Warbler Delight

I just discovered this short essay that I fell in love with. It's called "Warbler Delight" by Amy Leach. I think this just might be one of my favorite essays that I have blogged about thus far.

Amy Leach's essays is quite perplexing. She starts with a quote from the song "The Water is Wide" but changes some of the wording. Then she describes how she dreams about time traveling. Next she makes a huge change and describes the migratory patterns of the blackpoll warbler.

The Lesson:

The above summary sounded really confusing right? I was a little confused while I first read through this essay as well, but towards the end Leach pulls us back in and connects all the parts of her essay. I guess this is why she writes for magazines.

Leach is able to incorporate allusions and metaphors in her essay and yet does not lose her audience. This can be a difficult feat especially for really inexperienced writers. She writes about warblers and seems a bit off track. Then she pulls us back with the line, "Although we walkers on the ground like to plan for sudden, drastic shifts in time, mostly we seem time locked. We winter, we summer, we winter, we summer; while the warbler flies from summer to summer to summer to summer!"

I think that this quote is so beautiful and so true to how we feel (especially me since I am currently in the frigid winter of Idaho when I am originally from California). Leach does a great job of keeping her metaphors relevant and controlled.

How we can apply this in our own writing:

• use metaphors but be careful
• make sure the metaphor is relevant to what you are trying to say
• don't go overboard with metaphors and allusions

Personal Essay II

Here is another one of my own essays. Like the other essay, this essay is no where close to being done. I share this with you not because I think it is an awesome example, but because I think it is important to learn about the process of writing.Besides, I'm the blogger, so I get to choose.

The Lesson:

I like to think that all essays teach me something new as I write them. Essays are like a journey through the desert. Once your done (and never before), it's good to look back and think about what you learned.

In this particular essay, I got the feed back that I needed to include more details about being in the room with my sick grandma. I felt slightly uncomfortable during that part of my essay, so I think that I rushed through it.

Writers need to learn that sometimes when you're writing about something that is important to you, you will be uncomfortable. My boss one time shared a quote from an unknown author: "Everything you write should be on the verge of embarrassing you." It's okay to feel uncomfortable because that means you picked a good subject that has a lot of meaning to you and needs to be explored.

So Writers, don't feel embarrassed. Write about a subject that you feel needs exploring and don't worry about how others might judge you.

How we can apply this into our own writing:

• Don't be scared to dive deeper into a subject
• Don't let your audience intimidate you before you even start writing

This afternoon feels hot and sticky. My grandmother feeds my little sister in an old wooden high chair. My mom leans against the breakfast bar in the old brown kitchen while fanning herself and asking about home remedies for headaches. My older sister, brother, and I explore the backyard looking for wild raspberries while avoiding bees. My grandparents love vegetation though have no talent for growing a garden. As a result, bushes including but not limited to rhubarb, raspberries, squash, and bushes that I don’t even know the names to overrun their backyard. My siblings and I pretend that we are on an Amazon safari as we push through the vegetation. Bees and grasshoppers make a roaring buzz around the backyard. I smell marigolds, which I hate, but my Grandma likes their bright colors of orange and yellow, so they grow in all of the planter boxes.

I feel a sting on the bottom of my foot, and I think for a second that I have stepped on a knife. I let out a blood curtailing scream, and the next thing I know I am swept into the kitchen to sit on the window seat that over looks the backyard. My mother scolds me about not wearing shoes and about stepping on one of my grandpa’s honeybees. My grandma speaks in a soothing tone. She inspects my foot with her overly large glasses and wipes something green that is probably aloe vera over my wound. The aloe vera works magic, and the pain begins to subside as do my tears. I spend the afternoon on that window seat watching the birdfeeder from the kitchen window due to the sting and immobility.

Bob Barker flashes across the television screen telling the whole audience of the wonderful prizes that await them if they can only guess the right price. I’m sitting on my grandparent’s large oak bed with my younger sister. My grandma sits in a large black chair resembling something from a dentist office because she can’t sit up by herself anymore. She laughs in a weird way that sounds like a cross between hysterical sobs and hiccups. She can’t talk anymore: ALS is taking her life. After months of praying for her recovery, my family has made this trip because the doctor says that she might die any day. My mom told us to keep my grandma company while she makes lunch in the kitchen. I try to be the dutiful daughter who cares.

