Advanced Fiction Writing, Assignment 3

Well, assignment 3 certainly surprised me with how fast it came back graded! Enjoy!

Assignment 3

Author’s Note:  Assignment 3 was an exercise in using different tenses and viewpoints. The three major writing viewpoints (third person omniscient, third person limited, and first person) were defined as were the two major tenses (past and present). We were instructed to write three sketches (they could be about different subjects, but I chose to choose the same daily incident in my life) using any combination of viewpoints and tenses, provided we had at least one past and one present tense sketch and one first person and one third person viewpoint sketch. I chose to do one third person and two first-person viewpoint sketches, and two of my sketches are in past tense. I will identify which tense and viewpoint I use with each of the sketches.

Grade Received:  A, with many positive comments from my classmates who post and read posts in the assignments forum

Kitty Breakfast (from two different viewpoints and two different tenses)

Third Person Omniscient, Past Tense

It was 3 a.m. More than time for Adara to have her breakfast of dried kibble cat treats. She sat up, stretched, and meowed pitifully. When her owner, lying in the bed next to her, didn’t respond, she meowed again, only louder. Her owner mumbled and pulled the covers up around her head. Adara, feeling the urgency of an empty housecat stomach, then proceeded to walk up the length of the bed to face her lazy master. She then went about the business of rousing her owner by aggressively sniffing the young woman’s exposed slumbering face, pawing it, and crying painfully. Finally, her master, realizing the futility of ignoring her hungry cat, got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen.

First Person, Past Tense

I don’t see why I have to do this every morning!

I awoke to my tummy rumbling. It must be time for my human to get up and give me my breakfast, I thought. I stretched a bit in order to prepare myself for what I had to do.

“Hey! Two Legs!” I called to her. She ignored me and pulled the covers up over her head.

“HEY! TWO LEGS! HUNGRY!” I bellowed at her in frustration.

My tummy was getting emptier by the moment, and I could tell that my human just wasn’t going to get her lazy butt out of her bed. Luckily, I knew a sure-fire way to get her up.

I walked up to her head, which was mostly covered. Except for her face. She always keeps her face uncovered.

“Two Legs! Time to get up! I’m hungry!” I cried out pitifully as I simultaneously pawed and sniffed her face.

Finally, my human got up.

“It’s about time!” I thought as we made our way to the kitchen.

First Person, Present Tense

A cat’s pitiful meow pierces my slumber. It must be 3 a.m., I muse, as I glance down to the end of my bed. There, sitting by my feet, is my cat Adara, and she is staring hungrily at me with her one ice-blue eye. I pull the covers closer around my head.  Geez, you’d think that this fifteen pound cat hadn’t eaten for three days!

Good God, it’s Saturday, leave me alone until 6, I cry out in my head.

But no, she doesn’t leave me alone.

She walks up the length of my bed, sticks her face in mine, and begins to loudly and aggressively sniff my exposed face and meow. She also paws at my nose and mouth, knowing that my fear of cat-paw cooties on my face is a sure-fire way to get my undivided attention.

“All right! I’m up!” I say as I roll out of bed and walk towards the kitchen, beginning the cycle of over-indulged dysfunction again.