Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Disappointing Story

"Geese?!" Professor Saunders half-asked, half-yelled at me, "You have my admiration only for your remarkable talent of making crappy stories." I knew he was truly angry. Hearing such a distinguished man say "crappy" would be funny in another circumstance.

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak he started again. It didn't matter. I didn't really know what to say. As he continued to yell, I picked at my fingernails. I knew he had a point.

Our symmester project was to write a short story. It was a pretty easy assignment. Especially for me. In high school, I'd won tons of literary awards. When I came into Professor Saunder's class, he'd had very high expections for me. He'd heard "great things about me" and was "expecting something even better."
It's not his fault. My story was pretty lame. With a whole symmester to write a story, I should have had something Austin-worthy. Instead, I came up with a stupid story about a family of geese.

Normally, I would have had something great. It's just that, well, with the recent incident, I lost all of my inspiration and passion. I feel like the living dead.
I kept thinking I would suddenly gain it back. One day, I would wake up and write a masterpiece. When there was only one week left until my story was due, I found some lame book about geese I had bought at a yard sale for a buck and used it for "inspiration." That is, if you could even call it inspiration.

I zoned back into the conversation as I could feel my professor coming to an end. I told him how sorry I was and how this was just a small slip-up. The truth is, I doubt it.

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