2.18 Things you would never write about, workshop, Monopoly

Note: The schedule for conferences has its own post (see previous).

In-class writing. The writing prompt for this class was to make a list of "things you would never write about."  This prompt is not original to this class - or even this genre - and it is a great place for scanning the landscape of what is there to write about, and considering what is "between us and what we have to write about".

After you wrote and pondered for about 10 minutes, we started a list of descriptors for the things you would never write about.  You weren't asked to say exactly what it was you wouldn't write - just to describe/name the why or what that makes the topic not possible.  Our list looked like this.

Descriptions of why/what stops writing

Important people might get angry

I might hurt someone I love

Being embarassed

Too intense

Unbearable

Too afrad

Not part of my life  - belongs to someone else

Afraid I will be judged

Overdone - too many stories like this

Illegal

It’s not my story (except that it is)

Death

Violence

Gossip/slander

Religion

Politics

Shame

Regrets

Open secret within a relationships (something that someone you care about doesn’t want to know)

Internal thoughts about someone\

About the dead

Envy

What is between you and writing certain topics. As we continued to talk about this and to notice issues associated with our topics, we noted that many of the obstacles had to do with audience issues or with the material being too intense. So, after classifying the categories in our list - you went back to your personal lists to notice whether you decided a topic was "unwritable" primarily for audience or inside you (intensity) reasons.  This offered a few surprises, some affirmations, and more questions.  

As discussion continued, we noted that our classification of audience v internal (intensity) was not the only way to classify relationships to unwritable topics.  We noted that sometimes it was because our material was "in-process" = that we were not yet ready to have an audience for what we had to say about certain feelings, actions, beliefs and so on.  This was interesting - because in some sense, CNF is about writing about in-process material.  Another observation was that sometimes a topic was unwritable in terms of our personal integrity - who we wanted to be as a writer.  And while this relates to audience - in some very real ways it is more about who we are/what we believe/what we want to put into the world - and that is more internal, but not about emotion or intensity.  

We could have spent more time on this, and it might be useful for each of us to spend more time with our lists.  Choosing material is an important part of the writing process.  This exercise was in part to give us some practice making those choices intentional - rather than automatic reactions.  

Workshop.  From walking around to your groups - sounded like this went well.   If you want to work on/further revise your piece in light of  your group feedback - feel free to do so.  I will start reading drafts Thursday AM and will give you my feedback in our conference.

The Search for Marvin Gardens.  

This discussion identified the three threads/narrative lines in McPhee's essay:1) playing the game Monopoly with comments on the strategies/practices/objects of play; 2) walking through Atlantic City, noticing the urban decay, on a search for Marvin Gardens; 3)  historical commentaries on how Atlantic City was built (and by whom).  These three strands were broken up into segments that were interspersed among one another.

You noted early in the discussion of what the essay was about that : it was about money but not about money, and that the point was made through the relationships between/among the different threads.  Yep,  That's it.  You got it.  Though we spent about 15 more minutes looking at how McPhee built the particular meaning he builds in this story.  The point the three threads were contemplating is set up in the title, metaphorically - with Marvin Gardens standing in for the middle class (though we don't know that until he makes the connection in the very last sectdion).  The essay is  in many ways about the absence of a middle class and all three threads lead to a contemplation on the importance of economic and political and social structures associated with a middleclass, McPhee accompanies us in a contemplation of Monopoly (the game), monopoly (as it was practiced by the "robber barons" of industry at the turn of the last centuy) and monopoly (the consequences, as seen in Atlantic City). He does not preach at us or argue with us. Rather, he tells us stories that take us to there.

****One important thing to notice in McPhee's essay is that his idea/contemplation - the role of the middle class in creating sustainable communities - is at the center of his essay. That idea, not the stories themselves, drive the essay's organization and selection of material. CNF certainly includes powerfully rendered scenes, characters, and settings, but at the center of the essay is its idea.

As you think about how to revise your essays, give some thought to what idea you are exploring.  How did this story make you grow/feel/see the world differently?  What idea(s) does your story embody?  Use those ideas/themes/contemplations to focus the way you tell your story: the particular material you select, the organization, and the way you portray it.

For next week:
Read: Cofer: p.54, "Silent dancing"; "The Patch" by John McPhee (sent to you in your kean email)

Blog 4: Write some reflections on writing about unwritable material.  What kinds of filters direct you to choos topics?  Does becoming aware of your filters re-shape those filters? Anything on your list which you are thinking might - after all - be worth spending some time with?