October 8

We talked about truth, lies, "embellishment" and how and whether the accurate representation of experience matters in creative nonfiction. Your discussion explored the kinds of misrepresentations that are possible - self-aggrandizing (creating a false character for oneself), tarnishing & distorting others' reputations (as with the police accused of brutality); "stealing" the pain of people with real problems or tragedy (claims about the extent of his addiction; the train-wreck story); being a false authority (speaking as an authority on recovery - when it is not clear he was an addict); lying about lying (not acknowledging what was true & what wasn't when directly confronted) - and more.

We considered how readers' expectations are set up by genre - and talked briefly about the changing conventions for those relationships throughout the history of fiction and nonfiction. This was a great discussion and I am still thinking about it.

At the end of class, I gave you about 3 minutes to write a list of issues/experiences you would never write about . Naturally we did not share these lists. I encourage you to go back to that list - and add to it and re-think it.

There will be no class on Monday (Happy Columbus Day)so I will see you on Thursday.
For next class you will be working on your 2nd draft essay. This is a new start. Dig into another idea and see what you come up with.

Blog 10: Post a focus (some ideas for what your essay is about/what you will be reflecting on) + a set of related stories that you can use to open up this reflection. This post will serve as a partial draft for your second essay (due on your blog Monday Oct 19). Remember that this needs to be a PUBLIC story - one you can post - and that you might choose to send out for publication. The more writing you have here - the more feedback you can get. In class Thursday you will do some workshopping/writing to develop Essay 2.

I will be giving you some feedback on Blogs 4-9 over this weekend (really).

Have a great weekend!