The Plot Sickens: Free-Write and Reflection

It was Christmas Eve. Fog stuck to the tarmac at Lindbergh Field.

My dad was hoping for a much easier landing into San Diego, but he was prepared to face these horrific conditions. As a fighter pilot in the Air Force, my dad has flown through much worse than a little fog.

As the plane was descending, I started to remember how I got here. I had gotten accepted into a golf academy located at San Diego State University, which, even in December, is supposed to have wonderful playing conditions. My dad was afraid of flying by myself across the country, so he decided to take his plane and fly me over, with a few stops in Nashville and Albuquerque for gas. But as we were just feet from the end of this journey, I was not even sure if we would land successfully at our destination.

However, my dad had other plans. Showing lots of courage, he flew the plane towards the airport as smooth as I have ever seen a plane fly. He pushed through the fog, spotted the runway, released the wheels, and touched down safe and sound. I was so proud of what he just did.

But suddenly, I got a call from the academy coordinator telling me that the entire camp was cancelled due to the inclement weather. When I told my dad, he started the engine to his plane, and took off, again maneuvering through the fog like it was sunny and seventy-five.

In the article, "The Plot Sickens," Fanny Howe criticizes young contemporary writers for how they cannot finish stories without violence and how they do not have "the most rudimentary sense of cause and effect." My free-write product completely deviates from the author's claims regarding the tendencies and flaws of young writers. My dad is the big hero of my story for saving my life and landing the plane safely, but according to Howe, the outside forces of the economy have created an atmosphere where "there can be no heroes;" I created a world with heroes, which clearly counters the claim. Also, Howe tends to see fewer happy endings in stories and more that end "with extraordinary violence." My story does have a happy ending, with my dad and I flying away safe and sound, while also incorporating no violence, which Howe says she sees very often. Finally, she thinks that today's writers cannot solve the problem they created "in the first few pages," making the writers have to end the story with something else, usually violence. My free-write has none of that: having no violence, ending the story with a solved problem, and solving the problem, even before I finished the story. Overall, Howe's criticisms of young writers are not seen in my free-write response.