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By the end of the story it was clear that Junior Diaz didn’t follow the “conflict-Crisis-Resolution” model of shot story writing that LaPlante mentions in the chapter. Many writers, myself included try to follow this model for a story however LaPlante writes, “even though the conflict-crisis-resolution model might fit the majority of the stories we read, I am hard-pressed to use it as an example of how to write them” (pg. 99).
ReplyDeleteIn “Fiesta, 1980”, Diaz writes the story with a few different conflicts, some minor, some major but none of them actually get resolved, what LaPlante would refer to as a modular story. There’s the conflict of Yunior’s dad cheating with a Puerto Rican woman that both him and Rafa have both met, although hinted at, this conflict never comes to a head. Yunior’s relationship, or lack there of, with his father is never satisfyingly dealt with or made better. Then there’s Yunior’s car sickness that never had a resolution. However, I still felt that Diaz’s story was full of life, real life. LaPlante refers to a story by the name of “Everything That Rises Must Converge” she says, “You’ll notice that the conflict of the story would probably be better described as a series of “complications”...but conform nicely to our needs” (pg. 99). I think that this description also fits our reading as well.
I enjoyed that the story starts with what I believe is a rising action, when we first meet Yunior’s dad, were met with anger and intimidation. He refuses to speak to his wife, heads to the shower, but when he comes out he is instantly mad at Yunior because he ate something. This interaction, in my opinion, sets the entire tone of the story, throughout Yunior and the reader are on edge waiting for the father, or someone in the story to reach their tipping point.
Thoroughly enjoyed this weeks reading.
Aisha Teegarden
In a lot of ways, I think writing a short story is one of the most difficult of the literary arts. The writer has to hook the reader instantly, they can’t have a slow build like a novel would. They have to be quick and to the point, there is not a lot of room for fluff. The short story should still have all of the elements of the novel, such as the conflict and resolution model, but cannot spend too much time on building up the character growth though a detailed journey or battle like a novel would. The character has to be defined quickly in a short story. In novel, there is the luxury of having chapters so that the character can grow and shift as the story progresses.
ReplyDeleteI have to be point blank in my statement that I am not a fan of Junot Diaz. In several of hi stories, there is a severe lack of a strong female character. In this particular story, it starts off with a mother who stands on the sidelines as her husband harms their children and cheats on her. It also features a sister who is meek and trembles at the sight of her father. The narrator describes her as a “major wuss.” Though in this story, the mother seems to be a bit more aware of her situation, it never clearly states any type of resolution.
- Areli Garza
As with all the readings so far this one was very reassuring and helpful, LaPlante clarifying that there is no right or wrong way to write a short story. She goes through all the definitions and long drawn out text just to say that it is all about how you feel and expressing your vision. She even points out that not having a satisfying or clear resolution to a story is ok, that was something I needed to hear. I often write in a “slice of life” type way, often very uneventful and letting the characters' thoughts do the talking. This is mostly because I view life as by the day occurrences and not dwelling too much on it because time keeps on going. I realize it does lead to a boring story but I don’t want to make the story some big life changing story and trying to be philosophical when that is not what I want to write about. I think the story does this exactly, it’s not about some life changing event. The narrator recalls the life of his immigrant family and his rocky relationship with his father. I also like the way the dialogue is handled, paraphrased recollections of these conversations. It feels like the narrator is recalling a memory, it isn’t too specific but you can tell it’s from a biased eye. The behavior of the other characters is written as if this is the way they normally are day by day.
ReplyDelete-Marc Fuentes
LaPlante did state some interesting facts about writing a short story. I like that she said that there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to write a short story. Although must say that for me, short stories are the hardest pieces of writing to composer for me. I must highlight the fact, which I’ve probably mentioned countless of times in my previous posts, that writing short stories doesn’t give you the same freedom as a novel would, which is one of the main reasons why I like novel writing much better. You have more space to write well, more, especially if you’re the kind of writer who likes to say a lot. Short stories sort of put a lot of pressure on the writer. You beginning needs to hook the reader, it must be memorable, and every sentence must be compelling in order to maintain the reader engaged. There is really no room for fluff whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I was entertained with Diaz’s story. I liked the rising action and his overall structure, although I would not aim myself to write a story like that. I like reading stories that give me examples of certain elements I would not want to incorporate in my story.
Ivanna Zamudio Trevino
Chapter 4 was a chapter that opened me to new ideas on how I am able to write my stories. I was taught that I had to follow a certain model or structure to write a good story, but this chapter goes against everything I was taught in high school. There is no wrong way to tell a story, as long as it is not all over the place. There are certain models we can be inspired by, but it is not a total must to shape them that way.
ReplyDeleteFiesta, 1980 is a perfect example how a really good story can come out from not following the traditional “Conflict-Crisis-Resolution Model.” This was a very realistic story to read. I can see many people relate to this story, especially coming from Mexican culture. I’ve met many people who suffer from their childhood traumas because their parents were abusive to each other, and even to them. Which also emphasizes why there was no resolution to this story. It makes it more realistic because this is something that people suffer with their entire lives and never speak about it. Yunior covers the secrets his family is hiding so well, but maybe that is why he has such an intense reaction when he feels the tension and anxiety between his parents in the van.
