The Development of an Essay - not brought to by Stephen King, which would have been much, much more interesting

When I write an essay, I don't really have a process.

My brain is a very busy place when it's not being held down by thoughts of writing up campaigns to bring Pluto back to the Planet Club and wondering how Santa Claus is able to live on one day of work and why no one else is upset with his enslavement of elves and reindeers. When I have to concentrate on an essay, I don't write anything until I have a good first sentence. For me, a good opening sentence = gold. I sit and I read and I watch television and listen to The Onion podcasts until that good first sentence comes about. And when that sentence does come about, then the essay begins to form.

I begin to type whatever words are being hammered on my brain. Sometimes it flows and sometimes it doesn't. Each time I approach the essay, I write until I can't write anymore. And then I go back to the essay when I have more words to add to it. I write and write and when I'm finished, I go back over the words and make sure I have a certain flow to the essay. In this class, I didn't find myself switching around paragraphs or overthinking things or erasing entire pages due to them not feeling just right - I left everything where they were. It felt as though I was writing semi-unconsciously.

The personal essay/memoir I wrote was a deeply personal one. I didn't censor myself like I did all those other times trying to write about the same subject. Everything just felt...right.

I did use my personal journal to flesh out ideas, but those words were probably along the lines of "omg, nothing is flowing and I can't write this essay!!!oh noes!!!" and was not as well done as Emily Chase's journal entries.

Okay, so maybe I do have a process. :D

The Development of an Essay - brought to you by Emily Chase

Ms. Emily Chase constructs her essay, Warping Time with Montaigne, with a time consuming process to strengthen her essay to make her points clear to her readers.

The essay began as a literary nonfiction essay Chase began in her Graduate Composition class. The research paper was focused upon the works of Montaigne and with that introduction to the writer, she began to take up a further interest in Montaigne's writings.

With this now built-in interest, Chase decided to write a better essay that compared and contrasted the similarities between Montaigne and (essayist) Rodriguez writings. But how did she come about writing her essay?

• She developed a cluster web with a central idea of literary nonfiction
• Did a lot of freewriting
• Loved the image of metaphors, so used them
• Read essays by Early and Tompkins. Chase loved the way Early used words and was influenced by her. Even though Chase didn't necessarily understand the point Tompkins was trying to make in her essay, she didn't want her own essay to come off the same way.
• Journal entries. With the journal entries, she was able to flesh out where and what she wanted to do with her essay. By using her journal, she was able to organize her thoughts thoroughly. It was a place for her to write down ideas and by seeing them, was able to work out whether or not they would work.
• Peer critique. The peer critique she received was one that made her realize that her draft was actually readable and not a bunch of jargon slapped together to form an essay. By having your peers read your work and critique it, it gives a valuable insight. It's wonderful to get feedback from their point of view.
• The connection between Star Trek and warping time. By letting her mind drift to the final frontier, she tagged on the central point of her essay. A time warp = warping a loom with her loved weaving. She can now have a personal connection to the essay. This is the connection she had before writing her essay and with this connection, she had a hook that followed throughout Warping Time
• The editing group Chase was apart of gave her important feedback and suggestions so that Chase could give each draft a more polished look.
• Chase made a list between the points she wanted to make in her essay between Montaigne and Rodriguez.
• Chase also wrote a TON of drafts. Even though the beginning was what she kept, she flushed and re-did the middle until it became polished.

According to Chase, this was the first time she really settled down and focused on the artwork of forming an essay. She re-wrote and re-wrote until she finished with a polished essay ready for publication. She didn't look at the assignment as something she had to do, but found a personal interest in the topic at hand, included her own personal hobby of weaving for the hook in the essay and found joy in writing it. Once you find joy in your writing, you can almost write anything.

:(

I'm staring at my Nature essay and wow. Nothing is coming. I see what I want to write: about the birds awaking and them lifting off in their little families. Experiencing an experience that I loved. Being out in the air and watching nature. Thinking how wonderful it would be to be apart of a family that resembled the behavior of birds.

But nothing is coming!

Boo :( :(

Publication analysis: Chicken Soup

What the publication is about: Chicken Soup for the Soul is a publication that features nonfiction stories that are “inspirational, true stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Chicken Soup is really about uplifting the spirit through the power of words. The majority of the stories focus around an event that happened to the author and ends with a either a moral learned or a happy ending. Each of the stories (or poems) makes the readers think. The publication wants the story submitted to them to begin with action and the story should end with a result. From the website:

Chicken Soup stories have a beginning, middle and an ending that often closes with a punch, creating emotion rather than simply talking about it. Chicken Soup for the Soul® stories have heart, but also something extra…an element that makes us all feel more hopeful, more connected, more thankful, more passionate and better about life in general. A story that causes tears, laughter, goosebumps or any combination of these. A good story covers the range of human emotions.

Subject Matter: A Chicken Soup book is split into chapters covering various subject matters. An example of the few: On Love, On Parenting, On Teaching and Learning, Overcoming Obstacles, A Matter of Perspective, A Matter of Attitude, On Death and Dying, On Aging, On Living Your Dream and Eclectic Wisdom. Depending on the book series title, the story should be correct for that particular demographic. If you are writing a story for Chicken Soup for Kid’s Soul, certain things should not be included as you would include in a more mature book of Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.

Voice: The voice of the book series is told in simple basic English. The stories are a mixture of first person and third person narrative.

