Link to Poetry Web Site

If you are looking for something to read in class on Wednesday, go here:

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-list.html

Andrea S-Short Story Proposal

Exposition: Tamara Allison Jensen (Ali for short) felt like she has grown up feeling lost ever since her mother's death in a car accident 3 years ago. Now 16 living with her father and aunt in a large city (yet to be named), she feels disconnected from the closest relatives she has. Her dad frequently travels around the world for business, often leaving Alice alone with her aunt whom she barely knows and stretching the fragile relationship with his daughter.

Inciting incident: As the school year ends, Ali ponders on what to do, as she is often left alone and has few friends. Determined to keep his daughter happy, Ali's father sends her to spend her summer at her grandparents' manor on the Isle of Wight in England. Ali hesitantly agrees for a few reasons. One, Ali has only met her grandparents (from her mother's side of the family) a few times before-all before her mother's car accident and she wishes this trip will bring them closer. Second, Ali hopes that this trip will mean a new, fresh start in her life as well as provide her with some answers she's been looking for in herself. Feeling open, she boards a plane for England.

Rising Action: Upon arrival, she is greeted by her grandparents, but after meeting them, Ali felt that they were somewhat distant, not possibly as open as she thought they would. After she is taken to the manor, she meets her cousin (no name yet), about her age. She is told that she is adopted, but Ali isn't so sure. She asks her grandparents or anybody in the household some of her questions, about the manor, her mother (and etc). Everybody seemed reluctant to answer some of them, and Ali determined they were holding back a secret. Out of patience, she explores the manor and comes across a bolted wooden door. She asks her cousin what the door led to and her cousin replied that it was a stairway leading to the attic, but it was forbidden to go. Ali asks why, but her cousin didn't know. She asks her grandfather what was up there, but all he replied was old antiques. Ali concludes that something was up there, something she needed to find and possibly explain why some of her questions are not answered. Driven by curiosity and anger, she formulates a plan to sneak up.

Climax: Ali confides in on her plan with her cousin. Reluctantly, she agrees, also determined to find out more about her family's past and some answers as to why everybody has been keeping secrets in the household. Together, they create a diversion and steal the key from their grandfather's study. While their grandparents are away on their yacht ride, they take the key, open the door, and make their way up the stairs into the attic. As they enter, Ali is slightly disappointed that it was indeed, filled with antiques. After rummaging through some old trunks, she finds an intriguing small journal and a worn, leather bound album.

Falling Action: After leafing though the diary, she found entries made by a girl a few decades earlier. As she opens her album, a locket falls out. Opening it, Ali determines the girl in the photo is her mother (because of resemblance in eyes). The photos in the album contained pictures of the family she hasn't known, but Ali's curiosity increases when she sees a photo of three girls (all relatives, but this is part of the family secret). She thinks that one of them is her mother and another is possibly related to her cousin (no name yet), but isn't sure about the third.

Resolution: Ali shows the album to her grandfather. Instead of getting mad, he finally admits the truth to Allison and her cousin, that the girls in the photos were Ali's mom, one of Ali's cousin's aunts, and Ali's aunt, taken the time during one family reunion many years ago. Ali's grandfather then opened part of his heart and told them stories of their time at the manor, when they would race down to the beach or go rafting among the currents. The time before they were all separated.

Denouement: Ali feels like a missing puzzle piece of her life has been found, as she learns more about her mother than she has forgotten. She finally feels like she belongs somewhere. Finally consent with her life, she makes the best of her stay at the manor for the rest of the summer, feeling happiness and love flood into her for what felt like the first in a very, long time.

Short story

My story is a revenge story taking a long time ago. Fictional. This guy who has yet to be named is trying to be the master of Strength, Speed, intelligence and kindness. He excels at all these categories... except kindness. At the beginning of the story, you think he's the good guy, but he turns out to be corrupt. He's the bad guy (TWIST!). So yeah. He starts killing the masters who taught him how to be a master. He succeeds killing them all, except the master of kindness, who seals all her power into this kid who is not yet to be named. He takes her power and fights the evil guy, but there evenly matched. So the good guy seals them together in a orb of some sort.


The story is being told by an old man in his tribe, talking about his ancestors, and how to always keep that orb safe. (It's still there so yeah) Because the orb holds soo much power and stuff, there are wars over it. So the story starts to loop back around to the beginning.