I hate being in that room with my grandma. She scares me. The sickness has turned her into someone less capable than my three-year-old sister. What used to be a plump woman with big speckles has been reduced to a withering human who can only wait for death to come. She used to comfort her family when needed, and now she cried when she found out that she could no longer carve the Thanksgiving turkey as a result of her disease. I don’t like being around someone who makes concrete the trials that I have always known to be abstract.

My mom called us into lunch. I look at my stationary grandmother and tell her that I will come back after I eat lunch. As I sit in the kitchen, my Lipton chicken noodle soup does not taste good. Soup reminds me of sick people. I slowly spin around in the worn swivel chairs that sit against the breakfast bar. After lunch I quickly run downstairs avoiding my mom to join my siblings watching a movie in hopes that I wouldn’t be forced into the upstairs guestroom to watch The Price is Right.

Ten years ago, I ran out of my grandma’s room because watching her suffer made me nauseous. My mom used to pridefully tell my elementary school teachers that I would run at the first signs of trouble. That was when I was ten years old and could barely be blamed for my actions. I recognize now that you can’t make it through life without accepting that there will be some adversity, but I think I’m still afraid. Sometimes I wonder if I would act any differently if that day with my grandma had been yesterday. I am afraid that fear of suffering will someday keep me from having the ability to care for those that have cared for me when I am in need.

Writer's Block

One time for work, I watched a video about college students and writing. They interviewed a student with a New York accent, and she said that when she began writing she was always afraid of the "blank page." I never knew what this meant until I began writing an essay for work this last semester.

The Lesson:

This particular essay, I really struggled with beginning. I was afraid of something and for days I diagnosed myself with writer's block. I could not make myself sit down and write. Everything was distracting.

Writer's block is defined as "the condition of not being able to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing." I would add that writer's block also gives the writer a temporary case of some sort of attention deficit because everything seems more important and interesting than what you are writing.

On the weekend before the essay was due, I decided that I was going to force myself to begin writing. So I sat down. Then I saw that cursed blank page in front of me, and I was afraid. I called my mom. While talking to my mom I noticed that my toenail polish was chipped and as result painted them a nice dark red. Then I was hungry, so I ate my roommate's brownies that she left on the kitchen table.

By this time it was about midnight and there was still a nice blank white sheet in front of me. I decided to just write one paragraph no matter how it sounded. I began writing. I was amazed at how easily the words were coming to me. The writer's block was lifted and I was able to write. It wasn't a perfect draft, but I had managed to get down everything I wanted to say.

I write about this because being afraid of starting an essay happens to everyone. Writers just need to learn for themselves how to break that writer's block.

How we can apply this into our own writing:

• just start writing
• don't let the blank page scare you
• trick your self into writing by rewarding yourself (I find this works very well for myself)

Once More to the Lake

E.B. White's essay "Once More to the Lake" captures an experience he has while on vacation with his son. While vacationing on the lake, White notes the feeling that he has that no time has really passed since he used to come to the lake as a child because he can see himself in his son: "I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn't know which rod I was at the end of."

The Lesson:

There is a common misconception in the back of every writer's mind that says that no one really care about what you have to say in your writing. This is a foolish assumption because chances are someone has felt the way that you feel especially if you have been honest in your writing. Just write things how they happened and no one will feel as though your writing is pointless.

E.B. White does a good job of this in his essay. He wrote about a simple experience in his life. Despite that this was just a small moment, I feel that his essay relates to a lot of people. "It is strange how much you can remember about places like that once you allow your mind to return into the grooves which lead back."

We have all been in places that make us feel nostalgic and a little sad about the passing time. New experiences are exciting, but E.B. White captures a moment when he feels insecure about the passing time. I think that all of us feel like this at some point.

E.B. White writes about a time that might seem insignificant but still manages to make an impact on his audience.

