Abandoned

A review and analysis of Christian Winn’s short story “Arco, Idaho.”

This is a unique story not only because it’s written in the second person, but because it’s also written in present tense and then switches to future tense about two-thirds of the way through. It also starts with a writing prompt: “Please, Sylvia, give me a moment to think.” Winn must have liked the results because he included it in his book of short stories. Winn also happens to be Idaho’s Writer in Residence, a three-year term that started in 2016. He also teaches creative writing at Boise State University. I had the opportunity to hear Winn read this story several weekends ago at the Meridian Library. He brought a pile of his books to sell, and I would have bought one and gotten a signed edition, but he left early while some other writers were still going. But before he left I had the opportunity to ask him about choosing to write a story in the second person and then switching tenses. Essentially, he did two things most writing instructors say not to do, so I asked him, as a writing instructor, what his mindset was in so flagrantly breaking what all the instructional books say are things that should be avoided. He didn’t really have an answer. At least not a technical one. The gist of it seemed to be that he was flying by the seat of his pants and writing in the second person and that switching from present to future tense worked for him on that story. It’s a pretty short story, a couple of thousand words or so, set mostly in the tiny town of Arco, Idaho, and involves an 11-year-old girl who is traveling with her father…