Reflect: Writing about my personal essay has been an exercise in discovering the various strengths and weaknesses in my writing—for instance, I have found that I can use dialog to strengthen the characters I portray and that I need to use imagery more so that the story can tell itself. The exercises also helped me to be a lot more thoughtful in considering what experiences and people have been important in shaping my life.
Select: I plan on writing about my parents’ divorce and how it has caused me to both struggle and grow as a person and as a Latter-day Saint.
Comment: Hoiland arranged her personal essays so that they are not at all chronological. I would like to imitate this technique, as I feel I am free to explore my topic with more depth and authenticity if I’m not restricted to a linear timeline. I will also follow her model of having lessons from experiences naturally reveal themselves (instead of starting my essay with an overt theme) to ensure that I am not overly didactic in my essay.
Plan: Like I said, I plan to approach my experience from a non-linear format, going back and forth between my experiences as a child/teenager and my later experiences in college that allowed me to come to terms with the divorce and what I wanted for my future marriage. I want to explore the divorce from a more realistic angle—acknowledging that while it was hard and did make me question doctrine about celestial marriage, it also helped me develop empathy, strengthening my understanding of and my relationship with both parents. I would end the essay talking about how my experiences have influenced the care I give to my blossoming marriage today.
A non-linear, or even a frame story, seems like a good backdrop for pondering on a family divorce. Memory itself is non-linear, and so are emotions, and using the Church as a backdrop, well, it only deepens an already full narrative.
ReplyDeleteI think that by using a non-linear time line, you will be able to best express so many different emotions that came through this experience. It seems like this is the best way to capture so many different thoughts and feelings.
ReplyDeleteI think using the non-chronological technique will be interesting with this topic. Life with divorced parents can be a little messy, I know, and it will add a unique perspective with the way you want to format it. Playing back and forth with your experiences will give great insight.
ReplyDeleteI know the comments above have spoken about your desire to use a "non-linear time line." It seemed to me though that Hoiland did this because she was incorporating multiple stories, and for this assignment, I believe we are only doing one. In that sense, as Buckets said, memory and emotions will deepen your narrative and I'd be very interested in reading what you come up with, especially if you are going to be talking about the difficult subject of divorce.
ReplyDeleteI think for what you want to write about, your plan is perfect!
ReplyDeleteWow! This will be so cool to write and read. I think the non-linear idea is going to be very insightful.
ReplyDelete