How to apply this in our own writing:

• Just write
• Write about something that had an impact on yourself
• Don't worry about someone thinking that it is stupid
• Write things how they happened; don't add fluff

E.B. White

It's time for another writer's profile. Another writer I really admire is E.B. White. Most people know him from the popular children book Charlotte's Web. Charlotte's Web holds a special place in my heart because that is where my early childhood vocabulary came from. I used to greet my mom with a "Salutations, Mother!"

E.B. White was born July 11, 1899, in Mt. Vernon, New York. His writing career began by him being an editor for a newspaper. His best known children books are of Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. His non-fiction includes The Elements of Style, and his collection of essays. He also wrote for newspapers and magazines.

The Lesson:

The most important thing to remember about E.B. White other than being a phenomenal writer is to see the diversity of his writing. E.B. White excelled in many types of writing. He is a great example of a very well rounded writer. He wrote many types of genres and excelled at them all.

While we can't all be E.B. White, we need to be familiar with other kinds of writing. This will improve your writing all around and will also make you more marketable if you wish to pursue a career in writing.

How we can apply this to our own writing:

• try writing other genres of writing
• read other types of writing to get ideas

Soul Essay

At work, my boss always requires us to write a personal essay every semester. This isn't surprising since I work at the Writing Center. However, I have always felt more comfortable writing research papers, so this has been a new experience for me.

We call these essays "Soul Essays" because they can be a little difficult to write (or really difficult), and you have to put your soul into it. I've decided to share one of my essays for criticism because like I've said, I'm new at creative non-fiction.

Since this is a first draft, I know that I need to practice the attributes that I have been preaching. Writing a personal essay is always a work in progress.

The Lesson:

Before reading this essay, know that it was about twice as long in it's first draft. I had included about two more pages about the details of that night. When I took it into my boss, she edited it and suggested that I cut out the first two pages. That hurt.

An essay is like a baby to the writer. Cutting out parts is hard and painful. However, in the end, the cutting will be good for your essay and make it more readable.

It was my choice, and I decided to cut the first two pages. It was a good choice. I removed clutter, and now my essay is much clear.

How We can apply this to our own writing:

• Revise
• Don't be afraid to make revisions and cut parts of your essay
• Have an objective audience read over your paper and tell you what isn't working

Your Best Friend

I got to the big metal doors of the choir room that were wide open, hopefully providing some ventilation for the two hundred plus students on the warm September night. Inside a flurry of activity was going on before the choir concert was supposed to start. Melissa and Sara sat in front of the ceiling high mirrors that were intended for dancers. I didn’t join them. Melissa and Sara had been best friends since middle school and anything I could add to their conversation would just be awkward. They pasted makeup on their faces, so that they could be seen from the back of the audience and to hopefully complement their white blouses with three-inch-high shoulder pads with matching black balloon pants. Those outfits were hideous, and I was glad I had graduated out of them a year ago when I had been accepted into the A Capella choir. I hated those mirrors. There was something about the combination of the fluorescent lighting and the mirrors that made my face look washed out and pasty. My reflection in that room was enough to make my self-confidence drop by ten percent.

I pushed my way past a few clumps of people to the old, rickety risers that had probably stood there since Mrs. Stuart started teaching in the seventies. My friend Daniel was sitting on the top most risers. The different levels groaned in protest with every step up that I took. I sat down beside him and began adjusting the buckles of my black stage shoes.

I felt comfortable talking to Daniel. I was afraid of joining some of the other members of the choir because they might find me boring or weird. I didn’t ever have anything important or witty to say to them, so I always felt unwelcome. By being completely passive towards people, I never annoyed anyone, and no one seemed to dislike me. Daniel was different. We had known each other for years since our siblings had made friends in choir. Once we reached high school and where finally attending the same school, we quickly became really good friends. At the beginning of high school, he was about my height (that quickly changed), and I think I was one of the few girls that didn’t intimidate him. We sat next to each other in seminary and rebelled against our strict teacher that had tried to enforce a seating chart. He always wanted to sit next to me. One time at a church dance, a game was played where the girls had to throw one of their shoes in a pile, and the guys were supposed to take a shoe and dance with whatever girl it belonged to. I had thrown my brown and pink checkered Vans into the pile. Daniel was the one who picked out my shoe even though he was supposed to randomly select a shoe. Daniel was the first boy I held hands with – at a choir competition while we were waiting for some other choir to perform. At the end of the year, Daniel signed my yearbook “your best friend.”

