Another element of CNF with which I feel I have improved is form and structure. I have learned the proper implementation of the segmented essay structure, and by emulating some of my favorite Latin American authors, I was able to find fun, effective forms for the segments. For example, the first segment in my second essay uses a technique gleaned from Gabriel García Márquez’s short story, "Dialogue with the Mirror," and the cyclical form of the first segment in my third essay borrows a technique from Julio Cortázar’s "Continuity of the Parks." The fun and excitement of using these techniques made dealing with my emotions much easier.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Blog 10
During this course, I have learned a lot about Creative Non-Fiction, and I have corrected a lot of my personal misconceptions. I came into the class thinking that creative non-fiction included all of the science and medical history books that I enjoy reading during my leisure time. Now, after having read solid examples of CNF from both my classmates and professional authors, I can see that some of these science books are not CNF, although some are. I also thought that I could come in here and bang out some glorified research papers with a couple pretty words and metaphors thrown in; in fact, I was looking forward to it. It made me realize that my own amassing and expression of strange nature knowledge was just another mode of avoidance/escape, similar to my fiction writing. I feel that my skill for writing fiction evolved out of a necessity for ignoring or altering my own reality. After talking with a friend and fellow writer who is just awesome with CNF, I learned that I had to be more sincere and vulnerable with my CNF essays in order to be successful. I took her advice in my second essay and was met with a great response. It was not easy, though. I hate "facing the dragon" of my mother's death and my true feelings about many other topics, including how vicious my inner critic can be. I see now, though, that sincerity is the element that links all great personal essays together. I still feel that I need to work on "looking directly into the sun," though. It goes against every one of my gut feelings about writing.
Another element of CNF with which I feel I have improved is form and structure. I have learned the proper implementation of the segmented essay structure, and by emulating some of my favorite Latin American authors, I was able to find fun, effective forms for the segments. For example, the first segment in my second essay uses a technique gleaned from Gabriel García Márquez’s short story, "Dialogue with the Mirror," and the cyclical form of the first segment in my third essay borrows a technique from Julio Cortázar’s "Continuity of the Parks." The fun and excitement of using these techniques made dealing with my emotions much easier.
Another element of CNF with which I feel I have improved is form and structure. I have learned the proper implementation of the segmented essay structure, and by emulating some of my favorite Latin American authors, I was able to find fun, effective forms for the segments. For example, the first segment in my second essay uses a technique gleaned from Gabriel García Márquez’s short story, "Dialogue with the Mirror," and the cyclical form of the first segment in my third essay borrows a technique from Julio Cortázar’s "Continuity of the Parks." The fun and excitement of using these techniques made dealing with my emotions much easier.
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I also came into this class having a different idea of what CNF was. It is quite the opposite haha. It's way more expressive and flexible than I thought. There is so many different ways that you can write CNF and that's the interesting part!
ReplyDeleteI feel that after so many years of being taught to write in an academic form, we all feel al little surprised about CNF. Both the writings that I read of yours were great but I really enjoyed your piece on your mother. The way you brought together your life and the gamer world was brilliant. I think you are a great writer.
ReplyDeleteKatherine you are a fantastic writer and you have opened up about so many hard experiences in such beautiful way. It was hard opening up about feelings, I am so awkward when it comes to that stuff, but it got easier once the writing process started. So happy you got to improve from this class!
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