SUDDENLY A SHOT RANG OUT

It was a dark and stormy night. Remember when Snoopy used to try to write? He couldn't get past the first couple of lines.

This picture reminded me of an assignment I used to give my students--the progressive story. I'd give them first lines for a story. They'd start, then I'd stop them and have them pass their papers to the person behind them while they received papers from another. They could add to or totally change the story. After five or six trades, the papers usually disentegrated. Students wouldn't bother to read all that the others had read, some would have the world blow up, and others would add innuendo. But it lasted for awhile, allowed students to see what others could create, and taught plot and subplot to some extent.

Oh, it wasn't original: I probably got the idea from a workshop or the English Journal. Teachers were famous for borrowing. But what bothered me the most is when grade school teachers would lift literature from the staples of high school curriculum. One year the largest feeder school elected to teach Romeo and Juliet. In other schools, teachers used Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, perhaps the best American short story ever, but it dealt with subjects that grade school students shouldn't be exposed to. While it's great to re-read some literature, many students never developed that interest, so they blew it off the second time. I know, high school teachers often rushed literature intended for college students. We had a teacher who wanted to teach classics that she detested (Pamela by Richardson was one) as a graduate student, because I had classes with her and we used to complain together. But on the other side of the desk and armed with answers, she wanted to teach them to her advanced students. But my animus is the same--teachers borrow, and the progressive story was good while it lasted.

Now, had I utilized this picture, I might have suggested some conflict based on the intensity of the frightened lady. And what's up with the highlighted hand.? Is is hers? Oh well; back to the drawing board.