Monday, Septermber 28

Today you did some writing about the big emotions in your past - events that evoked intense (often conflicted or confusing) feelings. Within the different experiences you raised we connected to more abstract topics including :
who is responsible for our emotions;
how feelings can sometimes be experienced most intensely on behalf of someone else;
how sometimes it takes us a while to feel what we are "supposed" to be feeling;
how different emotions are connected so that one emotion leads to another;
how our understanding or interpretation of emotional experiences changes over time;
and a few that I forgot.

As usual your writing and reflecting was honest and important. You are doing fine work for this course.

We then turned to freewriting to open up a topic for your first paper - and I didn't give you enough time. If you have trouble freewriting and hate doing it - this is could be a sign that you might benefit from it. It only takes 10 minutes and should result in a page of writing. Think of it as a race between your hand and your mind and the object to get good enough so that your mind always wins (meaning you never stop writing). It works to "turn off your editor" so you get a chance to play around with ideas that your internal editor would block before you even really thought about them. So do a freewrite - at least 10 minutes wort - for homework, in your journal.

We finished class by briefly looking over the sample essays in terms of the assignment sheet. In general - these are very high level works, so the "reflection " part is embedded in the story in very artful ways (repeated phrases or metaphors, in the form or segmenting, in essay's movement back and forth in time, and so on). Your essay will probably be more direct - where you say straight out what you are thinking about - like Alexie or Orwell or Didion. For your first draft - make sure you have some reflections in mind - but focus on getting the stories down.

For Thursday:
Read:"How to tell a true war story" by Tim O'Brien.
Blog 7: What is the "truth" in this story? What does O'Brien believe about truth?

September 24

We talked over plans for the National Day of Writing, October 20. The tentative plan is for you to prepare something to read (about 5 minutes worth) at Kean University East Campus, during College Hour. For those of you who can't make it then, we may also schedule time in the evening. This is an opportunity for you to make your debut as a writer - and will be in placer of class on October 22. More information to follow later.

You looked over your first assignment (posted at the bottom of this page). You will write two drafts, both of which you will workshop and write some comments about how you would revise; then you will revise one essay for a grade.

For Monday:
Write: Get started on your draft!
Blog 6: Look through the readings so far. Which essay looks like a good pattern for you to use as a model for moving between your concept and your experience. Will using this model allow you to write to the requirements of the assignment (will it give you a focus on concept?) How will you expand on /revise the model? What parts of it do you want to keep the same? Any other comments?

Good class today - and have a great weekend!

September 21

You got feedback on your first set of Blogs. It was a pleasure to read your responses to the readings. If you have questions about the grades - stop by my office or send me an email.

We spent some time talking about transformative experiences - events that changed you - and these included many excellent possibilities for essays: compelling experiences coupled with your reflections on how to make meaning out of those experiences.

We talked about segmented essays - both through looking at how Schwartz used the 6 section & the relationships between those sections to make one of the important points in her essay. We followed up with a list of possible organizational structures for essays, and I am hoping, as you write your essays, you will do some experimenting with some of these forms.

For class Thursday:
Read: Alive by Laurie Lynn Drummond (linked at the bottom of this page) and "Westbury Place" in your book.
Blog 5: What is the main focus of "Alive", and of "Westbury Place"? What kind of structure does each essay use to build the dramitic impact for that point?

In class we will spend some more time talking about structure/organization - and we will go over the assignment sheet for your first essay.

See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 17

We talked about smells, tastes, the feeling of touch & how these senses connect us to memories and associations that sometimes are more about words than feelings. Research in psychology has suggested that memories of events and extended periods of time can be bundled into associations with these dark senses - and a smell or a taste can evoke those memories whole - complete with all the complex feelings that don't quite have words. We spent a lot of time on fire and smoke, body smells, the smells associated with seasons and weather (rain, the air), places (the ocean or a camp site), and things (coper and blood, soup and The Price is Right).

As we talked about these senses - we speculated about the ideas they might evoke: how their interpretations/meanings change (as in Allison's story about body odors); how they tell our secrets (as in the air freshener and sex story); how they reveal things that are real and there - but which we which we might not consciously pay attention to or perceive -or that we can't name or explain (as when Alex knows he's home by the smell of the air, or Maureen's knowing that spring is here even when there are no plants and birds to testify); or what they tell us about a person's life (smoking, drinking, illness, sexual activity). Then their are bodily reactions - to vinegar, smoke, or snails - smells that make us sick not entirely because of their physical reality - but because of our associations to them => as if imagined reality is more forceful than mater itself.

You have lots of material for reflection here!

We then talked briefly about Montaigne - both as an example of the emergence of essays as a literary genre, and as a "modern" voice (like CNF). You observed that it is in the first person, that he is serious in his questioning, that he reflects and tells (though the examples are not primarily from his own experience - but rather from texts as in academic essays). We also noticed that he was intent on communicating the truth (this essay reads rather more like an argument than most contemporary CNF) rather than his or a truth.

