Cole Eady's "The Grind" is about a young man who tries to find work as a writer. He doesn't really want to be a writer (I'm not entirely sure what he wants, truly), but it's something he finds himself to be good at and is content to find a career in it. The conflict comes when the job he finds completely conflicts with his sense of art and idealism.
Something that worked well, I think, was the detail throughout the piece. I was able to visually follow the narrator through the process of being hired, disgusted, and subsequently quitting. The point of view for this piece was also a good choice - because of the conflict it deals with (internal, idealism versus capitalism) the reader needs to be very intimate with Skipper Fischer, the narrator, in order to understand why he walks out of the writer's room in the end. I also really enjoyed the final line. If it hadn't been there, and everyone had just remained quiet and had maybe felt bad about what they were doing, that would have been too unrealistic for the rest of the piece. The fact that the narrator makes this connection with the people in the room as he quits and leaves, but the connection means nothing to those on the other side, really makes this piece strong.
Something I would work on would be the connection between Skipper and Martin. I understand that the interview process went well, but I don't know why Martin would be so eager to help Skipper and hand him a notepad to save himself. As a reader, I didn't see anything in the interview to warrant that kind of interaction between them.
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