block achievement of the goal include: denial of feelings, orientation at the career to the detriment of personal life, unwillingness to compromise, and blindness to their emotions. External obstacles include long working hours in different offices, former relationships, and hectic pace of life.
Week 3
On a cold December night, I was sitting in an uncomfortable train seat looking through the window how the landscape was quickly passing by me. I could not tell what I saw for sure as it was snowing and the night was very dark. My legs were aching from sitting in an uncomfortable posture, my head was groggy because of the two last sleepless nights, and my mind was churning with the unfinished project that I had to submit in two weeks. However, I had hardly felt happier in my life and the smile was not leaving my face. The reason of this blissful happiness was sitting in a chair next to me, typing some legal gibberish text on a laptop and from time to time taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. My Leo…Wow, how strange it sounded as even after a year of being a couple, I was waiting to wake up from this dream and meet this impossibly arrogant face in an elevator that would instantly make me mad for no obvious reason. How strange our life can be! A year ago if anybody told me that Leonardo Morgan, a rising attorney-star from the best-known legal firm of New York and a tempting bachelor chased by hordes of model-like young women chasing, would date me, Abigail Smith, an exceptionally plain and ordinary girl with no remarkable appearance and no ambitions of conquering the world, I would burst out laughing and would even probably fall into coma from laughing as much and as loud as never before in my boring plain life. Yet, here we are, together, on this train to Seattle to spend Christmas with my parents who adore my awesome boyfriend…
…I hate him. I definitely, surely, absolutely hate this idiot who looks like the world is at his feet and all people should bow and curtsy whenever they see him. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but still it does not change the fact that this arrogant, let’s say, man has become even more arrogant than he was in university. I did not even think it was possible to look so arrogantly, yet here Mister-I-Know-Best-You-Are-All-Morons sits in front of me and tells ME how to do MY work.
‘Mister Morgan, maybe you don’t need an interpreter if you know German so well? The negotiations on the upcoming merger would definitely speed up then.’ ‘Oh, no, Miss Abigail, I personally require your superb services.’ ‘Miss Smith.’ ‘Sure, Miss Abigail Smith. Don’t worry, our German partners will call us back soon. You know how obsessed with time they are.’ ‘Well, I wouldn’t know that, would I? I’m only a run-of-the-mill interpreter as you accurately noted half an hour ago.’
Week 4
I suppose that the second passage conveys my original voice emerging in the prose. This passage shows that I have chosen first-person narration with some elements of the stream of consciousness as the mode of narration. Hence, it is indicative of my individual style. Besides, the passage contains synonyms to emphasize the point, epithets to underline some details that seem to be important from the perspective of the entire story, and capitalization to emphasize words that would have been spoken with a specific intonation if the story was told rather than read. The passage also contains a coined phrase to denote the protagonist’s negative attitude to the antagonist whom she obviously dislikes.
The third passage contains a partial display of setting as the narrator sits in a train carriage at night and recollects events that happened a year ago. In order to show the difference between the two timeframes and to emphasize that the narrator is currently caught up in her memory of which she seems to be more aware than of her present, different tenses have been chosen. The setting is not extremely accurate, but this lack of exact details is deliberate. My intention is to show her current emotions and tell the story that unravels in her mind rather than pointing out details of her surroundings. Therefore, I suppose the overall description of the setting is successful. At the same time, it might be reasonable to include more details like where they are moving and from where. It would make the story more realistic.
Week 5
On a cold December night, I was sitting in an uncomfortable train seat looking through the window how the landscape was quickly passing by me. I could not tell what I saw for sure as it was snowing and the night was very dark. All I knew that I was moving away from New York to my parents waiting for me in Seattle. My legs were aching from sitting in an uncomfortable posture, my head was groggy because of the two last sleepless nights, and my mind was churning with the unfinished project that I had to submit in two weeks. However, I had hardly felt happier in my life and the smile was not leaving my face. The reason of this blissful happiness was sitting in a chair next to me, typing some legal gibberish text on a laptop and from time to time taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. My Leo…Wow, how strange it sounded as even after a year of being a couple, I was waiting to wake up from this dream and meet this impossibly arrogant face in an elevator that would instantly make me mad for no obvious reason. How strange our life can be! A year ago if anybody told me that Leonardo Morgan, a rising attorney-star from the best-known legal firm of New York and a tempting bachelor chased by hordes of model-like young women chasing, would date me, Abigail Smith, an exceptionally plain and ordinary girl with no remarkable appearance and no ambitions of conquering the world, I would burst out laughing and would even probably fall into coma from laughing as much and as loud as never before in my boring plain life. Yet, here we are, together, on this train to Seattle to spend Christmas with my parents who adore my awesome boyfriend…
…I hate him. I definitely, surely, absolutely hate this idiot who looks like the world is at his feet and all people should bow and curtsy whenever they see him. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but still it does not change the fact that this arrogant, let’s say, man has become even more arrogant than he was in university. I did not even think it was possible to look so arrogantly, yet here Mister-I-Know-Best-You-Are-All-Morons sits in front of me and tells ME how to do MY work.
