On the third day, he came to class, still battered and bruised, and said, “Let’s get back to work.”
And we did.
Hope. There is always hope. This is another ingredient to be found in good writing. As I stated earlier in the Introduction, it would have been easy to write a story filled with pain and despair. The prison was place filled with much pain. But that is not what I chose to write about. I chose - and choose - to write about things that give people hope. This is another important component to good writing - the idea of hope. It must be reflected in your words.
"They found him in the woods. Hanging from a tree. He'd been there a while."
Again, what was I supposed to do? Ignore his loss and insist on making him try to do some school work when clearly he was not in any shape to do so? No. Again, we see the importance of recognizing my student's humanity, but there is more. This is one helluva line. Powerful imagery and a punch to the gut (emotionally). That is what I wanted to do in the Introduction and that is what you need to do in your own writing.