Today I, Professor Robins, am assigning homework.

..I KNOW I KNOW I'M SORRY-

So over the summer, my dad assigned me this book to read, saying it was his favorite as a kid. As I walked out of the library with it in my hands and read the back, I looked up at my dad and said "Dad, this is just every gay fanfiction ever"

I swear to cod it was just "Phineas is very extroverted and class clown while Gene is very introverted and shy" something something how they get along and are best friends.

Let me tell you, this story was so good.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles, that's your homework for next week.

The intro starts out in the future with Gene (the main character).  We see him walking through his old all boys school and he ventures into the forest, seeing a great big tree with a pond at the bottom.

We have no context but boy did that intro send shivers down my spine.

It simply describes the area around him. The way the leaves crunched, the fog and weather, the feeling the smell the sounds, the tree.

(I don't wanna spoil it but if you do finish reading it and wanna talk about it, message me on Discord lol-)

Showing and not telling what's to expect is very tricky and I'm someone who likes to do that a lot (seen in Memories With You where I straight up say the angst to be expecting later on) but it's mostly setting the scene.

It's letting us see where exactly the story is taking place and when describing surroundings, it's important to try and have that feeling in it too.

In A Separate Peace, Gene is describing his school and home and comparing it to what it was like when he went there. He explains his fear and that sets it inside us as well.

"I walked along Gilman Street, the best street in town. The houses were as handsome and asunusual as I remembered. Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorianwood, capacious Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and just as forbidding asever. I had rarely seen anyone go into one of them, or anyone playing on a lawn, or even an openwindow. Today with their failing ivy and stripped, moaning trees the houses looked both moreelegant and more lifeless than ever."

Not only that but after he explains the scene it cuts back to where our story takes place. It cuts to the past almost perfectly.

So my advice would be to read some other stories with these sort of intros (Lord of The Flies has amazing scenes with description of scenery) and most of all, challenge yourself!

You don't have to post it, obviously, but a little quick challenge on writing different intros would be great.

Good luck!