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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Byrons_Ghost" data-source="post: 1237027" data-attributes="member: 7396">Well, there go all my ideas out the window. This is why I never liked the so-called "creative writing" classes that I took in college. Their version of creativity seemed mostly to involve aping whatever stories or journals the professor liked.If you can't do outright fantastic stuff, take a "magical realism" approach, like Umberto Ecco or Isabelle Allende. Avoid any references to any kind of fantastic or supernatural events, and just leave it uncertain as to what's really going on. From what I've seen in these classes, most of the grading is based on the story's sensory details, anyhow. You'd think it was a visual arts class or something.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> If you're trying to work in some fantasy elements, and can't, you could always go the "unreliable narrator" route. This is usually done in first person, or third person stream-of-conciousness. Essentially, the narrator has some sort of problems or bias that cause them to misinterpret what's going on around them. "Modern" period writers, such as Faulkner, did this a lot. It's also found a lot in horror stories.How about this- pick a series of linked events from your childhood, such as a camping trip or a first week at school or whatever. The protagonist can be yourself or a character you invent. Postulate some sort of unseen forces at work behind the events, tying them together somehow. The forces could be helpful or malevolent, or just sort of there moving things along. In the end, the events themselves are what institute the change in the protagonist, but there's still a question of just what- if anything- was going on behind the scenes and how much of a part it had to play.Hope this helps. If nothing else, you'll just have to stick with a story about a stressed-out student getting ready to graduate. Maybe his big life-changing event is the decision to go to grad school.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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