The Plot Sickens: Free-write & Reflection

The article The Plot Sickens by Franny Howe criticizes tendencies of young contemporary writers for multiple habits they possess. She begins by enlightening the audience to the violent attitudes and situations young writers include in their characters, and more importantly their stories. She conducted a study based on her college level class, and found that a few students included non-violent aspects to their writing. Howe stated, "Of the 20 stories generated by this assignment, only 5 had endings that could qualify as "happy"-endings, that is, in which a problem was resolved. All the others concluded with extraordinary violence." Ultimately, 75% of these writers included violence which supports her claim; students included stories that involved harm one way or another to the protagonist. She explains how this theme of violence doesn't enhance the plot in a positive way. She said, "For me it is not the violence per se; it is the fact that violence enters the story without benefit of plot, as if by metaphysical caprice." The predisposition of young contemporary writers is to offer as much mindless, deviant acts to spice up the text. Howe supports that this method is both unnecessary, and inefficient. She then goes on to criticize the structure of the plot of her student's writing, and shows their ineffectiveness to portray their stories. Howe explained, "Thus, in my student's writing, there is no confidence in any relationship between character, act, and outcome. The figures in their fictions are victims of hideous violence by accident; they commit crimes, but only for the hell of it; they hate, not understanding why they hate; they are loved or abused or depressed, and don't know why." Therefore, Franny Howe depicts young contemporary writers as people who include violence in their stories for no reason whatsoever, and it takes a toll on the potential of the writing as a whole.


My free write most certainly substantiates Franny Howe's claim that young writers include violence for almost no reason at all. I wrote about a brutal car crash in which a young boy gets hit by a car and dies. My story wasn't too bad, but could've been far better if I had principles of justice and reason. She was correct in her claim that my story had almost no reasoning behind the madness. I believe she was right in saying that students in our day and age think differently than in past years and decades. Howe stated, "To my mind, the changing role and character of violence in student fiction reflects a change in the way we imagine what will determine our destinies." I believe this is all too true because of the development of teenagers and students worldwide. We are more open to violence and violent acts, like that of my story. Therefore, Howe's claim is substantiated by my story, and I am kind of dumbfounded to say the least.