Aranz- Short Story

Exposition: Takes place in the swamps of Alabama, where Buba and Junior are 2 high school students with a passion for fishing. Buba lives on a farm with a pond that contains all types of fish that the two friends fish on all the time. The families are very close friends so the friends are together most every day.
Inciting incident: Well one day the two are fishing and Buba hooks a catfish, a common occurance, however this fish is something different. It is 10 times bigger than any fish they have ever layed their eyes on. As the two fight the fish, it frees itself at shore. The two are petrified by what just happened.
Rising Action:They alert everyone of what had happened and that they are devoted to catching this fish. They enlist the help of several other friends, also fishermen, to help them catch this fish. They call up biologists and fishing experts asking for opinions of what to do and techniques to use. They essentially drop out of school trying to catch this one fish.
Climax:After 2 months of devoting their lives to this fish, and after catching hundreds of other fish, the boys begin to wonder whether or not to continue to pursue this fish. It is a very rainy day and they are very reluctant to fish. After an argument, Buba and Junior decide to go out without the others. they begin the mile long walk to the lake in the rain. When they arrive they begin fishing until all of sudden Buba's rod gets bit. He runs to his rod thinking it is just another fish. However once he begins to fight it he knows immediately it is the fish. Buba and Junior are ecstatic that they hooked this fish, then out of no where, the rest of the team shows up to help.
Falling action: they land the fish and show it off to everyone before releasing it back to the water. They win several awards and get their pictures in all the papers. They set the state record for biggest catfish.
Resolution:A few days later, they boys are back at the lake on a hot day drinking lemonade having a meaningful talk about their futures. They talk about starting a company that designs and builds ponds for people. They have learned over the past few months so much about fish and their environment and behavior that they want nothing else but to make a carrier from it. The boys start "big un" pond builders and drop out of high school.
Denounement: The boys business grows and grows because of the quality work that they do. They continue to fish with one another but to this day have not caught a fish as meaningful as the fish that brought them all together.

James Ren: Short Story Proposal

Exposition: The story takes place in a small town (yet to be named) not unlike Albany. The town surrounds a small park, in the center of which grows a very old orange tree, essentially the center of the park. The main character (male, yet to be named) is walking through the park on a cold March day after having attended his mom's funeral. He sits down under the blooming orange tree and thinks pensively about his life. The main character's life is a mess. He's failing in school, doesn't have many friends, and lives with a emotionally unstable father.

Inciting Incident: As the boy is sitting under the tree pensively considering his life, a girl (to be named) approaches him. They talk for a while and he finds out that she has recently moved to the town (once again, yet to be named) and she too is very fond of the large orange blossom tree.

Rising Action: Essentially, the boy and girl become good friends and she helps him try to repair his life. As they go through the months together, they grow closer. She's lively and jubilant around people she's comfortable with, yet slightly shy around people she doesn't know and thus is hesitant to try to reach out to others; he's kind and trusting, yet his classmate's dislike of him for (a reason I'll try to think of later) causes him to be pensive and quiet around others. As her encouragement helps him improve in his troubled life and start to succeed, they form a close bond. They soon realize their feelings for each other.

Climax: Something (to be revealed in the story) happens and the boy finds out around August-ish that the girl is forced to move away in November. He struggles to deal with this realization.

Falling Action: The boy, shocked by the realization that these may be their last short months together, goes through a lot of grief as he tries to make their last months as memorable as possible.

Resolution: The girl gets on an airplane and leaves. The story ends with the boy walking through the park to sit under the orange tree, this time shedding its last leaves, once again. As the boy is sitting under the orange tree, a breeze from an airplane flying low overhead causes the last orange tree leaf to break free from the branches and land in front of him. He begins to cry.

Denounement: None.

Hm... I know it sounds cheesy, but it'll be better once I write it out.

Happy to take any story/name suggestions.

Lizzy's Short Story Proposal

Exposition: Eli, 16, is standing on the old white line that was drawn many years ago to indicate the city limits. Staring off into the distance, he taunts himself as he always does, asking himself what would happen if he only took a tiny step and crossed the line to the other side. He doesn't, though, as all his life, everyone in his city has told him never to cross the city limits. His shadow of 5'8 casts onto the other side, but as he is often reminded of, he can never be his shadow. With his bright blue eyes, he takes one last look into the other side of the city limits where the sun mysteriously never sets. He pushes the dark brown hair out of his eyes, puts up the hood of his brown hoodie, turns and walks back to city in his worn out sneakers.

Inciting Incident: As Eli begins to approach the center of his city, he walks past dark store fronts and houses with only one or two lights on inside. As he gets closer and closer to his home, he feels that he needs to be reasoned with again about why he cannot leave the city limits and why nobody else does. This feeling becomes more and more frantic as he gets closer and closer to his house. By the time he is outside his front door, the information about the city limits is so crucial that he needs to know it or he will mentally break down.

Rising Action: He knocks quickly on the door, trying to calm himself down so as not to worry his mother. Nicole opens the doors and looks at her son with sweet, teal eyes. She pushes the black hair out of her young looking face, but doesn't notice any sense of anticipation within Eli. He looks up at her, wanting so badly to know the information that he knows he can't get an answer to. He has been trying all his life. He walks in the door without a word and sits in his grandfather's old armchair by the crackling fireplace. Nicole, now noticing Eli's agitation, walks over to the adjacent chair. He asks her why no one leaves the city and she answers like she always does: Who would want to leave when everything they need is right here? Eli can feel his emotions starting to boil. Tonight, he needs to know more. He asks her why everyone always told him he couldn't leave. Why none of the other children were ever told that. She answers as she always does: We just want to keep you close to home. Eli begins to have restless legs. He asks who drew the lines of the city limit. She replies that when the city was built the founding fathers drew it. Eli stands up. He asks why no one else stands at the city limit line. Nicole looks at Eli with upset eyes. She makes the confession that Eli was never supposed to know about the city limit line.