This year, Daniel and I were still really close though we had started hanging out with different people. He seemed to fit in perfectly with those other people in choir that made me feel so unwelcome. I became more attached to my fellow students in my English and history classes because we did so many class projects together. Daniel was still my best friend, so it was sad that we were spending less time together, and he seemed to be enjoying himself so much.

That evening at the concert, I was relieved to find Daniel sitting by himself apart from all of his new friends. As I sat next to him, he greeted me and asked how things were going. My buckles were always so difficult to tighten because the elastic part of the strap was beginning to loosen. I exchanged the usual greetings and noticed Daniel had a disinterested look on his face as his eyes began to wonder longingly to Alyssa and Katy as they sat laughing and talking with some of his other friends. In attempt to get his attention back, I began telling him a story about how my little sister had gotten mad at me and had thrown all my clothes out the window. Half way through the story, he interrupted me. “You known sometimes you tell stories and no one really knows or cares what you’re talking about.”

The room suddenly began to feel very stuffy and hot, and all the sound seemed blocked out. I had a similar sensation to the time that I had become lightheaded in the 3^rd grade when I had used a straw to blow through to paint a picture. I felt very alone. Through my embarrassment, I quickly went back to buckling my shoe. I think I may have heard myself mumbling an apology and excuse to Daniel. He went to join the other group a few risers down.

Sometimes when I talk to people, I carefully make sure that my talking is something that they want to hear. If I see that disinterested look, I quickly refrain from speaking. When I go back home and see Daniel, our visits are boring because we have nothing to say.

Notebooks

Joan Didion wrote an essay titles "On Keeping a Notebook." I couldn't find a really great link for this essay, so I would recommend googling the essay title and Joan Didion's name to find the essay. Obviously, the essay is written about Joan Didion's views on keeping a notebook.

Keeping a notebook is very important for a writer. My friend Matt used to keep a small notebook on him at all times. Sometimes you would be talking to him and he would pull out his notebook and start writing in it. To tell you the truth, this always made me a bit nervous just in case he was writing about how stupid I was. This probably wasn't the case, and he probably can remember a lot more than I can from situations.

The Lesson:

A notebook will help you jot down things that you might want to remember. Sometimes when I write essays, I struggle to remember details. Memories over time become blurry, and I think that a notebook might keep a writer from forgetting important details.

Now notice how I have refrained from calling this notebook a diary or journal. I don't think it is necessary to chronicle your day. I think it could be useful to record just notes though. I think that a notebook is a great asset for writing.

How to apply this into our own writing:

• Keep a notebook.
• Don't procrastinate writing something down
• Be discreet; Don't make people nervous while your writing
• Keep your notebook close by: in your purse, backpack, pocket

No Taking Pictures

J.D. Riso writes an essay called "No Taking Pictures." In this essay Riso describes her experiences in a black market alley with her sister and friends. She is affected by the cruelty of the alley but can't do anything. She laughs off the experience, so she doesn't seem like a sissy even though she is close to throwing up.

The Lesson:

Riso paints a picture in her essay. There were a few times that I felt queasy, so I maybe wouldn't recommend the essay for those that have super sensitive stomachs. However, You are there with Riso as she explores the essay. She gets down to the nitty-gritty details, and feel sick to your stomach as she is about to vomit.

Take a look at this passage from the essay:

"There is a systemic rhythm to his work. He reaches into the aquarium, lays the turtle on the chopping block, brings the butcher knife down in one swift movement, drains the turtle’s blood into a glass, and then tosses the remains on a pile of writhing carcasses. The fat little legs rotate like windup toys running out of steam."

Through these details we feel as though we are seeing the turtle die with the author. Riso's feelings are translated into detail and we are shown how to feel in this essay. Later we see the contrast when Riso laughs because that is the exact opposite of what you feel like doing after this essay.

