A Good Story

What's essential to any story is a conflict that develops and becomes more complex evenly throughout the whole story. One that reveals just enough at certain times to keep the reader engaged and encouraged to read more in order to find out what happens next; it maintains a good amount of mystery and fulfills the readers expectations. Character development goes hand in hand with the plot's development; characters should react and evolve realistically according to the developments in conflict. The plot fails to be compelling or effective if the characters are not reflecting their environment adequately. For instance, in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, the story would have been entirely unsuccessful if the main character did not transition from an angsty, self centered teen to someone whose bubble has been popped and is now thrust into a harsh and terrifying reality.

You expected Jesus to come down off his cross and clap

Some of the most important writing techniques in the short stories we have recently read include voice (of the narrator), details, the tone of the piece, and the dialogue in the piece.  All of these things work together to create the scene and the story, and keep the reader interested.  I also really enjoy unexpected descriptions, like in Silver Water: "... you expected Jesus to come down off his cross and clap" when Violet is talking about her sister's singing voice being so beautiful.
Dialogue is also important to character development and establishing conflict. Other character's reactions to the dialogue of other characters is important as well.  For example, if everyone in Bloom's Silver Water reacted the same way to Rose's outbursts, the story would not be very interesting. It creates a different dynamic when the characters have different reactions that keeps the reader interested.  

Writing Techniques

The greatest writing technique for developing character and conflict is dialogue, but only when done right. Although many times the reader has access into the inner thoughts of important characters, it is the vocalization of these thoughts that truly propels the story and grabs the reader's attention as well. In Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" it is the dialogue that truly gives insight into the menacing tone and scariness of Connie's situation. Arnold Friend's repetitive statements show his stubborn character and gradually bring on feelings of fear. Oates does this by making his dialogue with Connie sound cliche and unoriginal in a way that almost sounds like he is trying to lure in an animal.

Big and Bold

A character is someone a reader can see, imagine and know. We, as readers, fall in love, despise or feel indifferent about characters. Our feelings and attitudes towards characters play a critical role in our participation and involvement in the story. In the stories we have read in class, authors have had similar techniques in creating characters that keep us invested in the story.

Big bold statements.

They get our attention.

Oates, Wolf and Bloom state their character's pivotal mannerisms in the very beginning throwing us deep into the characters' thought processes. In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been", Oates introduces Connie as beautiful, vain, shallow and selfish. In "Bullet to the Brain", Wolf defines Anders by his "murderous temper", short fuse, smart mouth and impatience. In "Silver Water", Bloom tells us that Rose, "had her first psychotic break when she was fifteen". Characters' habits define and give us reason to their behavior or thoughts. Their mannerisms become critical to the plot and the basis of conflict in the story.

Intimate details give large indications to a character's persona. Bloom repeatedly mentions Rose's habitual TV watching and love for fast food jingles, baggy sweatpants and music.

Besides mannerisms, dialogue is essential to conflict and character development. Dialogue controls the pacing of a story, either focusing on a particular scene or quickly advancing the plot by conversation. Dialogue also creates a character's voice, giving reader's a more personalized perspective through the character's eyes. In order to help us understand Rose's mental illness, Bloom creates small problems where Rose's reactions become important indicators of her character.

"I want to go to bed. I want to go to bed and be in my head. I want to go to bed and be in my head and just wear red. For red is the color, that my baby wore and once more, it's true, yes, it is, it's true."

Regardless of the order, successful characters are ones readers feel a strong emotion for. In order to create strong characters, authors utilize techniques like dialogue, mannerisms and voice.

By Far the Best Story In My Eyes: Silver Water By Amy Bloom

Oh my goodness! This is the first reaction that came to my mind at my first time reading this story. Upon my second time reading it, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I guess the person who said what makes a good story is one that can evoke such feeling in you, was correct. Upon reading this story I felt very stressed when Rose's parents and Violet, were trying to find the many ways of dealing with Rose's condition, I also found humor in the ways that Rose approached and performed in front of the many family therapists, I guess you could say that I felt as one with the conflict of this story, and the emotional turmoil that Rose and her family went through at the expense of her affliction. My outlook on what techniques are most essential in building up a character or conflict would have to be everything in this story, from the long and immaculate expressions and details Bloom provided, to the short instances of dialogue she included in this story. The long intricate details of Violet and Rose's relation ship from the opening scene in the car at the theater, to Rose's death at the end and her reaction, as well as her parents' reactions were all very convincing and emotion evoking. I just felt so sad about it, hell I even cried at how the story progressed from a tail of a young beautiful woman, inside and out, to a mentally unstable woman who has no sense of self at times. The telling of this tale from the point of view of the younger sister or counterpart is also a great technique to use in the sense that we get to see the conflict within the people that surround Rose as well as feel the emotions that she felt for her big sister and consistent amount of love and support. It was utterly astounding to read, and I for one, could definitely see and feel this happening as I read along. This story was great for me in that it opened my eyes to how such a story could be just as great as one over powered by dialogue or details. However, this one was just the right amount in that I learned so much about every character and their interests and feelings from just the backstory, and when I read the dialogue, that feeling of understanding was reiterated. So obviously, as my title suggests, I found this story incredibly alluring with intricate detail, and supported by even further dialogue, which are perfect essential techniques for evoking such feeling and interest in a reader, as it did me.

