Mint Snowball

I read the essay packet, and my favorite story in it was the Mint Snowball by Naomi Shihab. I choose to wrote about this story because it has some sentimental value to it that I like. She is writing about how her great grandfather had a popular snack called the mint snowball and how people came from everywhere just to taste it. And how her mother used to love eating the snack while spinning on the chair in front of the bar. But before her great grandfather died he decided to sell the recipe to someone for $100 instead of passing it down, which made everyone sad. Especially her because she can only dream about being able to taste her great grandfathers recipe for the mint snowball. I think this story stuck to me so much because my grandmother had a recipe for Mac and Cheese, and even thought I don't like Mac and Cheese the rest of my family loves it and before she passed away she taught the recipe to my mother. So on holidays, my mom is always the one who has to make the Mac and Cheese, and I also feel like it keeps my grandmother with us. I can only imagine how it would have been if my grandmother wouldn't have gave my mom the recipe, nobody in my family would probably eat Mac and Cheese again. Sometimes it is the little things that keep faith in the family, rather its the recipe for the mint snow ball or mac and cheese.

The Girl With The Blackened Eye

I have been enjoying reading all of the fiction stories in class and discussing them with classmates in small groups. Although I have been keeping on all of the readings for fiction stories, I still always find myself coming back to read The Girl With The Blackened Eye when I need ideas about where to go in my stories when writing. I believe the reason being is because of the fact that the character was so unpredictable my first time reading it and I believe that's how a fiction story should be. The reader shouldn't be able to predict what your character will do or say next. The reason why I say she is so unpredictable is because of many different passages in the reading. For example, with a predictable character in her place she would have tried to escape or something of that sort. Where as with this character, she described the torture that the man was doing to her as love. Stuff like this is what keeps the reader intrigued in the story, if they were able to predict everything she would have did or said they would have not wanted to continue reading the story because they figured they knew the ending just by reading they beginning.


I don't want to have that kind of story... I want to keep my reader reading. Which is why I always go back and read The Girl With The Blackened Eye when I am trying to figure out my characters next move. I always remember the reading that said make your character not your plot. The character will make the plot for you, and its hard to stick to that when writing because you want to make sure that your story has a great plot. I feel as though you have to keep it even, you have to consider the character and the kind of plot you are going for. I feel as though The Girl With The Blackened Eye was going towards more of an intense plot, like a LifeTime movie. So far I believe my story is going in the direction I would like for it to go in, thanks to all of the different fiction stories I have been reading.

Fiction Stories

I am excited to start reading and writing fiction stories. I wasn't as good with poetry as I liked to be, but I think I will be better with fiction. In class before break, we discussed characters and how you shouldn't make the plot before making the character and how you never know who your character will be. The lady said that she was invited to write about the special Olympics, and she went with the mind set that she will just be writing a general story about everything, but when she went she met a gentlemen who changed that. He showed her a picture and pointed to himself and said, "that's a cool dude." When she went to get refreshments she peeked in a basketball game and seen the same man was the star of the game. So she decided to write about that instead of just the general Olympics. Her experience has me excited to write fiction, just because I feel like I can be anywhere doing anything and I could meet a character at any minute. With fiction I can also express myself because I can make myself the character and make myself do anything or feel any kind of way of want.