Temporal Narrative Assignment


Word Count: 363

The dashboard mechanics buzzed, an unseen wire sizzled out of sight. Smoke rose out of an overhead control panel and red, green, blue and electric orange warning lights flashed crazily. An automatic door swung upward and I stepped out of the wonderous ovular contraption dazed.

'When am I?" I wondered hazily as I collapsed unconscious into a field of purple grass.

3 years ago I embarked on what I thought at the time, (time... the word has since lost much of its significance), was the most insane and wasteful project of my life and that's saying a lot. I remember the night it began, clearly. I was sitting in my small, dingy apartment watching reruns of Full House and laughing shamelessly -- probably drunk, when an odd message popped up on my nearby computer screen:

"DYLAN!" It was from my sister Sally whom I was, still am and in 200 years from now (I've checked) very proud of; at the time she was studying Physics at MIT and is regarded by pretty much everyone as a genius.
"This IS NOT A JOKE!" The next message read.
"I NEED YOU TO GO FORWARD IN TIME WITH ME, I KNOW HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE. YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN WEAPONS. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED!"

Having nothing going for me at the time, and thinking, 'it might be good for a few laughs,' I agreed. We began construction in our parent's garage during her summer vacations and my time off between low-paying jobs.

3 years came and went, (seemingly much faster than usual, but I've been assured it had nothing to do with the machine), and our time traveling device had been completed. For safety reasons, I can't share with you, dear reader, what exactly happened on our temporal travels, or how the experience changed me, (I can say Einstein got most of it right), but I'll tell you this on why I'm in _______ Journalism program as a student:

I've seen the future, and when you know the events that are going to happen BEFORE they actually happen, it makes it really easy to write for a newspaper.

Time to think about retirement.

[QUOTE="allnamestaken"]

"The barely audible whisper would rise and carry with the cool wind." The whisper was what would rise and carry with the wind. I'll change "the" to "Its"

"Hear it calling to him" Not defining the pronouns adds a sense of mystery and is an effective writing technique.

I'm studying journalism and was required to read Zinsser. I agree with his writing theory when it comes to hard news stories or even narratives that appear in news print, but personally, when it comes to creative writing I'd fall asleep if it was all written like that.

br0kenrabbit

Yeah I read 'On Writing Well' way back in High School (early 90's) and it influenced me heavily. I write fiction as I would non-fiction, because as far as I see it you're trying to accomplish the same thing: a believable narrative.

"The barely audible whisper would rise and carry with the cool wind." The whisper was what would rise and carry with the wind. I'll change "the" to "Its"

"Hear it calling to him" Not defining the pronouns adds a sense of mystery and is an effective writing technique.

I'm studying journalism and was required to read Zinsser. I agree with his writing theory when it comes to hard news stories or even narratives that appear in news print, but personally, when it comes to creative writing I'd fall asleep if it was all written like that.