Climax: Eli, realizing he can never achieve the answers he wants, sprints out of the house without saying another word to his mother. As he runs through his city, his stream of consciousness brings him back to the line. The achievement he would feel if he finally crossed it. He continues to run and suddenly stops with wide eyes. Looking down, he sees that he has run across the line. Frozen, he turns to look at his city from the other side, the perspective he has never before had. He watches with horror and confusion as each building in his city, each house, each playground and street light and grocery store and tree disappears. As if coming out of a trance, he turns around, closer to the mysterious other side than he has every been before. he freezes again, as he watches each building, house, playground, street lamp, grocery store and tree reappear ont he other side. Watches as the sun disappears, as he is enclosed into darkness, and then as it reappears on the other side of the drawn line.

Falling Action: Eli stands again at the edge of the line. He is trying to figure out what has happened. He crosses the line again, watches as the same events occur and realizes why he was never told to leave. If he goes, the city goes. The line suddenly seems more like a barbed fence than a simple white line. Suddenly tired, Eli turns back and slowly walks past everything that now seems so fragile.

Resolution: As Eli walks home, he thinks about how he could leave. How tempting it is not only to cross the line, but now to take away the life of the city, the lives of everyone he's ever known. He could not only explore the mysterious other side, but anywhere he ever wanted. He looks at his house, a house that doesn't seem able to hold an entire city inside it. He knocks again on his door. Nicole opens the door, pretending nothing out of the ordinary has happened. He looks at her, comprehending how fragile she is, just like everything else. He tells her that he knows he can never leave the city limits. Nicole looks at him with innocent eyes and says again: Who would want to leave when everything they have is right here? Eli, feeling like he is listening to a broken record, goes upstairs to his room.

Dénouement: Eli packs a suitcase. Looking around his room, he looks outside his window. Having not hung the curtains, he stares out at the other side. Feeling as if the world is coming down on him, Eli feels a single tear fall down from his eye, down his face, and land loudly on the hardwood floor.

Kayla Maslonkowski-Short Story

Exposition: Rosie is a 21 year old model, the lights shining, cameras flashing all around. Her dream being fulfilled in New York City. Perfection. Her hair is full of perfect blonde curls and her eyes gray. She grew up in a broken family always trying to get away and protect herself.

Inciting Incident: A gunshot is triggered, Rosie has no clue where it came from but she is told to duck and run to the nearest exit. Always having to follow the rules, she does what she is told. She runs out the front door of the modeling agency and sees her agent. He tells her to get in a car and follow directions. She has no clue where she is going.

Rising Action: The car is driving fast and glass is breaking all around her but Rosie feels disoriented. In a haze. She notices a guy sitting next to her. Curly brown hair and sea-green eyes. She then gets a text from her agent. Six words but all very clear to Rosie. Somebody is trying to kill you. Rosie asks the man next to her who he is and he says that he is her new body guard. Meant to protect her at any costs and that they are going to a private safe house in the remote jungles of the amazon rainforest. Rosie doesn't understand why somebody would be after her. She was nothing in her mind. She had no more family, and modeling was her escape along with drinking her nights away. The only person she could think of that would want her dead would be her cruel uncle, the one who wouldnt take her in for adoption after her father killed her mother 5 years ago. He must want her dead because then he could access the trust fund that had been left for her all these years. Her only way of gaining access to it would be when she turned 25. After-all her uncle is a powerful man, a millionaire so to speak, but always wanting more. Everything is about money anyways, or thats how its been her whole life

Climax: Rosie and her body guard, who she learns is named Emmett catch a jet and are off to the safe house so Rosie can be protected. Along the trip to the Amazon Rosie and Emmett get to know eachother, however Rosie has trust issues and will not look Emmett in the eyes. Those sea-green eyes shining. Rosie is instantly taken with his personality and looks into his eyes once for a sneak peek of what she could be getting herself into. Forbidden love. A body guard and a model needing protection. Emmett feels it too. When they finally land in the amazon it is time to get going. Her uncle is already on her track and he has more men with him.

Falling Action: Running through the forest at full speed with Emmett at her side. Gunshots everywhere men appoaching from all sides. Rosie can't help but look at Emmetts eyes. The eyes in which made her fall in love with a man that she can never be with. Emmett suddently jumps off a cliff and Rosie hears a splash and follows him into the cold water shooting off a waterfall. They take shelter in a cave but suddenly hes there. The man Rosie never wanted to see again. Rosie grabs a handgun and shoots. However at the precise same second she is shot herself.

Resolution: The flourescent lights and pale white walls of a hospital are all around her. Her leg is throbbing and she sees a shadow in the corner. It stands and comes out from the darkness and the first thing that catches her eyes is his eyes. She suddenly knows that they are meant to be and forbidden love is the way to go.

Denoument: Rosies uncle had been killed that day, and Rosie rushed off to a hospital. Rosie and Emmett are inseperable after that and there life continues on with her always having protection at her side.