At first I thought the personal narrative would be easy. As I sat down to write it became extremely difficult. I began writing last night. It sounded like a good idea when I first planned to do it: I’d be able to ask questions about the problems I was having and I would not have much to do this weekend with the big game. When I stared at the blank screen on my computer my mind also went blank. I thought I would write about how my ears stick out more than most peoples and how I was teased for it when I was little. I worried that this would sound like a pity story. I was planning on making it funny and I would show how I came to not care about my appearance. It was hard to get words on paper, and as I began to make some progress I realized it was more of a personal essay than a narrative. I figured the problem was that it was late at night. I thought I would be able to fix it when I worked on it in the morning. When I worked on it today I could not figure out how to turn it into a narrative. I gave up on my page and a half of writing and tried to find a new topic. It was hard enough to figure out my first topic so finding another one was like pulling teeth. I tried to do some free writing like was suggested in Why Write. This helped to get my thoughts moving, and I was able to settle on a new topic. Hopefully this one goes better than the last.
I went through that same problem. I was very sure about the topic for my narrative and then when I actually started to put words onto paper, it was like there were not words in me! Sometimes I wish I could make a movie of what happened, as I see it in my head. Over the weekend, I have been experimenting with different ways to start my paper, which just seem to have confused me more! I decided to write the beginning at the end and to start writing with the action right in the middle of the story. Starting with the middle made it easier for me to write the beginning because I wasn’t worried about forgetting all the details while trying to set up the paper.
ReplyDeleteIt was surprisingly difficult for me to find a topic to focus my narrative around. Like you, after I decided on a decent story to tell, I found it hard to find the words to tell it and write it out. Now that I have written my first rough draft of it, I am afraid it’s super cheesy and my message is not implied like she described in class. I too used some strategies in Why Write and they were really helpful. When I first started writing, I had no structure or organization. I just wrote down the main details that stood out to me, which, in turn, helped me to remember more specific details to use. I just hope the point of my narrative comes across in my writing.
ReplyDelete