Friday, September 16, 2011
Assigned: Update on my Personal Narrative
A few days ago I was almost certain that I was going to write my personal narrative about the first day of my sixth grade year. I wanted to write about something that I remember vividly, as I thought that would make my narrative full of rich detail. I remember everything from what I was wearing to what the hallways smelled like. I remember how I didn’t want my mom to leave me. However, now that I have the blank word document staring at me, I do not know how to put the experience I see in my memories on paper. I also do not know how much background info to give. I definitely don’t want to bore my readers! To get out of my writers block, I tried typing everything I remember from the event, which is quite a lot, so detail is not a problem. The chief reason I am having a difficult time beginning this essay is that I am not entirely sure how I will be able to end the experience with a lesson that changed me. It sometimes seems as if I am still in the process of learning the lesson! At the moment, I am considering changing my topic to something more substantial, but not something a reader would have trouble relating to. I have two different experiences that I have been wanting to write about, so I think this assignment is a good opportunity for me to do so. I am going to write out ideas for my different topics to see which one take me the farthest and whichever one does, will be the one I write about. I sometimes wish words and images would go straight from my brain to the paper, but writing isn’t that easy.
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I have had some of the same problems. Finding the right topic was definitely the hardest part for me. I was worried about having the implied message as well. I just knew that I had to start writing, and it would work out. I figure that if I purposely tried to put a message in my narrative it would turn into a personal essay. Also, people will see different things in your story and will probably come up with a different message than you intended. My freshman English teacher told me that when someone says something about your story that you did not intend to do, just smile and thank them for their compliment. Another thing I found that helped was to write as much as you can and then go back and delete what is not important after you have written your paper.
ReplyDeleteI was in the same boat as you for a while. There were a number of events in my life that I considered writing about. However, as I looked into them and remembered all of the details I could, none of those particular stories affected the person I am today in any noteworthy way. They were just neat experiences that I was happy to participate in. I also share your hopes that words could transfer from head to paper. If someone invented a type of telepathic writing app, I would be all over that. I know there are many times when something sounds good in my head, but when I reach for my keyboard the words somehow jumble and sound awkward or confusing. Regardless, I’m excited to read your narrative, I’m sure it will be great.
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