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Monday, June 29, 2009

Hit a Wall or a Crossroad

I'm working on a Creative Non-fiction piece about my time living in Hawaii. It has turned out to be a traditional Memoir. My professor wrote a great lecture about keeping our ego out of our memoirs. I really needed that lecture. I find that when i write a memoir, I often try to weave a deeper meaning into it. Something that I want to "teach" my readers. I want to avoid that with this piece. The problem is, I don't know how. I'm stuck in a rut of habit and I am working on digging my way out.

I put the piece on our class' writer's workshop early hoping to get some good feedback. Really, this piece was written for them. My first draft was a bunch of ideas that I could write on and they seemed to really like learning about Life in Hawaii and their culture. So I'm hoping they can help me finish it like they helped me start it. We'll see. In the mean time, I'm going to set it aside for a bit and roll it around in my brain.

1 comment:

Lena Baron said...

Kelly Wrote: "I want you to rethink this one. Read page 238 on memoir and personal essay. Yes, keep your ego out of the memoir. But you absolutely are supposed to make a point. THe point should emerge from events and characters not from you spelling it out for us. The point is supposed to not be specifically about you but rather applicable to the life of any reader. Perhaps you write about Hawai'i, and a realisation you had about yourself. This realization should be something we can all realize about ourselves and not need to be in Hawai'i to do. Look at the bottom of page 239. The subject has to carry itself and also be a vehicle for a larger meaning. So weave me a story from all those little vignettes you painted me about Hawai'i. Do they each lend themselves to showing a part of the greater meaning you are going for?"

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