This is an experience

this essay will be about family, aside from that, I'm still rendering the details. First Draft: in progress

A couple drops from a bRain Storm

An idea for a "patterning" segmented story could detail my pre-match match routine, how it helps me focus, the meaning behind some of the things I do, and how those circumstances helped shape me as a person. I feel that the structure of routines is important when we try to maintain a certain level of consistency when undertaking challenges. Using the structure of my pre-game routine can help shape the structure of the story.
An idea I had for a piece using juxtaposition, I write from the perspective of myself in college describing my activities, experiences, etc, and responding to it in the form of emails from my mother. We exchanged e-mails routinely, and even though I wouldn't always tell her EVERYTHING, she always had words of inspiration and advise that helped me through trying times. I could also incorporate some parallelism by using past/present voice between the corresponding segments.

For Kidder, CNF is directly related to the concept of "self". While truth is what drives CNF, plausibility is the key factor, is this something legitimate that someone will believe? Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing describes not only what, typical daily life was like through her memories and experiences, but also what life was like, culturally for Puerto Ricans in the 1940s and 50s. The asides describing the family parties, depicting the gossip, and revealing shocking secrets about peripheral characters gave further depth into this portrait of an "Americanizing" puerto rican family. In this the writer's relationship is primary to the idea of "self". Lopate, in the affirmative of Kidder, states, "characters...will need to become knowable enough in their broad outlines to behave 'believably'...". Even if the character is fictional, the experiences, the story of that character has to be drawn from a source, most conveniently, the self. 
Lott's definition of CNF, "...it is writing about oneself in relation to the subject at hand." Finding a perspective from which to write is key. Lott also emphasized that CNF,  "cannot at anytime be self-serving." I believe this point to be especially difficult to understand and achieve in writing, simply because we naturally want to believe the best about ourselves, but even beyond that is the examination of our tics, traits, mannerisms; basically all the things that makes everyone an individual, and find a way to arrange and present it objectively.
I feel these concepts helped to further refine my definition of CNF, a voice needs to have an origin, the story has to be delivered in such a way to convince the reader of the truth in the piece. Every story has three sides, your side, my side and the truth. I only get to tell the reader my side of the story; if I've convinced the reader that my side is the truth, I would consider that a relatively well done job. 

A definition...of sorts

Creative non-fiction utilizes the past, taking memories, the non-fiction part, and conglomerating those experiences with details that dramatize the 'essentials' about the speaker, i.e what the reader will find interesting, amusing, etc. The key idea being to keep the reader believing, plausibility is essential to the life of creative non-fiction. 

I feel that creative non-fiction serves to show audiences that people are, at their ground level, similar in more ways than not. The details vary from story to story, experience to experience, however, the story, if its a good one, revolves around a problem that must be solved. Perhaps the narrator must overcome a character flaw to reveal a deeper, genuine asset, for example.

Creative non-fiction, I feel facilitates a natural bridge between fiction and non-fiction, where one is clearly defined, and the other can traverse imagination and surreality, creative non-fiction is an amalgamation, dancing on the precipice of plausibility. Creative non-fiction gives perspective and a voice to notable times in a life; its a play of the mind, a production of memories.         

We are what we choose to see

Grealy's Mirrorings traced her thoughts and her preconceived notions that she was "ugly". Her stories move semi-chronologically through her experiences, projecting a strong face despite being treated cruelly. She couldn't accept that the face she had, what she looked like, was truly her; attempting to change what the outside looked like, to harmonize with what she felt on the inside.

Her stories seem to show progression through her thought process about herself, starting with her chemotherapy process; her bravery associated with outward signs of strength. The emphasis on outward appearance grips Grealy until she forces herself to not even acknowledge her appearance. Signs that she may be "acceptable" lead her to view herself once again, however, Grealy still questions weather or not she'll be able to truly recognize herself.

Is recognizing oneself more important than being thought attractive by others?  

9/6/11

This is my first blogging experience...far out