For Orwell, it seemed as if he'd read Lott's essay. We paid attention to how he managed the movement from the story (the compelling experience that drives the writing) to his reflection.

On Monday we will think about form in some more depth.
Read: Schwartz
Blog 4: What is the overall focus of this essay? What is the focus of each section? How does Schwartz use the gaps between the sections (or really - I guess the question is what connections were you as the reader set up to make between sections)?

Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday.

Monday, September 14

You wrote in your writing journals about scars. In addition to recollecting and describing the experiences assoicated with your scars, we talked about the scars themselves as writing on your body - as witnesses to an event from your past. We also talke about scars as a way to see/feel your self from within two different time/places (like Kincaid). As you told your stories, we developed discussions about how you might connect to an idea - to some reflection on what it is to be human. Hopefully this discussion set you up with some connections to Lott's essay and a definition of creative nonfiction.

In our discussion of Lott, we reflected both on the definition of creative nonfiction his essay developed - and on the form of his essay. We noticed that he set his essay up by telling the reader what to expect (and leaving what the essay would actually "say" at least partially in question); we also noticed that he used a "refrain" - a repeated re-telling (but always with a little different content) as a way to bring coherence and focus to his writing. I heartily encouraged you to pay attention to the forms in the readings - and to experiment with the forms you think will work for you.

Within Lott's definition - I emphasized that for this course, creative nonfiction will include both a detailed, vividly rendered story about experience AND a reflection on what that experience means in larger terms than simply what happened. Think about the implications in Kincaid's story, or in Beard's. These stories are not just about the event, they are also about an idea.

For Thursday:
Read: Montaigne, That men should not judge; and Orwell, Shooting the elepant. Both links are at the bottom of this page, by author's last name.

Blog 3: How are th essays by Montaigne + Orwell different from / the same as the more contemporary essays you have read? What elements mark the voice in the more recent works as "contemporary"?

I will be grading Blogs 1, 2 & 3 over the weekend and giving you some feedback.

See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 10

Today you got started on your writing journals. You wrote stories, feelings, associations about your earliest memories, and then we sort of randomly shared thoughts and ideas with those experiences. In some ways - that is the essence of what creative nonfiction is: a personal experience that is then opened up or explored in terms of a focus on an idea or thought. Thanks for your good contributions to this discussion. It sounds like you have some good material to work with.

We then (without quite enough time) talked about the different ways writers use writing: to persuade, to inform, to tell stories, to create imaginary worlds and "truths"; to explore new possibilities with their readers; to think (or figure out what they think); and to represent / create the different selves they step into as they live and grow. You then looked at the three essays with a mind toward deciding what these authors did. Our object was to then see if we could find what the 3 essays have in common - so we can keep building on our definition of creative nonfiction - but we ran out of time. And that's OK - we will pick up this discussion on Monday after you have read Lott and Kincaid's essays.

For Monday:
Read: Lott: "Toward a definition of creative nonfiction," 270; Kincaid, "Biography of a Dress," 209
Blog 2 : What does Kinkaid's essay add to ideas of creative nonfiction that are not so strong in the essays by Didion, Beard & Alexie? How did Lott's discussion of creative nonfiction add to your ideas about how to define CNF?

FYI I do not comment on student blogs online - rather I will be sending you an email with feedback. I will send you an email with comments for Blogs 1 & 2 after the second post is due (Monday).

Have a great weekend and thanks for the good class.

September 3 - first class

Today you introduced your selves, set up your blogs and established an email for the course, and then we sort of randomly talked through the syllabus and the took a look at the calendar. I realize it is a lot of information all at once, but hopefully - through keeping things posted here and being in touch - it will all fall into place.

For Thursday, September 10:
Read: Joan Didion "On keeping a notebook" =>click the link for a pdf - if you don't have adobe reader on your computer- you can get a free download for the software to open this document at http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

Alexie, "Superman & me" p. 128 in your book,

and Beard, "Out there."

And read about keeping a journal in your text book, p. 7.

Write: Blog 1: your definition of creative non fiction.

And don't forget to bring your spiral notebook to class - we are going to get started on some writing to help you think about/ discover idea/experiences you would like to write about.

Also, I will set up links to your blogs on the course blog. After I have the link list set up - start working on making links to your classmates blogs. To create a blog list, sign into your blog account and view your blog, click "customize" (up in the right hand corner), click "add a gadget" - scroll down and click the + listed next to "blog list" - then follow the directions. If you get stuck, we can work on it in class Thursday.

In class next Thursday, we will use the "evidence" you have collected from reading three creative non-fiction essays to put together some ideas about what creative nonfiction writers do. You will also do some discovery writing in your writing journals.

I think we have a great group and I am looking forward to reading your work.

Welcome to ENG 3017

This will be our home site for your creative nonfiction course. We will use this site confirm assignments, store assignment sheets, post draft writing, and comment on one another's work.

Today you will get started on getting to know one another and setting up your blogs.