Riso creates an emotional tie with her audience through the use of her details and dialogue. Her dialogue makes the audience feel as though they can hear the conversations. Her details makes her audience see and smell the alley. Riso uses her writing to her advantage, and we can see her conflict with laughing the situation off.

How to apply this into our own writing:

• Show your audience with the details, don't just tell them how to feel
• concentrate on important details that you remember
• include sensory details including smell, sight, touch, taste, and sound

The Birth of Cool

The “Birth of Cool” by Aiasha Sabitini Sloan describes her experiences growing up as a mixed race child in Los Angeles. At the same time she describes the life of musician Thelonius Sphere Monk.

This essay is different than the other essays in that Sloan chose to write about many experiences in her life as well as the experience of another. Choosing too many experiences can be dangerous because there is a risk of your theme becoming clouded. Sloan avoided this by keeping a tight theme and consistencies.

The Lesson:

Sloan picks times in her life that tie together because of the way that they made her feel. Racism makes her feel out of place such as when her classmate tells her he doesn’t like her curly hair,“

"'Why is your hair like that?' Every day for the next four years I wore it in a tight bun. Some might call me oversensitive." Wearing her hair in a bun shows the hurt she does feel from racism which ties into the theme of achieving "cool" throughout the essay.

She also ties Thelonius Monk into her story by tying in her opening scene of Los Angles glinting, and Monk glinting as he plays the piano. Monk was born before the Civil Rights Movement and has managed to achieve that “cool” that everyone is trying to achieve despite his race.

Sloan does a fine job keeping her essay flowing and relevant. Essays that jump from memory to memory need to follow the example that Sloan provides.

How we can apply this in our own writing:

• tie all anecdotes into a common theme.
• focus on details that show that theme.
• Cut any distracting details or anecdotes.
• make sure one major theme is apparent.
• Ask yourself the question, "So what does this essay mean?"

Oh Be Wise, Revise

You have known about this final paper due for your class since the beginning of the semester. You planned to start it weeks ago. You procrastinated. Now it’s three hours before the paper is due, and you’re on your computer furiously typing. Does this situation sound familiar?

Maybe you're a way ahead of the game and always have your papers done weeks in advance, but probability makes me think otherwise. The problem of procrastination starts in school and haunts writers everywhere. All students of writing have at one point thought as long as their rough draft wasn’t the worst of the many first drafts that are turned in, the grade should be fine. Let’s face it, most of us have or will procrastinate writing at some point.

On the front desk of where I work, my bosses business cards say, “Oh Be Wise, Revise.” Papers that are not first drafts have a much greater chance of getting better marks. You can edit your paper for the content and the spelling and grammar mistakes.

The Lesson:

Teachers everywhere will be much happier if papers revised. Besides, think how nice it will be to not have to get a paper back where you have misspelled the author’s name of the poem you are analyzing. So read over your paper. Have your roommate, lover, family, and friends read over your paper. Try to make the time to revise.

How to Apply This to our own Writing:

• Start one day earlier on your writing
• Swallow your pride and have someone else read your paper
• Read over your own paper out loud
• Take a break and come back to your paper
• Don't be afraid to cut out parts of your paper

Montage

While looking for an example of a montage essay, I came across this one by Sunny Woan.

In this essay, she describes two different experiences of when she travels to Beijing to visit her Grandfather's house. Her Beijing is very different than the one portrayed in the media.

This essay is important to look at because it shows what a montage essay should do. A montage essay is a steam of different events in the writers life. Writers sometimes get in trouble trying to add too many experiences in their essays. Sometimes the main idea of their essay becomes clouded.

The key to creating a successful montage essay is focus. Woan does this because her two different experiences are relevant to the main point she is trying to describe. When writing a montage essay, the writer must ask themselves what the main point is and if the experiences describe that point.

On Going Home

"Sometimes I think that those of us who are now in our thirties were born into the last generation to carry the burden of “home,” to find in family life the source of all tension and drama."

I told you that Joan Didion was going to come back up. Out of her many fabulous essays, I have chosen to write about "On Going Home."

