(The) Writer's Mind: The Complaint Narrative
In this series of exercises, you will narrate a recent, everyday event that involved direct or indirect conflict with at least two individuals, including you. The event that happened should be one in which a persistent complaint of yours plays itself out. By persistent, I mean: we have particular themes to our complaining that remain constant, even though the people and situations change over time.
Going along with the persistent complaint is a "way we get" while performing actions given by the complaint. For instance, one might be "frustrated," or "confused," or "irritated," or "bored," or "frantic," or "withdrawn," etc. However, using these words are more exposition than in-scene.
Your aim is to write in-scene so that the reader might see for themselves "frustrated," or "confused," etc. In other words, you are to strive to write the scene in such a way (using words to display what the reader might see in time) that your reader will likely supply the feelings and thoughts themselves.
Going along with the persistent complaint is a "way we get" while performing actions given by the complaint. For instance, one might be "frustrated," or "confused," or "irritated," or "bored," or "frantic," or "withdrawn," etc. However, using these words are more exposition than in-scene.
Your aim is to write in-scene so that the reader might see for themselves "frustrated," or "confused," etc. In other words, you are to strive to write the scene in such a way (using words to display what the reader might see in time) that your reader will likely supply the feelings and thoughts themselves.
Each of the three drafts will be written from a different point of view of the same event:
1) first person 2) third person 3) from an alternate first person perspective |
For all three drafts you will practice the elements of creative nonfiction writing presented in Tell it Slant, and primarily writing in-scene:
For all three drafts you will practice writing primarily in-scene:
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Ultimately, strive to reflect on the nature of the racket, the way of being, how the payoffs keep the racket running, which leads to experiencing the costs. Consider what possibility you could create beyond the racket, which might allow for relinquishing the seductive pull to repeat it endlessly.
Coming up with the event to write about (Invention)You will need to sketch out at least five recent events to locate one worthy to develop across three drafts.
There are two approaches that might help you to "remember" a recent scene if you find this difficult at first. Pursue both of them simultaneously:
In any case, the event must include direct social interactions, which then requires characterization of human beings (with bodies) in dialogue with each other, at a specific time and place. You are to avoid narratives of a solitary narrator (for instance, driving in a car, taking a shower, jogging, etc.) in which there is no social interaction. |
Please see two very short texts in the dropbox (recommended readings) that will help illuminate what I mean by "persistent complaint": |
The Drafts
Draft 1
In this first draft, you (as the writer) will likely be closely identified with the character-narrator who is engaged in the conflict embodied in the persistent complaint. The audience the character-narrator addresses in this first draft are those who would readily sympathize with the character-narrator's point of view against another character in the narrative, who is clearly in the wrong.
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See my example of the first draft:
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Draft 2
The next stage of this assignment is to revise from another point of view: third person. That is, allow a perspective completely outside the point of view of the character-narrator of the first draft to narrate the story in such a way that the audience will have a distinctly different experience of the character-narrator of the first draft. Essentially, you are striving to shift the narrative from the didactic to the dialectic.
IMPORTANT: You are not to merely change the pronouns from the first draft. You will need to adopt a point of view of a third person narrating the event (scene, action, dialogue), which may be a "fly on the wall."
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Draft 3
With the completion of the second workshop, the third draft will be a retelling of the story from a first person point of view, but instead of the character-narrator of the first draft, the character-narrator of this draft is the point of view made wrong by the character-narrator from the first draft. That is, you (as the writer) are to honor as "right" this alternate first person perspective, addressing an audience ready to sympathize with this point of view against the point of view of the character-narrator of the 1st draft.
IMPORTANT: As with Draft 2, in this third draft, you are not to merely change the pronouns from the first or the second draft. You will need to adopt a point of view of a first person narrating the event (scene, action, dialogue). It will be different.
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BONUS (power-up): share drafts 1 and 2 with the person whose point of view you will be writing from in the first person, and interview that person to help flesh out their perspective. |