Figuring out what makes nonfiction creative

Today in class you got started on some exploratory writing in your journals. You wrote into some of your childhood memories and started to think about how you might use those memories to develop a creative nonfiction essay. We also talked some about particular features of creative nonfiction texts - how the authors used character, scenes, narrative, themes/symbols, reflective analysis, and so on. You then looked at the three sample texts that you read for homework and took a close look at how the authors "built" their essays. From my talk with your groups - it sounds to me like you are beginning to talk like writers => digging into the structure and figuring out how the essays "work".

For Monday, read Brett Lott's essay on defining creative nonfiction, and Jamaica Kincaid's "Biography of a dress." In your blog, continue to write into your understanding of what creative nonfiction is and how it works. Note and analyze any new features that you find in Kincaid and Lott. I read and commented on blogs posted before class. Take the comments as feedback and I will send you a number score and an explanation of how I assigned it in an email. FYI scores for first blogs were on the generous side. As we get into the course I will be looking for you to write into the prompts more deeply.

Good class today and I will see you Monday!