In this essay, Didion describes her sentiments that she feels as an adult with a daughter when she goes home. Didion seeks to define home as it has now changed for her.

I love this essay because I feel as adults, many of us are striving to define what home actually is. I'm a junior in college and home has changed for me a lot over the past few years. My parents have moved from my hometown and my siblings are all growing up. Sometimes I wonder what home really is. Is it a place or is it a state of being. If it's a state of being, I don't think I have been there in a long time.

Joan Didion's essay is wonderful because I feel that I can really relate. I think many people feel that they have lost what home really is.

Why I Write

Many others have chosen to write a piece explaining why they write. Joan Didion and George Orwell just to name a couple. One of favorite "Why I Write" pieces is by Terry Tempest Williams.

I this essay, Williams mentions all the reasons that she could want to write. I love the repetitiveness of this essay. I think it works and is beautiful.

I also love the contradictions that this essay has. She says that, "I write because I believe in words. Later she goes on the say, "I write knowing that words will always fall short." This contradiction is so true with writing. Writers write exposing vulnerability.

My challenge to all writers of creative non-fiction is to find out why you write.

Joan Didion

When I am asked who admire most, I have a new answer. I used to not know and just give the answer of Walt Disney. I have discovered in past years that Walt Disney isn't as amazing as I once thought. My new answer is Joan Didion.

When I grow up, I would love to be this lady. She is known as the master of the personal essay. Since she is so great, I have decided to dedicate this post to her.

Didion was born in 1934. She got her first job writing for Vogue. She has also written for The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, and Life.

Most importantly, she has writing a personal essay down perfectly. In her essay "Why I Write," she said, "I write entirely to find our what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear."

Didion is right. A personal essay is completely for yourself. No one can tell you what your essay is about. A personal essay is about discovery and answers. I will definitely be visiting some of Didion's essays in future posts.

Leap

Okay. So the next essay I chose is Brian Doyle's "Leap." I think that this may be one of my favorite creative non-fiction essays.

This essay while rather short, also achieves power. How does an author do this? Well whatever Brian did, Brian does well considering he has been published several times. What lessons can less advanced writers take from Mr. Doyle?

The of the biggest things that I noticed that Brian Doyle did was pick a topic that is close to his target audience. As the editor of the Portland Magazine of the University of Portland, his audience tends to be college students attending school in America.

Brian Doyle chose a topic that would be close to his audience. He chose September 11, a date that most of his audience would all remember pretty clearly. His audience probably remembers some of the effects of this date as well.

Sad as it may be, however, September 11 seems to be fading into a history book much like the date of Pearl Harbor has. Brain Doyle manages to engage his audience anyway. First he uses specific details like the pink mist. This detail makes readers a little sick to the stomach as this essay should. He also chooses to portray simple love that his audience can relate to. The holding hands couple seems to reach through the essay and pull in the audience through their innocent act of love.

Brian Doyle's essay is simple and yet powerfully effects those that read his work.

Enough

An importance aspect to a personal essay is honesty. To demonstrate this principle I selected this essay, http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/frykholm_enough.php.

In this essay, Amy Johnson describes one of her days in a soup kitchen. In the end, she gets to the root of a question that is in herself. What is enough? Instead of trying to hide behind anything else that is happening during this experience, she gets down to the root of what is bothering her.

Personal essays are often about some conflict in the author's life. Sometimes even the author doesn't know about what that conflict is until they start writing. E.M. Forester said, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say." Maybe we have to write about something before we can really make any kind of sense about what has happened to us.

All too often writers become afraid of what they're discovering, so they hide behind their words. Sometimes they are not ready to write about an experience, so they will panic half way and not get to any answers. So the key is being honest with ourselves in writing and not writing about something until we are ready.

The Ladder of Abstraction

"The Fourth State of Matter" by Jo Ann Beard is the next specimen that I have chosen.

This essays tells of Beard's experience during the murder of her friends and colleagues at the University of Iowa. Though this is a longer essay, the writing keeps the reader engaged the whole time. Beard does by using her ability to move up and down the abstraction ladder.