Character and Conflict

An important factor in character development for me is voice. How a person speaks, and interacts with other people tells us a lot about their values and sadly, their social background. For instance, Arnold Friend sprung up as a threat in my mind when I saw how he talked to Connie condescendingly in ‘Where are you going?’. Using terms like ‘baby’ a lot, especially to women/girls, infantilises them and sounds patronising; creating a false feeling of intimacy. He was a hideous character, but so very well written.

Another good technique for character development is detail. For instance, in ‘Silver Water’, Amy Bloom writes that ‘all the patients wore slippers with the hospital crest on them’, and I know exactly how miserable it is, where all the patients just mesh into one. This is not specifically applied to a character, but the repetition of the slippers is like a symbol for the dullness of the place, and we realise it’s not good for the colourful Rose in the eyes of her loving sister. In this we also learn that Violet feels like an observer in the family, in which Rose is ‘the favourite’, but she doesn’t object to it.

It is very fitting when conflict come from character, for instance in ‘Bullet in the Brain’. The downfall of Anders is his smart mouth. He can’t stop being a critic to the very end. This technique probably works the best in short stories, where you don’t want to get too caught up in different struggles. Also, it gives the story some kind of moralistic purpose, we can look at the protagonist’s defeats in light of our own. Actually I find writing character a lot easier than making up conflict, so I look forward to how I can advance my plots and make them more interesting.

How do characters present themselves?

The most important element of characterization in fiction for me has always been the way that character's talk and present themselves. By looking at a way a character talks you are able to acquire the ticks that naturally happen in their speech, and you see the person that they present to the world around them. Speech can often be misleading, the stereotypical bully that lashes out in school, but acts like his victims at home where his parent becomes the abuser. This shows something about the inner character that the figure is presenting. In "Where are you going, where have you been" the aggressor who shows up on the girl's doorstep presents himself by talking about her family in a very intimate way. He chooses to portray himself as some sort of omniscient demonic being by describing "exactly what her family is doing at that very moment" (paraphrasing there) and this presents him in the way he wants to seem to her: all-powerful. In the next few lines however, he reveals himself as a pretender when she begins to ask for more intimate details. A charlatan who simply allows her to fill in the details herself and then proceeds to take credit for it so that he seems as if he is some otherworldly power. When a character speaks they are crafting for the reader a face that we can attempt to verify for our own purposes.

Closing Time

In “Silver Water,” Amy Bloom uses memories to contrast her characters as they are now and as they were then. The first thing that happens in the story is a memory of Rose belting out opera in a parking lot as a young girl. Violet says that this memory is important for all of Rose’s therapists to know, seeing as Rose is no longer that way.

The other memory we see is when Violet goes to the zoo and becomes upset that the animals do not get to go home at closing time. This reveals a lot about Violet and later reveals a lot about Rose, with her last words being, “closing time.” This shows us that Rose feels like an animal in a zoo and lets Violet know that Rose is finally is able to go home. It is also a nice sister moment because it is a memory specific to them.

Let Me Introduce You To the People in My Head

Making a character up is easy, making other people believe they exist is the hard part. Yet, so far, in all the stories we've read, every author has seamlessly (and almost infuriatingly) made us believe in the people that they cooked up in their imaginations before displaying them on the page. I guess now the question is: how in the heck do they do it?

The first thing most of these writers have done is almost too obvious, they've each described some basic, yet key, aspect of their characters. Oates, Wolff, and Bloom used this technique in their respective stories. Though nothing is explicitly stated about their characters in their introductions, the attributes speak volumes about the person they are connected to. For example, Oates introduces Connie in "Where Are You Going" by simply stating her name before delving into her vain and shallow habits. This not only gives us the most basic information about Connie, it also provides us with her manners that we conceive as pivotal to advancing the plot. We understand exactly what kind of person Connie is, and how this can ultimately lead to conflict. Wolff does much the same in "Bullet to the Brain" by describing Anders's explosive temper and his profession within the first two sentences of his story. Because of this technique, we know exactly who Anders is, what he does, and what his fatal flaw is, all within a split second. Both authors manage to say so little about their characters that they've already told us everything before the plot even gets its wheels turning.

