Assignment 3
The Nitty-Gritty: Yes, let's do 4 essays. And if it would be all right let's extend the class a bit so I can revise them, because I will be writing most of them "on the road": one in South Dakota, one in New York, and one in Boston (I think!?). I'm excited because it will be back to days of writing on notebooks and transcribing them, which I haven't done since high school.
My target audience would probably be: everyone. I want everyone to like what I read, everyone to be interested, and smart and dumb people to cling to each other when it gets to the scary parts. That sort of thing. Mostly I guess I just want to write something really good. And I know that I have to lower my expectations sometimes, because I can be a perfectionist (but that's what makes me get better, I always think). I guess I'm just freaking out. The story turned out all right, I think. It just seems like something that men would NOT be interested in reading about, but I really want men to like my writing. I don't just want to write something that women would like. I don't know why that is. It's not because I like men better, it's because I'm just interested in EVERYONE and I want to try and "get" the hard readers.
AMENDMENT:
First, I apologize for the weird tone of the above post. Some of it came off sounding really snide, and I didn't mean it to. I just get really myopic about my writing sometimes.
And now . . .
1. What, from the readings, did you learn to do or not do when crafting your own essay?
I learned a lot about writing in general--especially the kind of humor that I started to see in all of the excerpts I read. I really liked it and I wanted to be able to do that in my writing. I like how definitive the Shadowboxing book is--I didn't know that there were all of these categories! But I'd like to see a book that had the "feint" and terms that you gave me, in it. At the same time, I don't really think about structure until it's finished, and then I go back to the weak spots and try to figure out why they need editing. So I guess I need to pay more attention to structure from the beginning. I learned a lot from the excerpts because I analyzed the tone, style, etc. (just all of the elements) to see if I could explain how they "did it".
The Style book helped me to be more aware of "strong" nouns and verbs. I found it interesting to see how "flowery" language versus the more minimal style differ -- I swear, I don't know this stuff. I just go by instinct, but when I make a mistake, and can't understand why it doesn't work, then I'm completely lost. Some people seem to think I'm lying when I make mistakes -- for example, one professor was kind of shocked that I won the writing award, because I had just turned in a last-minute, hastily-written paper to her. She said she was "kind of surprised."
2. What stylistic techniques did you employ?
Probably the "Memoir" (though I'm not wholly sure) because, although I told it as a chronological story (sort of) I began the story by "looking back" on myself from the future. So the reader knew that I was writing this as a (semi)adult. I also kept dipping back in between sections and during sections to explain how I felt about it overall.
3. Anything else you choose to comment on: audience, challenges you faced, etc.
I would guess that my target audience for the personal essay would be young women, ages 13 to 30. But why can't guys read it? Wouldn't some guys be interested? When I write, I focus more on making it something that I would read--or that my "ideal reader" (I heard that term somewhere) would--which is to say, it's more singular than an audience. But I'm into classic sort of writing, like Flannery O'Connor, and I always want to write those kind of things. Stuff that manly men read, too :) I don't know where this need comes from. Maybe having 5 brothers?
Next, you said that you were curious as to why I found my personal piece to "not be as interesting as anything else I've written or read". I tried to write about going to the lake with my family, but I got bored. And then I started to write about my first writing experiences, and I ended up finding the ballet theme. Then I got interested, because ballet is this weird hole in my life--I loved it so much and I wondered what it had to do with how I started writing. When I looked back at my life, I just thought that I wasn't interested in making any of it into an essay. Whether it was too personal or I kept making up details because I didn't remember much, nothing seemed to work. But I may just be in a slump. I have no idea.
The Nitty-Gritty: Yes, let's do 4 essays. And if it would be all right let's extend the class a bit so I can revise them, because I will be writing most of them "on the road": one in South Dakota, one in New York, and one in Boston (I think!?). I'm excited because it will be back to days of writing on notebooks and transcribing them, which I haven't done since high school.
