Style Metacognition

Deciding what to do on this assignment was a bit challenging yet interesting. I wanted to convey more Hemmingway’s style than Faulkner’s. I found it fascinating the way Hemmingway uses only a conversation to provide a deep meaning. The three options provided by Master G were great but I wanted to do something different. Since I like Hemmingway’s style of writing in actual speech, I decided to focus my story style in that way but I also wanted to incorporate Faulkner. One of the options given to us in the assignment was to use only quotes/lines from both Hemmingway and Faulkner and write a conversation between them too. Well, my first step was to take this idea but instead of a conversation between these two writers, I used their quotes/lines to create a story between another two characters.
Second step, putting together the conversation was quite challenging because I had to go back to the stories we read in class from these two writers and find quotes/lines that would flow together. And not only this, but to also cite every quote/line use in my story. While creating my story, I had a good time and I found myself writing a story about love and a murder. I used mostly quotes from “Hill like White Elephants” by Hemingway and “Barn Burning” by Faulkner. These two stories have a whole different style and meaning but they both give great quotes and lines that I could use to write my love and murder story. As “Hills like White Elephants” talks about a couple about to make an important decision that will change their lives, I decided to use it in my story because a murder will most likely change every one who is involve in it. So to follow the pattern, I used “Barn Burning” quotes that conveyed what is wrong or right, and anger. It was difficult to make the conversation flow because some of the quotes were not written in the way that I would have like them to be written but at the end, I believe that I achieve my purpose.
My purpose of the conversation is to show how love can make us do things that we would not normally do. The woman in the story is in love with her boyfriend but her boyfriend is forcing her to kill a man for him. The woman, who clearly demonstrates an immense insecurity in her relationship, ends up killing the man just so her boyfriend would love her again. The title says it all; “Killing for love”. Even though it sounds creepy, I wanted to portray drama, which is what my story is about.
Third step, peer-editing, it helped me on my process to make this story a great one. My classmates make great comments of it, and they both found it amusing. Their only critic was to name my characters and also to revise some of my quotes which didn’t really made sense with the other ones. I was glad that they both thought I have done a great job because I spent a lot of work finding the quotes, putting them together, and creating a conversation with a meaning. I made a few changes to my story; of course I name my characters and took some quotes out of the story that really didn’t make sense. But in overall, I kept most of my story the same. I feel that I achieved my goal and that I mocked well Hemmingway’s style of writing. Not only that by also the use of quotes and their flow.
Even though I feel that I did a good job on this essay, I believe that I can still improve on my way of writing. I often tend to just go straight to the point, instead of analyzing in more depth. I focused more on getting the job done than actually taking my time to analyze it. But in the past assignments, I have demonstrated that I’m capable of doing both, getting the assignment done on time and analyze it with depth. I believe that this paper shows the amount of work I putted in it. The amount of thought I putted in it. It portrays that I understood the assignment; I was able to incorporate one the two writers’ style, Hemingway, and also able to create a conversation using only quotes from both Hemingway and Faulkner.
I enjoyed this assignment. It made me realize my own style somehow (I am most of a Hemingway than a Faulkner). I would like to be able to create a stronger voice when I write; I want my paper stand out among others. I am looking forward for more assignment like this one. It forced me to analyze both styles first and then make them my own. I hope anyone who reads this paper can see my purpose and can find it as amusing as my peer-editors saw it. =)