I asked for you to write stories to respond to naturalism and show that you understood what it means for a writer to be called naturalist; what I didn’t expect was the quality of the stories. Not that I doubted your creativity, but creativity does not always produce great stories, and you guys have done that.

Take some time to peruse these ones, which were each read out loud in class.

Nate wrote “The Drop” and articulated well how he came up with the idea. I appreciate how he informed us how the inspiration for the story came to him. I think many of us would find writing a tad easier if we saw how writers approached the task.

Tiffany wrote her own version of the story she, Stefanie, and I concocted about a girl getting isolated and desperately using her phone to call for help. It’s called “Wrong Reception,” and I like how the cell phone acts a symbol of civilization, and when it goes haywire, her character loses control and her own life as the “inner beast” overcomes her understanding even of the true temperature. (By the way, her detail about the temperature at the end is inspired by the story of a man who froze to death in a freezer that was above freezing.)

Jake’s story, called “Death by Salvation,” gets a bit gory, but he too has a nice symbol of civilization that also leads to the character’s downfall. Interestingly, Jakes character strips off his clothing as he descends into a less human, more beast-like state – a fitting symbol of the beast-within’s triumph.

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• Original image: ‘A un gran paso‘ by: Luis