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Writing a short story

So, recently I started looking into Jack the Ripper. (Don't ask me why, it's a weird story.) I found out potential suspects and the one I think did it is named Joseph Barnet. Barnet was "active" during the late 1800's, and targeted prostitutes in London because he disagreed with "their choice of life". So you know--he killed them. (Allegedly!) He was roommates with the last Jack the Ripper victim; Mary Kelly. Rumor has it that Barnet was in love with Kelly, and wanted her off the streets. He earned money so that should wouldn't have to do the dirty, but he lost the job after a while so she was forced to go back to being a prostitute. They had fights over money, and ten days before Kelly was killed, Barnet left her. Coincidence? I think not!

Now, as I questioned my life while researching this, I thought maybe I could write a historical fiction short story about Jack the Ripper! I could have someone kill him! So I made up a story in which Kelly's friend, our unknown narrator, witnessed her murder and was too shocked to try and stop it. She decided to go after Barnet herself after she told the police what she saw but they didn't listen. She followed his movements, figured out where she could kill him and got him to follow her at an abandoned flat complex where she planned to kill him!

You're on the edge of your seat, I can tell.

Now, as exciting as this sounds, I didn't know how to put all this into words. I felt like Dwight Schrute from The Office while writing the story because it seemed so far-fetched to me. But it was for a grade so I couldn't stop. After two weeks of working on this short story, I came up with something kind of OK. But my god--writing stories is hard! I've always respected good authors but now my respect has grown! I think this was a good experience for me because a lot of my future students will want to write short stories in my class if I give them the option (which I will) and having this experience can help me help them! I can try to help them out of writer's block, or help them scatter the clues of their story. Though my experience is limited, I can help! Woo! Let's hope I get more experience in writing short stories in the future because quite honestly it was kind of fun.

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