Bloom does something similar to this in her piece, "Silver Water", except it's a bit more slow-going. Her first description of rose lies in the first two paragraphs. The portrait is initially lighthearted; we see her strong bond with her sister, the narrator, her beauty and her popularity with her peers, and her phenomenal talent for singing. Then, Bloom contrasts this by introducing Rose's mental health issues and referencing her first psychotic episode. This immediately causes tension not only within Rose, but in the plot itself. Ultimately, this technique provides a uniquely melancholy portrait for an audience that has already been given multiple reasons to believe she deserves to be happy. 

So, though each of these techniques successfully introduces each character and their fatal flaw, the real magic lies in the fact that each of these authors were capable of continuously supporting the characters' voices without changing their personalities or drive. Connie remains shallow, Anders keeps being cynical, and Rose is still plagued by her own mind throughout each story before it's too late. These are all people we are convinced exist in our world because of this. It isn't until the ends of these stories that we even see how expertly these figures were conceived, for their creators effectively and ceaselessly provide us with reasons to believe that they are more than just words on a page. 

DIALOGUE

I think dialogue develops character and conflict most effectively in a story because it grounds that story in a dynamic exchange between characters within a specific situation that resists summary and moves plot. In Amy Bloom’s “Silver Water,” conflict that moves the story forward reveals itself through dialogue in many instances. For example, after the death of her doctor, Rose tells her parents, “’No meds,” which creates a conflict in two words for her parents as they try to cope with Rose’s illness for the first time on their own. The conflict continues as her mother responds, “If you take your medication, after a while you’ll be able to drive the car. That’s the deal. Meds, car,’” to convince Rose to consent to the family’s wishes. In this dialogue, power shifts from Rose to her mother, which draws readers further into the story. Readers continue reading to see if Rose will yield to the wishes of her family. Rather than summarizing this dynamic exchange, the author uses dialogue to create conflict unfolding before the reader in this way. Again, conflict reveals itself through dialogue when Rose says, “’I’m sorry don’t hate me,” after her aggressive outburst leaves both Violet and her mother injured and shaken. Here, the dialogue reveals Rose’s response to her own actions, which provides insight into Rose’s internal struggles in a way that Violet as the narrator cannot. Rose fighting against the power her illness holds over her capacity for expressing love not only reshapes the plot through conflict but also offers insight into the truest part of Rose’s character beneath the outward symptoms of her illness. Readers understand through this small instance of dialogue Rose’s true, loving, repentant character and its relentless strength. Thus, dialogue doubly shapes plot through character and conflict.

Silver Water

First of all, I LOVED reading this story. Silver Water was unlike much of what I've read before. Bloom does an incredible job of developing character. Interestingly, to me this story seems to flow over so much time, and yet the story doesn't seem to drag on because Bloom uses such interesting and key moments to highlight to further the conflict and development of characters. One of the most helpful techniques Bloom uses is to give more depth to a certain character by actually describing other characters in the story. The part where Rose's family is laughing and taking her side when they are in family therapy is a good example of this and helps to characterize Rose as an individual who has a lot of love and support from her family (even though they may enable her illness). Furthermore, the reader sees a family unit standing in solidarity with one another. Near the end when the mother refers to her daughters as "warrior queens" not only characterizes the daughters as strong, independent, even misunderstood women, but also the mother as a women who is strong in the face of great heartache to withstand not only the death of her daughter but also having to take care of her mentally ill daughter for a lengthy period of time. Bloom also uses dialogue very well. There are so many short bursts of dialogue or even individual expressions that crystallize these characters in a very special way. The section near the beginning where the mother tells her daughter that she will never go crazy, even if she wanted to, is so very telling of both characters. There are so many other moments, too, in this short story that I loved so much. The ending was so sad and beautiful. "Warrior queens" is by far my new favorite phrase. And the image of Rose rubbing her breasts as a way to greet her new therapists just makes me giggle. You go, girl.

Conflicting Developing Characters

                In order to create conflict while also developing the characters the writing must be direct and straight to the point. Flowery language does not add to the conflict, it detracts from it, so it would make more sense to speak in a normal fashion. During a normal conflict each person does not usually dance around the subject when arguing, they speak harshly and directly. When people are most direct with each other it also reveals a lot about their character. In the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been the mother’s character is revealed through her conflict with her daughter. Although the mother is not a big part of the story we know that she holds her eldest daughter in high regard and wants her youngest to be just as perfect. We are able to infer that the mother in the story is a cold-hearted perfectionist. When arguing with her daughter she did not hold back her true thoughts and feelings, which is what added to the increasing conflict. If the mother would have instead spoken around the issues and used complex language it may have developed the character, but it would not have added to the conflict. To create conflict the author of the story also has to write as little, or use many small words, as possible to increase the rapid pace. Pacing is very important when creating conflict, which is why it is important to make the sentences very short and to the point. The constant back and forth between arguing characters is what adds to the conflict and creates a hostile environment. To make an engaging character driven story with a good amount of conflict one must reveal the characters’ personalities through rapid pace dialogue.