My target audience would probably be: everyone. I want everyone to like what I read, everyone to be interested, and smart and dumb people to cling to each other when it gets to the scary parts. That sort of thing. Mostly I guess I just want to write something really good. And I know that I have to lower my expectations sometimes, because I can be a perfectionist (but that's what makes me get better, I always think). I guess I'm just freaking out. The story turned out all right, I think. It just seems like something that men would NOT be interested in reading about, but I really want men to like my writing. I don't just want to write something that women would like. I don't know why that is. It's not because I like men better, it's because I'm just interested in EVERYONE and I want to try and "get" the hard readers.
AMENDMENT:
First, I apologize for the weird tone of the above post. Some of it came off sounding really snide, and I didn't mean it to. I just get really myopic about my writing sometimes.
And now . . .
1. What, from the readings, did you learn to do or not do when crafting your own essay?
I learned a lot about writing in general--especially the kind of humor that I started to see in all of the excerpts I read. I really liked it and I wanted to be able to do that in my writing. I like how definitive the Shadowboxing book is--I didn't know that there were all of these categories! But I'd like to see a book that had the "feint" and terms that you gave me, in it. At the same time, I don't really think about structure until it's finished, and then I go back to the weak spots and try to figure out why they need editing. So I guess I need to pay more attention to structure from the beginning. I learned a lot from the excerpts because I analyzed the tone, style, etc. (just all of the elements) to see if I could explain how they "did it".
The Style book helped me to be more aware of "strong" nouns and verbs. I found it interesting to see how "flowery" language versus the more minimal style differ -- I swear, I don't know this stuff. I just go by instinct, but when I make a mistake, and can't understand why it doesn't work, then I'm completely lost. Some people seem to think I'm lying when I make mistakes -- for example, one professor was kind of shocked that I won the writing award, because I had just turned in a last-minute, hastily-written paper to her. She said she was "kind of surprised."
2. What stylistic techniques did you employ?
Probably the "Memoir" (though I'm not wholly sure) because, although I told it as a chronological story (sort of) I began the story by "looking back" on myself from the future. So the reader knew that I was writing this as a (semi)adult. I also kept dipping back in between sections and during sections to explain how I felt about it overall.
3. Anything else you choose to comment on: audience, challenges you faced, etc.
I would guess that my target audience for the personal essay would be young women, ages 13 to 30. But why can't guys read it? Wouldn't some guys be interested? When I write, I focus more on making it something that I would read--or that my "ideal reader" (I heard that term somewhere) would--which is to say, it's more singular than an audience. But I'm into classic sort of writing, like Flannery O'Connor, and I always want to write those kind of things. Stuff that manly men read, too :) I don't know where this need comes from. Maybe having 5 brothers?
Next, you said that you were curious as to why I found my personal piece to "not be as interesting as anything else I've written or read". I tried to write about going to the lake with my family, but I got bored. And then I started to write about my first writing experiences, and I ended up finding the ballet theme. Then I got interested, because ballet is this weird hole in my life--I loved it so much and I wondered what it had to do with how I started writing. When I looked back at my life, I just thought that I wasn't interested in making any of it into an essay. Whether it was too personal or I kept making up details because I didn't remember much, nothing seemed to work. But I may just be in a slump. I have no idea.
posted by jameskandy at 12:32 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Yasmin,
I didn't think your tone in this post was weird, or snide, at all -- no worries. You're allowed to get frustrated with your work -- or even frustrated with me -- just tell me why so I can help.
I'll address what you wrote in the bottom of your post first, which seems most pressing: Trying to find a subject matter that you care enough to write about, but you don't think is too personal. There's no right answer to this, of course, but it does tingue all non-fiction. I posed some questions to try to help you: Write about what's pressing on your mind right now, what you care about, what excites you, what makes you nervous. But you have to find your comfort zone -- I don't want you to share anything you don't wish to.
