Form

1
Form

• The form is the larger shape of the piecethe
  boundaries, if you willand the special
  requirements of that shape.
• - Gerard on p. 90

2
Triangle

• Personal Essay
• Creative Non-Fiction
• Opinion Writing

3
Form is a Slippery Word

• Genre Creative Non-Fiction, distinct from
  poetry, fiction or genre.
• Form long form book short form essay.
• Subgenre Newspaper Personal Essay.

4
Limitations

• Common in all art forms.
• Cause the writer to be more inventive, more
  economical with language and more intense in
  focus.

5
Out of Order

• In real life, things happen out of order.
• Writing is an inefficient business.

6
Questions about Form

• Will it be short or long?
• Where will your audience encounter these words?
• What is the subject apparent and deeper?

7
Write Enough Essays

• Short Form can turn into long form.

8
Succinct

• Homers Odyssey (p. 97)
• Amateurs indulge.
• The writer labors so the reader wont have to.

9
Realities

• to be successful, your piece has to somehow
  make it out into the world where your reader can
  find it. Editors must be able to figure out
  where it fits into their formatsthey cant go
  reinventing the publication every month, and
  space is limited.
• - Gerard

10
Personal Nonfiction

• Representative anecdote for a larger issue.
• More meditative memories, insights, reflections.
• I, doesnt prevent facts and figures.
• Requires tremendous concentration.

11
Personal Essay

• Firsthand experience from writers own life.
• Transcends readers experience.
• Orwells Shooting an Elephant.

12
Memoir

• Closely related to personal essay.
• Memory in words.
• Meaning may be implicit in the memory.
• Meaning may derive from glimpse it offers into
  something larger.

13
Gerard Advice on Print

• Simple sentences with only one idea.
• Clear language and words that matter.
• Active voice.
• Find the element of surprise in the story and use
  it to convey information.
• Write descriptively using visual and sound
  images.

14
Two Subgenres The Description Essay
Columns/Comments

• Bender How can the reader hold on to what an
  author says in any piece of writing if they can
  not see what the author sees, hear what she
  hears, taste what she tastes, smell what she
  smells, and touch what she touches?
• Fink your first responsibility in specialty
  commentary is to ensure your career preparation,
  academic and on the job, is thorough

15
Bender The Description Essay

• Good essay writing requires good descriptions
• Strength of your feelings are the motivating
  force.
• Persons, place and objects.
• What do you love or hate?

16
Images

• Your images have authority. They say, This is
  how it was for me.
• - Bender on p. 61

17
Imagination

• Gather sensory images.
• Dont tell your attitudeshow your attitude.
• Think about the senses smells, tastes, sounds,
  touchpowerful images.

18
Method Advice

• Clustering
• Freewriting
• Comparative Thinking
• Three-Step Responses

19
Clustering

• Begin with a person, place or thing.
• Circle in the center.
• Draws lines to connected persons, places or
  things.

20
Clustering
21
Freewriting

• Use the cluster(s) to create details,
• Keep fingers on the keyboard.
• Keep your mind jumping to new images.
• Loosens up your mind.

22
Comparative Thinking

• Focus on similes and metaphors.
• Think about the unrelated.

23
Three-Step Response

• Velcro Words words that stuck with themsimilar
  to language that sings.
• Feelings what was conjured up by your writing?
  What did the images evoke for the reader?
• Curiosity where does the reader want to know
  more?

24
Five for Description

• Stay with the senses.
• Make comparisons that share the experience as you
  felt it.
• Stay in the moments that interest you.
• Present experience itself. Your images have
  authority.
• Listen for the places you make be keeping
  yourself from direct experience.

25
Columns and Commentary

• Readers trust newspapers.
• Think beyond the obvious (e.g. business
  commentary about Talking about Money Before
  Marriage.
• Offbeat astrology, yoga, etc.
• Creative ways to give advice.