What is important for the development of character and conflict

There are several effective writing techniques to shape and develop a fictional character in a way which is natural and contributes to the plot of the story rather than being an end in itself. First of all the use of authentic dialogue can give a lot of depth to a character. Joyce Carol Oates' short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is a good example for that. More than three quarters of the story consist of dialogue between Connie and Arnold and although a lot of characterization of Connie is given on the previous two pages already, this dialogue reveals her true self with all its contradictions and individualities which ultimately lead to the tragic ending. The character of Arnold Friend stays shady, but his impalpable and symbolic being is developed even more throughout the dialogue ("I know everybody", "Aunt Tillie's. Right now they're uh—they're drinking. Sitting around"). Sometimes dialogue can be superfluous and without connection to the story at first glance, but crucial to a character and its motivations on closer examination. And what is crucial to the character is ultimately crucial to conflict and story itself. Although not from literature, I think the dialogue in most movies by Quentin Tarantino is a good example for this.

Even more important for the development of character and conflict in a story is the use of sufficient relatable detail. Amy Bloom's short story Silver Water gathers a lot of its emotional strength by stressing that every family can get into the same situation as Rose's. It is important that the mother "bangs out 'Gimme a Pigfoot'" and "Schubert's 'Schlummerlied'" to give the reader the impression that all of the characters could basically live next door. Drama and tragedy must never be abstract, its protagonists have to be relatable. Rose only becomes the human being she is because we get to know about her incredible singing talents as well as the "extra-extra-large Celtics sweatpants". It is easy to sketch a mentally ill through the thousandth generalization - what makes a story and its characters human and touching is detail.  

I had to watch an episode of Mindy Project to get to bed after this story

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oates is one of those stories that made me realize why I love reading and writing so much.  It also scared the daylights out of me and I slept with my closet door open and a light on.  The first thing that struck me about the story was how familiar the first few pages seemed; a bratty teenager with a disdainful family who spent much of her time with friends at a local shopping plaza reminded me of most of my middle school friends.  Connie seemed to have a strange sense of confidence throughout the story, despite the fact that her mother constantly put her down, perhaps due to the fact that her biggest concern in life was about her looks.

One thing I did not initially notice about the story was the first sentence.  "Her name was Connie."  The word "was" kicks off a sense of foreboding that the reader feels throughout the beginning of the story, even though we aren't initially sure why.

Then we are introduced to Arnold Friend.  From his first introduction in the parking lot, we feel a sense of foreboding.  Later, when he arrives at Connie's house, she is confident, and a power play in the dialogue ensues.

When I first read this piece, I thought Connie was raped.  She cried out, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness. This is the section that made me think she was raped and that is the reason she went with him at the end of the story.  Did anyone else think the same thing?

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Where Are You Going Where Have You Been is personally terrifying considering the fact that an intruder/rape/stalker scenario is on the list of most women's biggest fears. Oates establishes a universal sense of fear, regardless of gender, age, etc. mainly through distortion of time and reality; the entire story is highly surreal and unsettling. By the end of the story, the reader is questioning who this man (or whatever it is) was, what happened to the girl, was this a supernatural event, did any of this happen in the first place? The sense of uncertainty and not having concrete details about anything or anyone is what provokes true fear. It's almost like being in the dark, it's terrifying because you don't know what's there or what is happening (yes, I'm afraid of the dark). The story plays with the reader psychologically, touching upon universal fears and our main survival instincts.

Suspense and Horror

Joyce Carol Oates crafts a sense of horror by using her characters in a way that creates expectations. Connie is portrayed as a character who harbors a form of resentment for her parents, in particular her mother. As a teenager this manifests in her living a lifestyle of sneaking off to hang out alone with teenage boys in situations that her mother wouldn't approve of. Connie even comments on them by identifying other girls to her mother that have questionable actions and frowning upon them. This leads the reader to have the expectation that she will continue to act out and when left home alone there is an expectation because of the type of teen she is. The reader expects her to invite someone over, but what happens when someone comes over uninvited? This someone is then given particular information about Connie that he should not have access to and invites her to take a ride in his car? As alarms go off the reader is dragged along by the questions that arise of who is this man, how does he know these things, and what's going to happen to Connie if she goes for a ride?