What is the abstraction ladder? Imagine a ladder of your choice. Located at the top most rung of that ladder are words like love, success, irritation, and friendship. But what do any of these words really mean?

Start climbing all the way down that ladder until you get down to the bottom, and you find thing like friendship -- when my roommate zips up my zipper because I can't reach or irritation -- hairspray plastered to the vanity counter with hair stuck in it from when my roommate did her hair. Using these words, you have moved from telling your audience you were irritated to showing your audience your moment of irritation.

This essay is a perfect example of using the abstraction ladder to Beard's benefit. She uses words like "satisfying" which is high on the abstraction ladder, but then she goes on to describe an example of satisfaction. She captivates her audience with this strategy making her essay a good read.

When Dolls Talk

"At the same time, however, I feel a tinge of sadness; it was the best I could do with Belinda . . . I didn’t really know Belinda, her joys; her pains. And I doubt she knew me."

For my next essay to be examined, I searched the internet. This was the gem of an essay that I found, http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/perez_dollstalk.php. This essay by David Perez details an experience that that he had while playing dolls with his daughter.

Why do I like this essay so much? I like it because Perez chose a small moment from his life to write about. While the exact moment of Perez playing with his daughter is the main focus of the story, that moment is tied into a bigger truth in Perez's life. While the doll scene is well described and cute, later we find out that this was as far as Perez's role of a father went. Other than that moment, he wasn't much of a father to Belinda which is something that he now regrets.

This essay demonstrates the need of meaning in creative nonfiction. Writing about just any experience is great, but then your essay is just a good story. There needs to be a greater purpose in the writing, a theme.

Looking back at my first personal essay, I realize that my essay had no real purpose. I wrote about being afraid of the dark when I was young. I wrote it for entertainment, and my readers and I learned nothing about myself. "So what?" should have been a question I should have asked myself. Was the fear of the dark some manifestation of anxiety problems I have now or was it about the dependence I have on my mother?

I feel that the personal essay is about self discovery: uncovering truths about oneself. Perez did this. We learned of the insecurities he feels towards being a father. I also feel that anything worth writing a personal essay about has meaning. To end this post, I would say "Keep writing and discovering."

"Take this fish, and look at it."

"Learning to See" written by Samuel Scudder is the first essay I have decided to write a post on. Mr. Scudders essays documents an event in his student days at a collage with a Professor Agassiz. Professor Agassiz insists that before Scudder can get on to other school work, Scudder must study an old preserved fish and describe it. Scudder studies the fish for hours and then days before he is able to satisfy his professor.

The reason I chose this essay to be my first post is because I feel that it shows one of the biggest foundations for the writing of any essay not just creative non-fiction. Samuel Scudders experience with the old fish shows that writers must look at every aspect of their topic to become successful.

For research and analytical papers, this means understanding every aspect of the topic that is being discussed. Really look deep into the issue at hand. This means doing a lot the research. I know that sometimes research papers are painful and the typical student will spend the least amount of time as possible, but in order to be successful, a writer needs to take the time to see.

But what does this mean for creative non-fiction? Scudder learned to see ever detail of that fish that he was forced to look at. In a good creative non-fiction essay, the details need to be there in order that the audience will see what the writer sees. Also, the writer needs to look the event being written about from every angle. This allows the writer themselves to see the importance of their topic.

So, how do we do this? Well, we have to learn to see, just as Samuel Scudder, and while it may not involve looking at rotten fish for hours, we all need to find our own personal way to notice things around us. For some, that simply means just really being awake as we walk around. So the advice of the day, Remember to keep your eyes open.

Until next time.

Prologue

In consideration of what I wanted to write this blog about, I thought why not blog about something I enjoy and might benefit from?

This semester, I have found my love for creative non-fiction writing. As a student of English, I get to read a lot, and I'll admit it, not all writing is created equal. I have my favorites. I've found that the writing that I admire most are well-written personal essays. After I read these essays, I want to be able to write like these authors. A lot can be learned from looking and analyzing other's essays.

In this blog, I intend to read personal essays, and then I will comment on what I found particularly well done or not so well done in the essay. Hopefully by learning from these essays, other writers and I can implement the good qualities into our own writing.