Naranja

http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/depts/museum/public_art/art/untitled_by_julian.asp

It was pretty sad today.  I woke up bright and early, got ready as usual, walked the ten minutes from my lovely apartment to Columbia's 624 Michigan Building, rode the elevator to the twelfth floor and entered my Fiction 1 class for the last time ever.

Our numbers have shrunk slightly from that first week and I have made some real friends for life within those walls and so it was great to hear everybody's work read out loud and to see how much our styles have developed and grown.  Most of the stories have been heard a couple of times at least already so it was interesting to listen to the subtle changes that have occurred over time.

My own story, Naranja, has grown from a very violent story with no real ending to being far more rounded with a definite purpose.  I hope I was able to develop conflict as well as I think I developed character. Acknowledging I struggle with conflict has been somewhat of a revelation for me, only pin-pointing it as my issue through long discussions with my tutor Andrew.

I hope that when I return to England I can continue trying to improve the way I include conflict within my writing, considering it is so integral to it.  I want to continue working on Naranja and maybe, one day, you might be reading it in a publication somewhere.  And if you do it is all thanks to Aaron and Andrew and the fantastic Fiction 1 class I took at Columbia.