Frightened into Submission

The short story, "Where are you Going, Where have you been?" is one of great pace and detail. It is basically  a tale about an a vain fifteen year old named Connie, who gawks at herself continuously because she is pretty. As well as everyone around her notices how pretty she is. When she goes out with her friend and to a little drive in Movie theater she walks along with her a young man she met to have some food with him. On the way she makes eye contact with a "shaggy" looking boy at whom she cuts here eyes at for smiling at her like she was a piece of meet. As she walked away she couldn't help but glance back at him and noticed that he was staring back at her whilst wiggling his finger and saying "Gonna get you, baby." The next day her family leaves to go to a family barbecue which results in her being home alone, and the strange man from before pulls up in his car and starts making slow threats to Connie. He wants her to come with him and be his lover, and she will or her family will get hurt. She threatens to call the police but when she runs to the phone, he frightens her to the point that she couldn't even dial the number, She eventually walked out her house and into his arms submissively. Joyce Carol Oates did a great job at keeping a slow but steady progression  of this story in the sense that she used Connie's beauty to implicate the negative attractions people with good looks can incur, such as the stranger with the shaggy hair, later identified as Arnold Friend. Ironically, his name is friend and he's more of a predator. He found out where she lived and caught Connie when she was home alone and vulnerable. The imagery Oates uses in describing the emotion and description of this man just further exemplified the severity of the situation Connie was put in. From they way she wrote how his eyes looked at her and through her, or the bodily gestures he relayed to her, as well as Connie's protective stance away from him and slightly unsettled reaction in seeing him again, it all just further added some tension to this story. Another attribute of this story that I thought really worked would be how the dialogue between Arnold and Connie progressed. It first started off as slightly flirtatious on his side and cautious on her side to full blown frightened of him in Connie's eyes to predatory in his eyes. He wanted her, to take her, and that he did, all by frightening her with the possibility of her family being hurt. He eventually ended up getting her to be submissive and go with him. Joyce did a great job with using the dialogue between the two to represent the seriousness of this situation and I as a reader most definitely felt it.

Pushing Tension

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates joins telling details and character development with dialogue to build a sense of tension that entices readers to follow the mounting action in this story’s chilling plot. From the first sentence, Oates introduces Connie in conjunction with an internal conflict that creates the initial tension, saying, “She had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other peoples faces to make sure her own was all right.” Oates then builds a plot around this character’s internal insecurities by increasing tension with every subsequent detail or piece of dialogue. Oates introduces conflict with the mother and the mother’s preference for the sister through the mother’s character saying, “What the hell stinks? Hairspray? You never see your sister using that junk.” The unrest in family life pushes Connie to seek attention on the streets where she first sees the jalopy convertible and the “boy with the shaggy hair” that foreshadows the dreadful ending she will meet. In this scene, the Oates uses foreboding details like the boy’s “wagging finger” and dark dialogue like “’Gonna get you, baby’” to interrupt Connie’s blissful sensation of “the pure pleasure of being alive” in a way that promises readers an impending struggle for Connie’s youthful innocence. Finally, as the tension reaches its peak when the boy confronts Connie outside of her house, Oates disperses inconsistencies through details like the room becoming unfamiliar and the boy seeming to age as the conversational dialogue becomes increasingly dark and violent. All of these images combine with the suggestive dialogue to excite the most tension for the climax of the story.

Cruel Traditional Tension

Joyce Carol Oates creates tension in her story, Where Are Your Going, Where Have You Been? from the first words on the page, the title. Oates maintain the tension through several elements: dialogue, repeating phrases or music, subtle hints or descriptions of setting and the initial, continuous conflict between the characters. The story begins with an argument between Connie and her mother that gives insight to the past.

Oates describes Connie by her, "long dark blond hair" and her mouth, "bright and pink on evenings out" - foreshadowing and creating a sense of what will happen next. A stranger on the street announces he's "gonna get" Connie which becomes the main dreading idea. Scenes like this and when Connie is alone in her home are traditional, inevitable scary movie scenes we all understand.

Oates utilizes metaphors for descriptions of many settings, giving the reader an intense, unique  visual experience. The metaphors slow down the pacing of the story while the dialogue maintains a steadier, faster pace.

The story, overall, took traditional horror scenes and added description for the readers own interpretation - leaving the reader making guesses about the plot until the very end. The "evil" characters were eerily charming and became menacingly threatening towards the end. The story left the reader repeatedly wanting to grab and shake some sense into Connie but as always left with nothing but false hope from her foolish decisions.

Nightmare bait

Wow… this story was really something. I had to read it twice, trying to understand how Oates made it so cinematic. I noticed that she revealed major parts of the plot slowly, and subtly, so much that I doubted if I was understanding things properly. As a reader, I doubted my eyes as much as Connie. One example of this is how the supernatural is mixed with the everyday. Personal, lighthearted details were mixed with the ‘action’ of the story. For instance, the parents' barbeque and Arnold Friend’s obsessive stalking capability.