‘Mister Morgan, maybe you don’t need an interpreter if you know German so well? The negotiations on the upcoming merger would definitely speed up then.’ ‘Oh, no, Miss Abigail, I personally require your superb services.’ ‘Miss Smith.’ ‘Sure, Miss Abigail Smith. Don’t worry, our German partners will call us back soon. You know how obsessed with time they are.’ ‘Well, I wouldn’t know that, would I? I’m only a run-of-the-mill interpreter as you accurately noted half an hour ago.’ ‘Abby, don’t be mad at me. You know I can get carried away when I work and this Helmut was getting on my last nerve with pointing out that comma in clause 4.c should be put after ‘or’ and not before.’ ‘How many times should I tell you not to call me Abby? I’m Abigail and Miss Smith for you, Mister Morgan.’ ‘And I’m Leo for you, Abby, or any other cute nickname your pretty head can make up.’
Better to keep silent, better to keep silent, these words have become my life-saving mantra over the past three hours, excruciatingly long three hours turning my job into unbearable hell and making me think that quitting right now or throwing this vase (it looks heavy to cause enough damage to his smugness) at his head. I am so tired that I could hardly see straight. I shouldn’t be here and I’ve missed my plane. I hate flying, but I would happily think of how I might dye in a plane crash rather than staring at this ugly face. Not so ugly, frankly speaking, but still…Great, my thoughts have started wandering. When will this day be over and why on earth has my colleague fallen ill today? He should be sitting here, but no, lucky me, yet again another meeting with Mister Leonardo. As if I didn’t have enough of our disastrous encounters in the university. He was the main reason why I hated the first two years of studies. Bamby, he called me on the first day of lectures and this stupid nickname stuck. My friends still call me Bamby! And here we are, again. If I knew that he is responsible for these damned negotiations, I would fake being sick or even it a rotten tomato to look credible. Anything is better than being here.
‘Bamby, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we will stay here all night.’ ‘What? I have problems with my hearing, obviously, you couldn’t have said that we have to spend the night here, in this conference room, right?’ ‘Our German colleagues need more time to look through the supplementary agreement to decide whether they accept amendments and then they have to make sure that nothing breaches current legislation…’ ‘Stop, Leo, let’s postpone the meeting till morning, I’ll be back at, say, 9 a.m.?’ ‘No, they can call any minute now, Abby, so we’ll wait. I’m sorry.’
That’s impossible, crazy, but I can’t leave, I know that, he knows that, my boss knows that. His firm is the most profitable client, I would be fired in an instant if I leave. Did I imagine that he called be Bamby again? What an awful day! In fact, week or even month. I’m happy to have this job, but not now. And this project on civil engineering… I don’t know when I have fallen asleep, but I smell the delicious smell of coffee and my favorite ginger cookies are here as well. How? Leonardo is sitting next to me and he is smiling. Well, he doesn’t look ugly or maddening. It’s sleep deprivation racking up my brain, for sure. I would never think of the man as handsome or pleasant or even nice if I slept well. I’m sure about that. Ok, I have nothing else to do, so let’s talk. But don’t you dare call me Bamby? Oh, he called me that way after his favorite cartoon hero…Well, maybe it is even kind of cute…
That night changed my life. Leo turned out to be funny and cute and far from looking smug or arrogant. He couldn’t leave the town for Christmas as well and since he ruined my plans, he suggested spending the holiday together. I was skeptical, but I was fed up with being alone at home, so I agreed. This Christmas was marvelous and made me believe in the miracle. How couldn’t I believe in miracle when an ugly frog turned into Prince Charming overnight? And now this Prince Charming is mine so that all Cinderellas of New York can go and look for their own frogs! Again, my thoughts are wandering again and I’m falling asleep, but I know that Leo and ginger cookies will be here when I wake up…
Discussion Post
Point of view of the story is the first-person narration with elements of the stream of consciousness. This way, the story looks like an internal monologue of the narrator that frames the inserted story, which represents the memory. It might be necessary to work more on this aspect and polish the narration, but overall the point of view seems to be consistent throughout the story. Besides, a point of view of the other character might have contributed to the story.
In terms of character development, Leo remains a static character displayed through indirect means, in particular, narrator’s words and dialogues. In turn, Abigail is a dynamic character to some extent even though only partially as she develops in terms of her feeling and perception of the reality, but does not acquire any significant new traits. A more serious obstacle or problem might have added to the character development, which should be perhaps considered if the story is to be rewritten.
Plot develops in the form of a story inside a story. The framing story is distinguished from the recollected memory of the protagonist with the help of tense and by visual segmentation.
There are two dialogues and internal monologue of the protagonist. Characters speak in turns and they lines seem to be interconnected.
There are two settings corresponding with each story. The framing story takes place on a train from New York to Seattle. Details of the setting are not significant in this case as it is only necessary to know that the narrator’s thoughts wander back to a bright memory from the past because she has nothing else to do on a train. Setting of the second story is a conference room in an office of the legal company where the antagonist works.
Week 5 Assignment 2
The major theme of the story is love and how hatred can easily be transformed into love. These two emotions are both strong and often people confuse them, especially if they are in denial about their true feelings to another person. Because of the supposed inability to be with a man like Leo, Abigail fears to admit her true feelings and substitutes her sympathy with negative emotions. A secondary theme of the story is that Christmas is a marvelous time when dreams can come true and miracles can happen. The only requirement is to have an open heart and remain optimistic despite life challenges. The first identified theme is well covered in the story and the writing overall supports this thematic direction. However, the second theme seems to be very secondary and not perfectly supported with the writing. In turn, it is being hinted at by the narrator, which leaves the readers freedom to make their own opinion about it. I have not thought initially that it might be challenging to unite these two themes, but it has turned out to be a quite complicated task. Nonetheless, I suppose that the first theme might be deemed a success.
