While I had experience with creative writing coming into this course, I had never done any non-fiction or journalistic writing, which made my writing process slightly different than what I was used to. My typical writing style is spend days coming up with the idea in my head, choose one, start writing and don't stop until the story is done. I then go back and revise it. For this class, the problem wasn't necessarily coming up with the perfect idea, it was taking an idea and writing it within the confines of the structure of the assignment.
The first writing assignment for this course, the memoir, was closer to what I am used to than the other assignments. Although it was non-fiction, telling a story in a creative way wasn't too far off, especially since most of my fiction writing is based somewhat off of my own reality. Choosing what I would write about was pretty easy since the experience was still so engrained in my memory and something I told people about several times before. I knew going into it that freedom was going to be the larger purpose of the piece since that was the larger purpose of my trip to Europe as a whole. So as I do with most other writing assignments, I sat down and just kept writing until it was done. Once I establish an idea, I have usually flushed out most of the details I need to know in order to write, which is why writing doesn't take me very long. It is the brain-storming that is the hard part. After finishing, I went back and rephrased some things, making it more entertaining and well-written. After workshopping this piece, I had a lot of great ideas of what I wanted to change. I think everyone nailed what the piece was missing. It needed more of a picture of the life I was living before this taste of freedom to make it more meaningful. When I went back to my piece, I knew what I wanted to change and I did. I would say this writing assignment overall wasn't too difficult and very enjoyable.
The next assignment, the food review, was another story. I was walking into new territory and it was terrifying to me. Usually when I write, I can make the details up as I go. This time, I needed to pay attention to every significant detail and convey them to my readers. They were depending on me. Before going to Rustica I did some research on the place, made some mental notes about what I needed to look for and reviewed the concept of mindful eating we had discussed in class. I wanted to know what this food tasted like. Not if it was good or bad, what experience it really made on my tongue. After going to the meal with this mind-set, I got to work writing my review right away so it would be fresh in my mind. This was much more difficult for me to do than my first assignment. I looked back at several reviews we had read to get some ideas of how to construct my piece, but I think what ended up happening was I basically just rewrote my experience from start to finish. From walking in to sitting down to eating to paying the bill, it was all linear and heavily focused on myself (being in the first person P.O.V.). That may not necessarily be a bad thing, but I think for this particular piece it was. These problems were teased out in our workshop and I tried to apply them in my revisions, but I still struggled. Review writing is not about the author; it is a service for the reader. I couldn't get out of my creative writing, story telling head and so there were still issues with P.O.V. and following the rules of this style of writing. I think, like anything, it is just something I need more familiarity with, both in reading and writing reviews. I'm glad I got the chance to explore this type of writing a lot in this class and I plan on discovering it further. This was definitely the piece I struggled most with.
Finally, it was time to write my "Perfect Meal" story. There was a reason this assignment was last: it combined almost everything we had learned in the class so far. In comparison to Michael Pollan, I knew my perfect meal had more to do with the company and practice of cooking than the food itself (although I am a foodie so that was important, too), which is why I wanted to look back not only at The Omnivore's Dilemma but also Stealing Buddha's Dinner. I knew my story would be more character driven than factual. Before the meal I reflected on both of these works and compared and contrasted. What elements of both were important to my piece? After thinking abstractly about this assignment, I started thinking concretely about my meal. It didn't take long for me to decide what I as going to do since I had the opportunity to come home and when I think of food I think of my dad. Filet Mignon was a no brainer, as my story depicts, since steak is my dad and I's "thing." I figured out the other details and intentionally did not plan anything more. I wanted the experience to be organic. The point of the piece was spending quality time with my dad and that can't be forced. The experience did not disappoint.
When I set out to write the rough draft of this paper I kept in mind what we had discussed in this course already. Like my dad always says, be bright, be brief, be gone. I wanted it to be short and sweet; staying within the word count while keeping the qualities of the work that were necessary. I did my typical write until it is done style of writing with this in mind and then went back and revised/cut down. Even after cutting it down it was still 200 words over the limit. After workshopping the piece, my peers made me realize that all of the elements I had hoped for were there, but they needed to come out more. The importance of my dad was obvious, but I needed to make his character shine through. It wasn't going to fit within the word limit. But I still wanted to keep it short enough that I wasn't rambling, because that is something I often do. I walked out of workshop totally inspired by everyone's great feedback, ideas bouncing all around my mind. I got straight to work and made my dad the character he truly is. Being a typically fiction person, making my dad a "character" felt strange to me. But it was what the story was missing. Doing this revision was actually the most fun I had with writing in this course, and it is the revision I am most happy with. I love when I get to a point in my writing that the idea I couldn't quite put into words just comes out and you can feel it. It was even cooler doing this based on the true experience I had with my dad. It made it that much more important.
While this course was challenging in that it made me rethink the way I write, I gained so much. It was awesome to see that I could make something as mundane as eating salmon entertaining and meaningful. No one had to die in my story to make it entertaining. I could depend on my own writing abilities to bring life to it. I could write to serve others: providing useful information to my readers. I could turn an everyday experience into something that means something not only to myself but to others. This course has made me want to dabble with creative non-fiction some more. It was a challenge, but it was very rewarding.
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