Oates had a tendency to make things dreamy, so my expectations as a reader are lulled a bit, making me less anxious. Putting your reader on edge constantly is probably a poor tactic since they will always be expecting the twist.

Suspense was also built up by the changing pace of the story. Oates used metaphors a lot to set the scene, making this story a highly visual one. The dialogue speeded things up and kept up a shifting power dynamic that kept me alert and interested. When this conversation stopped, and it was just Arnold controlling her, we knew Connie was in defeat. The narrative also shifted to that of a philosophical one, especially in the last line. It was detached from the drastic situation at hand, as if Connie was losing conscientiousness.

Due to the foreshadowing at the beginning of the story, I was definitely expecting a boy to appear at the end. However, this was subverted uniquely as instead two men showed up and more details started to unfold. A lot of these details appealed to the senses, which helped create the dreamy state as mentioned but also keep us as readers guessing.

All in all, this story really played on, so much that I had a headache. When you hear about ‘horror stories’ you think they can’t be as scary as the movies since you can’t see, but that can actually work to your advantage as a writer since out imgagination is so strong. 

Joyce Carol Oates sets up her short story as if it is going to be about a typical teenage girl who bickers with her mother and resents her father and sister. Connie goes out on the weekends with her best friend to meet cute boys at the mall- another example of a typical teenage girl's average life. So, i was not expecting a violent interaction at all. When the boy with the shaggy brown hair first rode past Connie in his gold car with cryptic writing, I didn't really give it any second thought. I honestly found Arnold Friend to be eerily charming when he first showed up on Connie's doorstep. It wasn't until Connie asked "Who the hell do you think you are?" that I even realized our main character was in some trouble. Oates' dialogue is what really creates the tension in this story. As the two main characters go back and forth, Connie quickly loses the upper hand as Arnold's menacing persistence continues. The way Arnold casually threatens Connie's family if she denies him is chilling; every phrase he utters rolls off his tongue as if his own words have no effect on him; he is confident that he has already achieved what he came there for. The ambiguous kitchen scene followed by Connie's robot-like acceptance of her unknown and possibly violent fate was actually bone-chilling. I never fully understood what was happening- I don't think Connie did either- and then the story just abruptly ends leaving the reader just as unsure and terrified as Connie.

Honey, Listen

Oates' short story wasn't as scary as I expected it to be. The open end left the story lingering with a sense of fear, yet the reader doesn't really know what happened. I thought the writer built tension by starting the story with simple tasks and family matters and then the plot quickly escalates when Arnold Friend enters the picture. The rest of the story is focused on Arnold and Connie in the driveway/door way of Connie's house. The back and forth dialogue between Arnold and Connie builds mega tension and gave me a bit of anxiety while reading. I really didn't like Arnold's use of "honey" every other word. It made him arrogant and he often talked down to Connie. The whole time you're reading the story you're waiting for something to happen, for Connie to call the police or Arnold to break into the house, the tension is building and building, but nothing drastic ever happens. At the end, I was left wondering if Arnold was going to rape Connie or if he was going to kill her, or maybe it was all dream. Was Arnold even real? And what was wrong with Connie? It was such a radical story.

An Old Friend

Oates creates some incredibly eerie tension in this story through the tone of her dialogue. Arnold Friend has a menacingly smooth way of talking, and consistently won't take no for an answer, seeming unstable throughout the story. Oates also does a great job setting up the story to make Connie seem like such a typical teenage girl, and this becomes very important for the path of the conversation. Friend really sounds like an old man referencing phrases that he believes kids her age would understand. The fact that he repeats things so often and has random outbursts of anger also shows how on edge he is and threatening.

Oldies Hit

The creepiest part of this story was the music and how it brought strange elements in and out of the story. The music is what made it feel like a bad dream.  Not only did Arnold Friend appear in the driveway listening to the same music as Connie, but he also kept repeating phrases as if he had memorized them from a song. He felt unreal because he was rehearsed but was also like a skipping record or a fuzzy radio. The music, combined with his odd appearance, gave him the aura of being like a hologram.

The number two creepiest part of the story was that Arnold Friend came somehow out of the past. He said outdated phrases, and didn’t know that the woman with the chickens who lived down the street was dead.

My hypothesis is that he came to life out of an oldies hit.

