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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
The assigned reading by David Starkey helped me understand what the essence of writing a short creative nonfiction is all about. Pages 170-209 gave me a few good and bad examples of what it takes to write a creative nonfiction. His examples range from authors like Rebecca McClanahan, Brian Doyle, and David Sedaris. Throughout my reading, I also learned about “the 5 Rs” of creative nonfiction: Real life, Reflection, Research, Reading, and Riting. The first “R” teaches that the foundation of good writing emerges from personal experience. The second “R” teaches that creative nonfiction should reflect a writer’s feelings and responses about a subject. The third “R” teaches that a person should make themselves knowledgeable enough through research in order to ask intelligent questions. The fourth “R” teaches that a person should knowledge themselves in their writing career through extensive reading. And the fifth and final “R” teaches that art is about the passion of the moment and the magic of the muse. David Starkey also helped me learn how to organize my creative nonfiction. Starkey states that writers don’t have to stick to five-paragraph theme when writing a creative nonfiction because the writer may have one point instead of many.
ReplyDeleteThe assigned reading by David Starkey helped me understand what the essence of writing a short creative nonfiction is all about. Pages 170-209 gave me a few good and bad examples of what it takes to write a creative nonfiction. His examples range from authors like Rebecca McClanahan, Brian Doyle, and David Sedaris. Throughout my reading, I also learned about “the 5 Rs” of creative nonfiction: Real life, Reflection, Research, Reading, and Riting. The first “R” teaches that the foundation of good writing emerges from personal experience. The second “R” teaches that creative nonfiction should reflect a writer’s feelings and responses about a subject. The third “R” teaches that a person should make themselves knowledgeable enough through research in order to ask intelligent questions. The fourth “R” teaches that a person should knowledge themselves in their writing career through extensive reading. And the fifth and final “R” teaches that art is about the passion of the moment and the magic of the muse. David Starkey also helped me learn how to organize my creative nonfiction. Starkey states that writers don’t have to stick to five-paragraph theme when writing a creative nonfiction because the writer may have one point instead of many.
ReplyDeleteJulissa Balderas
Starkey's chapter on what creative nonfiction is, helped me understand better the requirements that these types of essays must contain. Personally, this is the area that I like writing the most, and being able to read something that gave me a lot of insight towards what I need to include in my writing was of absolute help. I realized that it is very important to have a personal presence, or opinion included in the essay, that it involves some time of self-exploration, and that you don’t have to stay grounded in a specific type of genre, but rather explore different ones in the essay. I also learned that for creative nonfiction, you need to build credibility. To do so, it is important to maintain the truth all throughout the essay; and how you do this is by conducting research on the topic you are exploring. You need to make yourself look knowledgeable. I believe it is very important to keep in mind that there is no absolute structure to write a creative nonfiction essay, that is where the creative part comes from. Creative nonfiction writers have freedom to play with the structure of the essay. I agree with Starkey’s explanation that writers need to include as much details as possible to be able to create a real image in the reader’s mind, giving it credibility to your writing. Overall, even though lengthy, the chapter was full of great information helpful to succeed writing creative nonfiction essays.
ReplyDeleteAna T. Flores
While reading Starkey pages 170-209, I can say I felt a little overwhelmed. I have read memoirs before, and some poetry in the past, but I have never myself experienced the creative nonfiction world. Although this reading gave me more of a clear view by providing examples of different ways of writing, I can for sure say that I will end up having more questions the moment I have to become the author. I liked how it broke down the readings, and even gave us a checklist at the end of each of what we should look for when we do tackle the nonfiction world. I could relate to the mention of the 5 paragraph theme that has been required all through High School, and even some of the college courses I was enrolled in the past. The 5r's are going to be a big help as well, real life, reflection, research, reading and "ratting". Even though there are different ways that an essay can be written, the authors still have some kind of structure behind their methods. Since it is nonfiction I understand that there is a certain level of responsibility that comes with writing these kinds of essays. I will probably take the time to read more nonfiction essays, as well as poetry to fully understand at least the structure and the flow that was mentioned in this reading. Overall I found it to be very informative, especially since I lack experience in this particular kind of writing.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Videgaray
As I was reading pages 170-209, I was learning more and more about the aspects of creating a creative writing nonfiction story. Not only did the reading give you a better insight on what it is but it also mentioned something that I was able to relate to. It talked about the five-paragraph theme or format. While in middle school up until high school most teachers wanted all essays or writings to be in that format. To me personally, I always felt that I couldn’t be completely free with my words and writing. It was as if I was only able to be creative to a certain extent. With that being said and having been introduced to the 5 R’s. To me I view it as a bowling game, the ball as my writings, the rails as the 5 R’s and the pins being the finished outcome. The reason I see the 5 R’s as the rail is because it’s a tool to keep you on track. The reality, research, reading, writing, and reflection must be lined up for structure in the writings. Every writer has their own method, but I believe they find their own structure to do so. Overall, Starkey’s chapter opened a door on the requirements of writing a creative nonfiction essay.
