This is your time to create your own short read! It can be fiction if you want to tell a story. It can be nonfiction if
you want to write a memoir or a personal essay. It can be genre, or speculative, or satire. It can be funny, or
angry, or optimistic, or bleak. It can be deeply personal or loudly political. The only thing it cannot be is
pornographic.* It can be any length you want, but bear in mind that very short works (flash fiction, flash essays)
are much more difficult to do well. Something something the fewer words the more each one counts or
something.
As stated in the syllabus, I'll be grading these on the effectiveness of the narrative, the appropriate and
effective use of clear and evocative language (whether formal or otherwise), and the overall quality of the
narrative craft. As a guy with an MFA in prose fiction, I can tell you that this assignment may prove more
difficult than your final essay. Have fun with it, and write about something that inspires you, but at the same
time, remember that even the best story idea is only as good as the words that are used to express it (i.e., the
craft that is put into creating it).
Sample Solution