'The Antique Clock': reflection

After reading two John Cheever stories and discussing him in class, I found that writing this piece was not too difficult. Because we had pinpointed his style and the general techniques he employed in his stories,  it was easier to emulate this when creating my own. When we were asked to write down elements that we would then work a story from, mine was originally completely different. I had a Western in the daytime with a main character called McCarthy. Then as soon as I went to write the first sentence, it seemed to take on a mind of its own. The main factor that remained throughout, was the clock being the significant object. 

While Cheever's 'The Enormous Radio' revolves around the radio to a large degree, 'The Antique Clock' only alludes to the clock subtly in the beginning. I was trying to channel Cheever here, as he introduces the reader to Jim and Irene with a brief description of their backstory before the tale begins. I introduce various aspects of Edgar in the beginning of mine, writing about his family and the type of values Edgar has. However, I decided to have these over the course of the starting paragraphs rather than explain everything in two sentences. In short stories, it is these little, key details that allow the reader to have sufficient information and then engage with the story which, in short fiction, is usually faster. For example, Cheever reveals that the radio broadcasts their neighbour's conversations very quickly. So in my third paragraph I explicitly said that the clock is the object of Edgar's mission although I do not state why. I tried to plant the information within an earlier paragraph, as although Cheever's straight-forward, grounded style is effective, I wanted to surprise the reader somewhat.