In other news:
I always warn writers to be careful when they say their audience is everyone. It would be nice, of course, to have the entire world want to read our work, but the reality is that not EVERYONE is interested in EVERY work. (There are exceptions, of course, but they are far and few and in between. Even classic works, like This Boy's Life, isn't for everyone, or at least not everyone would read it.)
Why would men be interested in ballet, for instance? I'm sure they could be, but perhaps for different reasons than a young woman would be. Perhaps a male audience would be interested in the hard physical element of dance; they might relate it to sport, for instance. Perhaps a man would be interested in how ballet helps shape the woman's physique. But its beauty? Not so much.
Am I stereotyping the audience? You bet. But we need to at least guess at what an audience cares about in order to write to it, to cater to it.
There's an old journalistic adage: Tell the reader what they WANT to hear, and what they NEED to hear. Just tell them what YOU want them to know, and they might not care because they can't relate the information to their own lives.
So, there's my audience "lecture" for this week. Know who you want to write to, and what they might be interested in, and you narrow down your content.
I'm going to send you notes on your personal essay through e-mail; no need to post grades or anything else personal in a public blog.
BTW, small note, but a memoir is more of an organizataional or structural choice -- at least the way I described it last week -- and not really a style choice, which has more to do with sentence structures, strong verbs/nouns, addressing an audience, and finding an appropriate tone ... all the stuff you're reading about in the Style book this summer. I'll explain that more in my separate e-mail to you.
I'm glad you liked the humorous tones of the past works; I'm drawn to funny stuff, and I think that's why I gave you that to read, however subconsciously. You'll like the reading for next week too, which is David Sedaris' "Monie Changes Everything," from his Dress Your Family ... collection.
There is also a fictional work, "Novice Bitch" from Elissa Schappell's Use Me collection, that I'm also sending you as a .pdf through your e-mail account as a great example of a character sketch. Even though it's fictional, it's so well done that I wonder how close it is to the truth (as fiction is, anyway).
The tone is much different than other works I've had you read; I'd like you to consider why this is so, why the different tones of both works might be appropriate to the subject, and how the writers are able to "write" in different tones. (How do their works sound? What do they emphasize?)
On top of the two readings of character sketches, I'd like you to read the Style chapter on ... whaddya know ... character, which I think is chapter 5. Tell me how Schappell and Sedaris used "character style" in their works.
I'd like you to take a close work on the main "character" both works portray. What are the authors trying to show about their characters, thematically?
How subjective -- or objective -- do the authors choose to be when they write about their subjects? What details do they choose to use to "prove" their point about the character? How are other characters used to show the main character?
Also, I'd like you to consider the dialogue -- how does the dialogue help to show the main character?
I'm going to make your character sketch due in two weeks (a week from this Friday). Here are the guidelines:
Write a 4- to 6-page character sketch of someone you know well, telling their “story” as you see fit. You’ll be building on the skills you learned in the first assignment – focus, organization, empathy, etc. – but more than that, you’ll be focusing on the details that will bring your narrative to life.
Your assignment must include some type of dialogue. Also important to remember is that while you might play a part in this writing – and indeed, you might include yourself in part of the writing – the focus should be on the person you are writing about. Consideration should also be given to whether or you are being too objective, too subjective – the choice is yours, although somewhat mandated by the genre you choose.
You have the freedom to be creative with form and approach. That is, you do not have to craft a “standard” essay — i.e. one line of thought told in a predictable sequence of events, related through paragraphs of discussion. For instance, you can consider alternate possibilities of designing and communicating your narrative effectively. It’s possible to write it as an article – what do people who are interested in your “character” read? Wired? Rolling Stone? – and create the work in the voice of the publication where it might occur.
At the same time as you are thinking and writing creatively, remember that you need to design and communicate an effective piece for your readers, or “audience.” Think about what would make your narrative most effective for your reader(s).
See you on the blog Friday, and e-mail me if you have any questions!
Danita
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