Angela Milan
I was always under the impression that short stories had to have the three act structure, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Chapter four helps clearing up with that and explains that there is a flexible way of writing them. It can just simply be an event happening to someone, it could be a simple arc. The problem when writing short stories is the word limit. With a limit, you have to tell an understandable story without too many fluff words or sentences. It becomes difficult to explain what happens without want to expand it, but you also can't be so frank that you end up losing your readers out of sheer boredom. The hardest decision would be how much fluff one should add, and how much one should omit it from the sentence or paragraph entirely. You can't over explain, but you also can under explain either. Another thing I really appreciate about this chapter is this line: "But very few writers know what they are going to write beforehand." (pg. 105) I have the habit of trying to plot everything before hand, down to the tiniest detail since I tend to forget those, but it's nice to read that not everything is planned before hand, that surprises are bound to happen and are even encouraged most of the time.
ReplyDelete—Airam Sandoval
I was immediately put off by this chapter because of the attempt to define what a short story was. In my eyes it is any story under ten thousand words and that is it. Though as the chapter went on I found that I was interesting in all the different ways that this chapter was discussing how to write a story. There was the traditional structure that I think we were all familiar with which was the exposition with the rising action and the climax, but the one that I was really interesting in was the modal style of writing because those tend to learn more towards being a character study than the others. I think that the other styles of story telling or more geared towards action writing than anything else. The story with this chapter is also very interesting because there really is no problem in this story, well there is, but the story reads more like an exaination of Yunior and the culture that surrounds him along with the relationship of his father. I really liked the short story.
ReplyDeleteTiffany Joissin
For a while, I was convinced that a short story was nothing more than a regular fiction story condensed. I figured that just as the beginning of the chapter explains that short stories can be defined with a simple model of introduction backstory crisis and denouement. It was easy to consider short stories as picture perfect tales but in reality they are not restricted to a common silhouette. The structure and style that I used for my short story best resembles the conflict-resolution model in the chapter, but its been subdivided into sections. Time allotments. Being able to play with tension to build your short story is key for leaving an impact on your reader. Flannery O'Connor, author of A Good Man is Hard to Find, herself even mentions that short stories don't have clear cut diagrams. Technique is found once you already have the writing down, meaning one should not overthink the planning aspect of writing the short story. This could arguably be said about any work of fiction, but considering the short story has a limited writing space, it may all too easy that we find ourselves slipping into the mindset of needing to plan perfectly. This is something I've had experience with before, which is why I decided to go with my gut when writing my first draft this time!
ReplyDelete-Sandra Martinez
At first glance I thought that a short story would be easier to write than a novel due ti the fact that it is shorter and does not need as much content. I thought the fact that a short story had less content mean that it would need less thought also. However as I set out to write my first short story for this class, I found out that it was the opposite. I found out that instead of offering lees thought and work it offers less room to make mistakes. I think Edith Wharton described it best when she said that the short story is "A shaft driven straight into the heart of human experience". What I understood from that quote was basically to fundamental truths, that short story have to faced paced from the first sentence to the last and the most also leave the reader feeling like a rush similar to the that of what one feels when stepping off a roller coaster. Apart from that quote by Wharton, I loved almost all the Flannery O'Conner quotes. I heard a quote of hers in a movie once that has stuck with me for years, "A writer is the sum of his experiences". I feel that this quote harmonizes very well with the rest of the information in Chapter Four.
ReplyDelete-David Hermosillo
I really liked Fiesta, 1980! The scenario obviously wasn’t great for the narrator, but nonetheless, I really liked that it really captured a dysfunctional family. And I really liked how it was told from one of the son’s point of view. I also really liked how even though as a reader you know this is a dysfunctional family, well a lot of it being because of the father, you get to see how normal this is for the narrator and you feel for him. I also really liked the ending! I got the sense that the parents were going to talk about how they were going to get a divorce because of the alertness and awkwardness of the parents. Before that, it lead with the mom sensing something was wrong, like she knew her husband was cheating, and then the story ending with “Finally I said, Mami, and they both looked back, already knowing what was happening.” The last thing I’m going to say about this story was that I really liked the latino/hispanic culture in the story. The conflict wasn’t relatable to me, but the culture was, and I liked how naturally it flowed in the story.
ReplyDeleteOne thing from the chapter that I found fascinating was that a lot of people defined differently what a short story is. The definition that stood out to me was “What you see when you look out the window” -Mavis Gallant. The reason why it stood out to me was because it was so simple, yet very true. A lot of different things happen outside a window and even the eyes of that beholder has a different interpretation of what they’re seeing that what another pair of eyes will see. I don’t agree with that being the only definition because a lot can happen looking in a window as well. But I did love the simplicity of her quote.
-Megan Cavazos