Form: Even though Chicken Soup asks for nonfiction work, some of its’ stories come off as though it were fiction. The story I excerpted below is an example of this. It seems as though the inspirational ending trumps the truthiness of the story.

Length: The length of the stories range between 300-1200 words.

Website: www.chickensoup.com (You can submit your story through the website also.)

Address:

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Attn: Story Submissions

PO Box 30880

Santa Barbara, CA 93130

Excerpt from the book:

What It Means to Be Adopted

By George Dolan

Teacher Debbie Moon's first-graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had different color hair than the other family members.

One child suggested that he was adopted, and a little girl named Jocelynn Jay said, "I know all about adoptions because I'm adopted."

"What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another child.

"It means," said Jocelynn, "that you grew in your mother's heart instead of her tummy."

Nature Essay Draft

It’s 4am and the room is a sky without its little pockets of lights. My ears are filled with the vanishing rings of the steady beeps of the cell phone alarm. My body wants to sink into the softness of the bed and the walls and to watch everything become alive here in my bed. Across the room, a dark mound of sheets moves about which transforms into Danielle. She pushes her body up upon an elbow and asks, “Are you ready?”

The car feels as though it is shot from a canon. The tires burn against the asphalt of I-90 as it tries to outrace the rise of the sun. We leave behind Albuquerque, New Mexico with its beautiful big low hanging moon and move toward Bosque del Apache, a wildlife refuge that is home to tens and thousands of birds. The goal is to reach the resservation before the sun awakes the world and the land where the birds lie.

The car leaves the highway and its' wheels rumble over a road packed tight with dirt. The road can only hold two tightly squeezed lanes and running along side is a train track upon a mound.

Nature Nature Nature

Annie Dillard's piece made me realize that a nature essay should have a moral to it. Even though she's writing about weasles she has a strong moral hidden within her words. She notes that we should all live like weasels, by never letting go when an opportunity arrises. Never ever let go of it.

I almost let an opportunity go.

Late last year, Dr. Chandler asked two other students and me to attend a convention out in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm the type of person who would say yes because I wouldn't want to let anyone down. And so I said yes and spent the next three months in throes of sheer panic. All the way up to February 7th (the plane ride to New Mexico) I felt this panic. But as we got there and I settled down in the Bed & Breakfast, I began to feel better and soon enough, began to relax and enjoy myself.

One of the nature aspects was when we visited Bosque del Apache Habitat to watch the Cranes and Snow Geese take off all at once when the sun rose. They didn't do exactly that - each 'family' of birds took off together. It was so amazing to see. We then went on a tour of the Habitat to try and see the ducks, cranes, snow and canadian geese, sparrows, cuotes, ravens and other birds. When we finally got around to the cranes and snow geese (where they were in the field), they picked and flew off together. A whole gackle of birds taking flight, so close to the car and it was AMAZING.

What I have of my Lit. Journalism piece

The wheel underneath my hands are trembling. The Jeep hasn’t really pushed 65mph before on local streets and is now. Well, not on a local street where a little kid could get ran over by a 1988 Jeep Cherokee. I worry about the brakes cutting out. You hear that happens all the time on the news and in the papers. The helicopters are always hovering above such crashes with their close-ups of the wreckage and the cars traveling at a snail’s pace past the horrific scene with drivers probably looking to see if they could spot blood and dead bodies.

OK. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. I should concentrate. I want to put on the radio, but I’m afraid to remove one hand off of the steering wheel to find a station that doesn’t play music that will rupture my ear drums and make me want to wreck my vehicle.

I pass exits way too fast to actually read them. What city was that? I couldn’t have possibly passed Union’s exit? Apparently, not only am I afraid of removing any body part from their positions that they are currently in, I’m sure if I shift my eyes to the side view mirror to check out the exit on the other side, I’ll rear end the car in front of me which is at least 50ft in front of me.

But before I could really paralyze myself into further fear, Union’s exit rises in front of me like a Boston Cream donut of amazement. I flip the signal switch with my left pinky and slow down to make the turn which is filled with twists that if you were into racing cars, you’ll probably make this road one of your points to hold a drag race on.

As soon as the last two tires leave the exit ramp, my eyes are revealed to a sight that is slightly familiar. This was not where I was expecting to arrive at. My hand loosens its death grip and grapples for my phone tucked somewhere in the Black Hole that is my book bag. My thumb hits the button that gives me my brother’s voice.

“Hey, I have no idea where I am – wait, wait, I think I do, the street sounds kinda familiar – oh! I see something I remember! A Catholic school! Maybe I should stop.”

My brother, who knows that when I say ‘I’m going to stop’ means I’m going to stop right in the middle of the street and probably be one of those messed up cars on the 5 o’clock news, promptly yelled out, “No!”

I think I know where I want to this piece to go. I want to link it to the Provisional License driving rules that New Jersey has. Two of the main rules is that you CAN NOT talk on the cell phone while driving and can not drive between the hours of 12am to 5am. The rules leave room for 'in case' of emergency situations, but if one had a job in which they had to drive between those set hours or had to just go out between the hours - it can cause problems. Sure you can constantly drive around with your notice from your employer stating that you can drive these hours in your glove comparment, for just in case a cop or two pulls you over within your journey, but it might become tiring. I'm going to work with those two issues. Hopefully it sounds okay so far...does it?