Welcome to the DVHS Creative Writing Club Web Page!
This is the online home of Del Valle High School's Creative Writing club. Every Tuesday and Thursday we meet in room C205 to eat lunch, read inspiring words and share our own words. Our work is arranged online by assignment. Feel free to try our assignments on your own and send us your work!
Featured Writer: Alex Nunez
Alex Nunez is a junior at DVHS. After much prodding from Ms. Rolfe, who was impressed by his talent as both a reader and writer, Alex joined Creative Writing Club this year. He has written vivid and surprising poetry and stories. The story featured here, Oahu Man’s Journal, was based on the assignment below.
What’s Left Behind: A Short, Short Story Exercise by Ms. Rolfe
In his story, This is What You Left Behind, Tod Goldberg examines the wreckage of a failed relationship through the lens of what was left behind in the couple’s shared house. The story unfolds after all the conflict and drama has passed. The reader is given a one-sided view of events that is tainted with the bitterness of being left.
After reading the mentor text, write your own story in which you examine an event through its aftermath. Feel free to try Goldberg’s innovative approach of addressing it to another person and using the second person, meaning “you.” You may chose a dramatic event like a break up or an accident or you may chose something more simple. It’s up to you. Since this is a “short short” story, your entire story should be somewhere around 1000 words.
What’s Left Behind: A Short, Short Story Exercise by Ms. Rolfe
In his story, This is What You Left Behind, Tod Goldberg examines the wreckage of a failed relationship through the lens of what was left behind in the couple’s shared house. The story unfolds after all the conflict and drama has passed. The reader is given a one-sided view of events that is tainted with the bitterness of being left.
After reading the mentor text, write your own story in which you examine an event through its aftermath. Feel free to try Goldberg’s innovative approach of addressing it to another person and using the second person, meaning “you.” You may chose a dramatic event like a break up or an accident or you may chose something more simple. It’s up to you. Since this is a “short short” story, your entire story should be somewhere around 1000 words.
Mentor Text
Click to read This is What You Left Behind on the SmokeLong Quarterly. Or click here to hear the author read the story. | Student Work
Oahu Man’s Journal
By: Alexander Nunez February 8, 2009 The whistling and pop of fireworks echo through the dark Waikiki beach on Friday night. The peaceful night skies illuminate with red, blue, and bright white colors. The streets beside the beach are occupied with tour buses, hummers, cars, and wedding limos. The sidewalks are barely filled with people walking in and out of stores. The sounds of vehicles are humming through the streets fading in then out, in and then out. A band is playing some type of really bad jazz music at a bar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The faint chattering and clinking of glass can be heard from a mile away on the beach. The Raucous laughter giving of the feeling of mischief among friends, perhaps it was a small joke played on a clueless fellow. “I’m sorry Kami; I just couldn’t say this in person…” I sit in the sand of Waikiki beach wearing a white t-shirt, a pair of old jeans and sandals. As I write within this journal I hold a letter from her, the envelope signed in elegant cursive “To Kamakami, from Kanani”. I look up to the fireworks, which bursts into many exciting colors. I see my tears glisten the color of the firework for a second before they hit sand, then fading deeper into the soft grains. My memory begins to blend with reality. I start to Kanani sitting next to me smiling. She stares at the sky, her content brown eyes reflecting the colors of the fireworks, her long silky black hair shimmering under the brilliant crescent moon. I begin to smile and gently lean on her shoulder, careful not to put all my weight on her. She pushes me off her shoulder and holds my hand. In her other hand she held a paper plane. I look to the fireworks with a sense of security and comfort which faded back into my memory and departed reality. It was only a memory from when were 20. March 12, 2009 In a pond at Ala Moana mall resides many Koi fish. Some are small and some are huge. People always pass by the Koi fish. Only some sit by the pond just gazing at the peaceful creatures as if hypnotized. Farther into the mall on the upper floor are music, restaurants, and clear skies. So much chattering blocks out the music sometimes. There is a fountain towards the back part of the mall that always flows, the scent of clean water lingering around the surrounding objects kissing the faces of the living. By the fountain lies a view of the pier where the yachts arrive from a day of partying or relaxation outside the shores of every beach in Oahu. When the sun sets, the view leaves one sitting at a table with nothing but tranquility of his or her mind, pleased by the colors of the sky. “…Tonight, I’m leaving for college in New York…” I sit by the Pond staring at Koi fish as I write this entry. Inside one of empty these pages in my journal lies that letter she had given me a month ago. As I walked through the tree-lined mall, I see her dragging me into every single store as if I was her best friend. The funny part is I am her best friend; I have been for about ten years since we both were 11 years old. I went by the fountain, where I had first met her ten years ago. This place was special to the both of us. It was where our friendship bloomed over many years. Both of our parents used work here till we were fourteen, after that it just became a usual hang out place. I sat at the table where Kanani and I always rested at to see the sunset every time we came here. I saw us when we were 13 and I was challenging her to a paper folding competition. I thought I made the most awesome paper plane in the world and she came up with an origami eagle that can fly. She was laughing when I was hesitantly showing my paper plane; it was the most beautiful laugh I ever heard. That laugh could charm and melt the heart of the toughest sailor on Oahu. As for the paper plane, she kept it at her house on her shelf. She told me a about it a year later. May 23, 2009 The statues of Kuhio beach are always adorned with flower leis. The piers are extended far from shore, giving those who stood at the end part of it a view of the beach. Kuhio beach also has a manmade lagoon, for those who don’t like the playful souls of the Hawaiian waters called waves. The green at the front of the beach is maintained by the hotels, which in return creates a paradise like feeling to the beach. The volley ball is always bounced back into the air by someone, sand castles always built to be eroded quickly by the waves of night, and the laughter in the air always stays. “…And it’s my big chance to study astrophysics…” I took off my sandals to walk on this sand. It was always so soft like powder, which made it hard to walk on because the sandals don’t get any traction from the sand. I looked at the two college teens sitting on a towel eating ice cream. I walk away with my towel and sat somewhere else. I look down painfully, closing my eyes then opening them, to see tears rolling down Kanani’s eyes from a break up when she was 17. It was only morning and tissues were everywhere, soaked in her tears. I saw myself walking up to her with two Ben and jerry ice cream cups which were balanced in one stack. Kanani looks at my 17 year old self who trips over a large rock hidden in the sand, sending the cups flying and hitting the sand with a gentle thud. I see her smile slightly and my 17 year old self saying it was part of his plan. I see myself merge into my body and Kanani resting her head on my shoulder, with sniffles and sighs of sadness. I close my eyes to continue the memory and I see us talking and laughing an hour later till the sun began to set. She fell asleep so I took her home that day and I saw that she still had that paper plane. July 10, 2009 “Please come visit me someday. Because I going to miss you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” I sit in front of my computer today waiting for Kanani to log into my chat room. After an hour, she logs in, feeling really bad about me waiting an hour. I didn’t care, I was able to see her and talk to her. We only spoke for only thirty minutes before I saw her being pulled off the computer by her college roommate. I became frustrated since all I saw was her wall through her webcam. I looked at the letter again, reading every single word. It read “I’m sorry Kami I just couldn’t say this in person but tonight, I’m leaving for college in New York. It’s my big chance to study astrophysics and I don’t want to pass up such a good opportunity. Please come visit me someday, because I am going to miss you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” I left the computer and started shoving clothes into my bag. I was leaving for New York and didn’t want her and I to be just a memory. July 12, 2009 It's my birthday, I’m 23 now, and she still has the paper plane. |