5 page draft due Monday, April 23rd (bring 1 copy for a letter-writing workshop.)
The purpose of this draft is to begin to build upon your previous drafts and disparate freewrites. This draft should have a strong sense of voice, character(s) and place/setting. Omit or leave out your opinions and judgments. Let your writing lead readers to draw their own conclusions. This draft should be a rich extension and amplification of your previous long draft. Use your in-class writing and the marginal notations and questions from your previous draft. In some cases, you’ll be “cracking open” a section and going in deeper. In other cases, you’ll be slashing and burning unnecessary language in order to reveal the heart of the scene or image. In other words, lots of new language. Piece it together the best you can, knowing that we’ll continue to think about order, shape, and movement. You might experiment with:
- Using white space between sections
- Writing a title for the different pieces
Necessary components of draft:1) A question, dilemma, tension, issue, or idea that the writer is thinking through, wrestling with.
2) Strong and specific scenes that locate the reader immediately in terms of place, time, action, and purpose.
3) Investigate in order to teach your reader (and yourself) about something connected to your topic that you didn’t know. Consider the amazing treasure trove of Google.
4) Connect to other texts:
- Intertextuality—use of another text in order to make a connection or commentary about yourself. See Ondaatje’s use of Jane Austen’s Persuasion on p. 22 or his connection to all the famous Englishmen driven crazy in the heat on pages 79-83. Or Terry Tempest William’s use of Mary Oliver’s poem to frame her text.
5) One simile or comparisonBoth Ondaatje and Williams use similes a lot—they evoke strong images, they surprise, they avoid clichéd associations. Check out Williams’ imagery of the dead swan on page 121. “Abandoned like a dead lover…”
7) Alternative point of view: either use third person to write about yourself or imagine the inner world of someone you’re writing about.
Key Components in final project:
- Title
- Quotes and epigraphs
- Chapters or sections
- Intertextuality—reference to a book, story, text that connects to your story.
- Images: photographs, maps, etc.
- Words from others—interviews, quotes, stories, etc.
- Works sited or works consulted page/ credits?
