Testophobia

One of the first shorts I finished for the book was "Testophobia." I wrote the piece originally for the Writing Fiction class I mentioned in the last post. The prompt went like this: "Write a scene taken straight from a science-fiction, fantasy, or horror story, where a character is experiencing test-taking anxiety of a very creative kind." (Again, I'll have to credit Dr. A with the prompt.)

The short was published once already in Seton Hill University's art and literary magazine, Eye Contact. The graphic designer laying out the page kind of had the right idea, but the final results weren't exactly what I had envisioned.

No problem.

The graphics I've created for the book version include a middle-grade exam I pieced together, some smeared and stretched typography (both digital and hand-drawn) and a photo I took of some dreamily threatening clouds.

This story became my favorite from all the shorts I had written through that semester, and I can't think of anything I would want to change to make it better.