Horrific Dialogue

              In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” a lot of the tension and uneasiness comes from the dialogue. Whenever a character in the story speaks it is either a critical comment or a negative question. The type of conversations that go on in the story adds to the dark theme and uneasy feeling that it radiates. The story starts off with the mother asking questions that criticize the main character’s traits, which also informs the reader about each person’s traits. Many of the mother’s questions are actually rhetorical and comment on the main character, Connie’s, own personality faults. Even Connie’s so-called friends are fairly critical of her own actions and frequently critique her every move. By the time the main conflict in the story occurs it is already saturated with negativity.  As the tale progresses further and eventually moves on to the group of creepy boys pulling into the driveway, the dialogue takes over full control of the story’s progression. Not only does the questioning move the story forward, but it increases the tension by altering the pacing. The questions and answers are kept short and sweet for the sake of ramping up the pressure, which adds to the tension. The increasing tension is also due to the fact that many of the unanswered questions are eventually answered by the following inquiry. The rapid pace of the dialogue also helps move the unfolding series of events forward without giving the reader time to breathe. The frequency of the question adds a lot to the story’s tone that is quite horrifically uncomfortable. Once the rapid-fire questions are over the story finally takes the time to stop and expand on what has happened, but by then the tension has reached peak levels. What makes the story as creepy and uncomfortable is mainly due to the large amount of tension created by the dialogue.

Someone call a masseuse for me...

... Because this story has me super tense!

I knew Oates’s “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was supposed to be scary, but I had no idea exactly what kind of scare I was in for. I honestly have never been more terrified by words on a page. This probably has something to do with the fact that I; not unlike Connie; was home alone while reading the work. And it was dark. And storming outside.

Yet, even though the atmosphere definitely helped, it was Oates’s pacing and creation of tension in the story that made me terrified of Arnold For-Sure-Not-A-Friend. Oates’s first introduction of the antagonist already puts you on edge; he isn’t described as particularly terrifying or intimidating, but it still works. It’s something about the commonality of his appearance- the unappealing black hair and the creepy grin- that truly already adds to the tension created between Connie and her family. We know something bad is going to happen to our heroine, we’re poised and ready for conflict between her and somebody, and bam! Oates gives him to us in a gold jalopy in the form of someone pretty much everyone has seen or experienced at one point in their lives. He even explicitly says, “Gonna get you, baby,” and we know exactly who to look out for.

Unfortunately, Connie does not have the same idea that her audience has when the creep-to-end-all-creeps appears at her doorstep in his SkeeveMobile. She starts off having a morbid curiosity about these strangers in her driveway; she wants their attention, but she does not want to encourage them, so she acts like a cat by lingering by the screen door without going in or out. Meanwhile, the audience is already thinking “no no no no no!” The tension is already rising to maximum capacity at this point, Arnold Please-Don’t-Ever-Be-My-Friend’s languid and informal dialogue makes one’s skin crawl, and somehow his drawl even manages to draw the exchange between him and Connie out over eight pages. The entire terrifying exchange between him and Connie probably takes less than ten minutes in real time, but because Oates plots every twist and realization on Connie’s part so carefully and concisely, it feels like an hour before Connie ultimately meets her doom. I didn’t even realize I was clenching my muscles until I put the story down (and then triple-locked my front door soon after). 

The means of creating tension in Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

I think the way Joyce Carol Oates creates and maintains tension in her short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is a great example for how to set up short fiction successfully. The main conflict is introduced in the first paragraph, as well as the characters of Connie and her mother and some hints to the mother's past, which make the reader curious. June, Connie's sister and important part of the conflict is introduced in the second and third paragraph. Finally a sentence like "Connie wished her mother was dead" sets up high stakes right at the end of the introductory part of the story.

When Oates describes the public behaviour of Connie, how she attracts people with her "long dark blond hair" and her mouth, "bright and pink on evenings out", the reader immediately gets a sense of what is going to happen next: the typical way of teenage resistance. When the stranger on the street announces he's "gonna get" Connie, it adds an unpleasant feeling to the seemingly familiar high school – adolescence plot.

Another well-known plot motive which always promises action is the idea of the girl left alone at her house. It is clear that something is going to happen in the absence of Connie's parents and the reader gets drawn in by the scenario. The following dialogue between the two boys and Connie has an alarming undertone to it from the very beginning. The reader knows what is going to happen and it is nearly unbearable to slowly see how Connie is won over (first by Arnold's jokes, than by his "hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders"). At some point it gets to much even for her teenage naivety ("I have and interest in you") and the situation loses every ambiguity. Arnold delivers his threats with a violent calmness ("If the place got lit up with a fire") and the reader hopes for a plot twist until the very end. There is none and the end of the story feels just empty, but the effectiveness of letting the reader hope for a happy end until the very last line is proven by Oates. In the end it is the opening conflict which works as a final trigger for Connie giving up resistance: "they don't know one thing about you and never did and honey, you're better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you."

