The short stories we've started reading in class are different than most short stories I've read. The "Mystery Stories" in particular seemed more like poems than short stories, they were only a few lines each and had very little cohesion, they made little sense to me. Some of the other shorts were interesting however "Wallet" for example was interesting and funny. Wallet made sense it followed a usual pattern and was cohesive explaining a beginning middle and end that all linked together in a way that made sense.

These shorts just seemed a bit unusual as examples of stories I would have expected shorts or excerpts from great writers like Tolkien or Lovecraft, authors I've learned and taken inspiration form in the past.

The writing techniques and skills in writing down the bones are interesting and useful. I've particularly liked the work on obsessions, how it's better to just give into these things, at least to a certain extent. If you don't give into your obsessions at least a little bit the rest of your writing will suffer. It's always easier to write about something we're obsessed with as well and having and knowing your obsessions could help you get past a writing block or out of a funk.

02/5/2015 weekly blog

It's been very interesting to exchange poems with others in the class. Seeing what they wrote about and how they wrote is rather interesting, and my group members had some good poems. Also having their input on what I wrote is valuable, getting a second opinion on things and another set of eyes to catch error is never a bad thing.

Discussing the Tocqueville poetry has also be enlightening, seeing what other people got from the poems as compared to what I got from them and finding out why they got those messages from the poems.