The End

 Hunter S. Thompson wrote the end of this book similarly to how I think I would write it. At the end of this book, we find Kemp drinking at a bar with Sala, just like how he is at the beginning of the book. It seems like nothing has changed, except we know that Kemp is different from the person he was before his adventures in the Caribbean. Nothing very exciting happens in the very last few pages, but that just makes everything that happened in the climax seem much more dramatic. It follows the story mountain outline to writing a good story.
 From this ending we can learn that an ending doesn't necessarily need to be dramatic to have an impact or a satisfying finish. Oftentimes saying less is saying a lot more. When I write personal essays, I like to connect the conclusion back to the introduction. It pulls everything together better. This is what Thompson did with his book by having Kemp in the same place in the beginning of the book as he is in the end. In the future, I will try to apply this technique to other pieces of writing and not just for essays.

And Then...

 The words we use when writing are just as important as how we write them too. A perfect example of this is on page 190. Thompson writes, "Then into a palm-lined driveway and hit the rasping brakes, flip down the Press tag on the visor and leave the car in the nearest No Parking zone. Hurry into the lobby, pulling on the coat to my new black suit and dangling a camera in one hand while an oily clerk calls my man to confirm the appointment. Then up a soft elevator to the suite--big greeting, pompous conversatioin, and black coffee from a silver pot, a few quick photos on the balcony, grinning handshake, then back down the elevator and hustle off." The use of all the commas and fragments of sentences forces the reader to read everything quicker than how they usually would read a passage with complete sentences and periods. This helps to illustrate that Kemp is hustling through his day, and getting all these different things done. It also shows that he is not taking the time to really reflect upon or appreciate each new event in his day. It shows that he doesn't really care about what he's doing. He doesn't have a passion for this job that he has, he's just going through each day for the sake of getting through it. The way something is written can say a lot more beyond just the words. This is the ultimate way to show and not tell.

Fast Forward

 Because this book is a very fast paced story, it does a good job with skipping and leaving out unnecessary details and parts nobody would really have cared about. This is a particularly good technique to use when writing short stories or novels. Sometimes, we might feel the need to include every last detail to help the reader better understand what's going on, but a quick summary is usually enough. Adding too many unneeded details will bore the reader and take away from the writing.

 On page 164, it says, "At four we went out to the runway and found Apache warming up. The flight back took thirty minutes," and then, "my car was in the airport lot where I'd left it..." Just from that, the reader already knows everything he needs to know. I wrote before that this story was written in a diary-type format, and just like how someone would only include the bigger events or details of a particular topic, this book does the same thing. It concentrates the writing on more important things. As writers, we should remember to keep our longer pieces free of unnecessary retellings of events and details.

"Balls!"

 In Creative Writing, we've talked about at one point giving a character a word or phrase to say often. This is to add to the personality of the character, and can also add a humorous spark to the writing. In this book, Yeamon's word is "balls," and he says it whenever he deems necessary, which is often.
 I like how he says this instead of a more common curse word. This is his word, something no other character in this book would say. It makes him more special that way. It helps to make him into a 3-D character with unique quirks like real people have. And since it's a funny word, it helps to lighten up the mood now and then as the story progresses.