I survived the workshop 2k15

The poems the class wrote were so beautiful and left me really inspired. It made me really eager to read what advice they had to give me, since there were so many new directions I could take the poem now. At times I was worried I sounded too critical (my control freak ways) but after I was work-shopped I found that constructive advice can be even more useful than admiration sometimes.
I felt really grateful and pleasantly surprised for all the nice things people said about my poem. My major is mainly in literary criticism (blah), and even though I always attended lots of spoken word nights, creative writing clubs etc, I had never shared my poetry publicly or with friends like that. It was really fun to be involved in reading in such a way.
One of my metaphors, concerning the ‘lily pad’ and the ‘ice berg’ was something that desperately irked me about my poem, hearing that some people liked it opened my eyes to taking chances and trusting in a wide audience.

The problems I had with the poem were the same things people picked up on. Not being able get up and defend your poem made me really aware to the fact that you NEED to put everything you’re thinking of down on the page, the poem needs to speak for itself. This was an important lesson for someone like me who is obsessed with word economy and vague writing.

A lot of suggestions were throw around that I had never considered before, such as changing form for meaning. It’s so easy to become wrapped up in form and structural rules that we sacrifice our intentions. I’m now excited to get to work on my revisions, thanks for all your help!

That moment when you're complaining about annoying audience members and then YOUR phone goes off :(

Tonight, I attended the 1718 reading at the Columns, where Mukoma Wa Ngugi read excerpts from a few of his novels.  The reading also featured our very own Jerome Keith!
I generally love the Columns hotel, but found myself incredibly frustrated the entire time by the very loud door and the very rude guests who kept leaving--I was just leaning over to whisper-complain about the annoyance to my friend when a random, sneaky alarm went off on my phone, allowing the entire room to experience my Sex & The City ringtone.  It was on Do Not Disturb mode!!!!! I turned red and sweated a little bit.  It was tragic.

Other than my super embarrassing moment, I found the entire experience very interesting.  How do I get involved with 1718/hear about their events??  Anyway, I tried to sneakily take notes the entire time, and here are some of the things I wrote down.

Jerome was the first reader that I saw.  Jerome-- I came in halfway through your piece, so I didn't get to hear much of it, but you have a wonderful voice for speaking in front of people! I enjoyed the parts that I did get to hear.

The second reader was a boy, whose name I cannot remember, who also happens to be the first student at Tulane with autism who cannot speak.  The piece was especially interesting because it was read off of a computer.  The piece described autism as a gift you can't return.  I thought the idea, as well as the many examples and metaphors that followed, were a quite beautiful portrayal of the way he felt about being autistic.  However, I thought the piece could benefit from being turned into more of a conceit than just mentioning many comparisons over and over.  On the other hand, it was pretty difficult to hear in the back, so maybe I missed out on something that was along those lines.

The third reader was a girl who read a selection of poetry she had written.  Her choices were interesting, and did not relate to each other at all-- I thought, because she was only reading 5 short poems, that she would read a selection that all followed the same theme.  This was not the case.  Instead, she picked one about a wire hanger abortion (which was a "poem in reverse," a concept I am fascinated with), a dark poem about herself, two I can't remember, and the final poem, which was the most memorable, a comic piece about a dream she had about baby horses.  She had wonderful descriptions and word choice, but I found her presentation style somewhat abrasive considering the topics she was reading.

Finally, Mukoma Wa Ngugi took the podium, and read excerpts from his novels Nairobi Heat, Black Star Nairobi, and one that was poems.  I was most interested in his novel Nairobi Heat.  It takes place in Madison, Wisconsin, where an African peace activist takes a position at the university.  When a young girl is found murdered at his doorstep, local Detective Ishmael takes on the case.  The most interesting thing that Ngugi said that stuck with me was when he was reading the final page of Black Star Nairobi.  The final word in the book is "Why?"  He then laughed and said, "I always wanted to finish a novel with 'Why?'-- Why not?"
My favorite part of the excerpt he read from his book was when he was describing one of the character's voices, and said "her words and her voice became an instrument," and described many voices talking together as an orchestra.  I thought that was a beautiful way to describe loud voices talking, especially because I could hear the chatty guests of the hotel through the door the entire time.  It made the loudness outside the room sound less annoying; it made it beautiful.

Workshop

I've always enjoyed writing short stories but I've never been confident in my poetry. I like writing long descriptive sentences with lots of words and condensing my ideas into a poem has always been hard for me. I'm the worst editor because I get so attached to what I've written, but this workshop helped me see how necessary editing is. Other than my mom and one or two close friends, I don't usually allow people to read my work because I get too nervous. I felt very exposed having my poem read and analyzed and talked about by a room full of people right in front of me. Everything I write is personal and I was terrified of judgment and rejection. However, listening to the positive feedback gave me a lot of confidence and I really appreciate the fact that everyone in the class offered thoughtful suggestions. Listening to other interpretations based on what I hoped was being conveyed was very helpful in figuring out how to better communicate with my audience.