ReplyDeleteMarissa Sanchez
The assigned reading by David Starkey gave be a better understanding of what it takes to write a short creative nonfiction story. Personally, I am not much of a writer I am more of a reader so all of the information in the text was very helpful. He gives examples of what is good and bad writing which more less gives you and idea of how to begin. He offers new views for example in previous classes we have been taught the five paragraph rule which either limited or made you extensively write depending on your ideas. I believe that creative writing comes from within the writer and their ideas and shouldn’t have to follow an exact format because then it would defeat the purpose. Learning about the 5 R’s of nonfiction was very interesting because it is a good strategy to use while writing. Using personal experiences as inspiration can help reflect on past and new experiences. In my opinion the fifth R was the most important, writing with a passion will reflect on your work. When I truly have a passion for what I am reading or writing, I make sure I do it correctly and enjoy myself while doing it and that makes the outcome much better. I will definitely put Starkey’s strategies and tips to use in future assignments.
ReplyDeleteMarlen Garcia
Based on the pages we just read, this chapter mostly talks about letting the readers understand what creative nonfiction is and giving guidelines such as the five R’s and elements. I believe I can relate more with reflection because I hate to say it but I find myself an emotional person which is reason why I have a notebook and just begin to wrote when I feel when I can’t say the words out loud. Just as Real-life experiences help writers write their own stories and change them to whatever they chose to be like supernatural and change the plot and characters around. From middle school to high school it’s true now that schools are focused more on essays so when we hear about writing we began to think we have a certain limit and just doing research on a subject or an analysis. Although in my opinion I find poetry to be a little more challenging if it’s a closed poem Based on the sounds and rhythm “poets write not only with their eye, but with their ear”, which is true but for that matter a little stimulating for me. In all, the chapter can help the audience have a better understanding to creative nonfiction by Starkey mentioning many examples like Rebecca McClenaghan and Brian Doyle. I feel I would want to practice myself to get a better understanding just to be sure I get what Starkey is trying to convey in this chapter and be sure I’m on the right track.
ReplyDeleteALyssa Duque
In this chapter titled “Writing Creative Nonfiction,” Starkey immediately begins with addressing the elephant in the room of creative writing: people, especially students, are not thrilled about writing essays. I love the awareness that the author holds in teaching about this subject. As a student whose favorite subject has always been English, even I grew weary at the thought of essays by my last years in primary education. I associated the tasks of writing essays with limitations and rigid structure. However as I read deeper into this chapter, the revelation that creative nonfiction “goes against the grain of popular opinion,” was extremely refreshing. The dismay that Starkey conveyed “true essaysists” had towards the basic five paragraph structure encouraged me. I had always felt the box around me but was very relieved and reassured that other creatives were also discontent with this system for every form of writing. The author states that “it should be something you truly want to explore rather than something you feel obliged to write about.” Most of the time in academia we often are forced into topics that most of the time we are not necessarily passionate about. While there is most certainly a time and place for this, the area of creative writing provides a godsend outlet from the dreariness. Additionally, I greatly enjoyed Starkey encouraging the audience to read poetry even if you are not a poet, as it “helps increase your skills as an essayist.”
ReplyDeleteNick Torres
In this chapter, "Writing Creative Nonfiction," David Starkey discusses the genre requirements of creative non-fiction and the rules to writing CNF. From personal experience, I have always found writing about myself the most difficult above any other genre. I find it hard to put my experiences to pen and paper because I can never describe exactly how I feel. In high school, we wrote primarily essays whether they were comparing/constrasting, persuading, or arguing. It was easy to write those types of papers because the rules were simple. Find similarities/differences or choose a side to argue. Writing about myself forces me to think about who I am as a person, at least who I think I am. This genre will be the most challenging for me, but Lee Gutkind's 5 r's (real life, reflection, research, reading, and riting) will provide me with a checklist that I can use to measure my writing by. If I have a basic foundation, I can allow my ideas and feelings to flow.
ReplyDeleteKayla Garza
In Starkey’s “Writing Short Creative Nonfiction” I found it interesting that one of the main components of creative non-fiction was telling the truth. For example, Starkey states “true stories are often the most compelling ones” which I loved because it’s based on a real-life experience. I learned that even though creative non-fiction relies on honesty it is bendable because it based on my truth of my own memories. Also, in “Liferower” by Rebecca McClanahan I like the way she includes onomatopoeias such as “Woosh,woosh” that allows the reader to hear in a way the sound of child birth. In “Joyas Voladoras”, the structure of the essay seems very fast pace which I enjoyed because it reminded me of the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. I learned that sentence structure of the essay effect the way the reader feels and the way they interpret the reading such as short sentences and several pauses. In “Jesus Shaves” by David Sedaris, I found liked the way he included dialogue in his essay which really brought the characters of his story to life, and it helped me understand the significance of the rabbit. I learned that including dialogue allows the reader to understand the interaction between the characters and the relationship. Also, it is a way to back up your story to allow the reader to have proof that the memory is true.
ReplyDeleteKevin Esparza
Another brilliant reading, as the assigned pages 170-209 of David Starkey's "Writing Short Creative Nonfiction" has taught me a plethora of things within it's writings. The ability to have a free flow structure really excited me, as it is true that often we think and speak in a non structural way, as there is really no exact definition of a "normal conversation." Each reading was difficult for me in some way or another, but being able to have helpful insights really guided my understanding of writing for creative non-fiction. One reading I found most enjoyable was "Joyas Voladoras", a rapid fire essay that had such frenetic energy and urgency in its' writing. The impressive speed of such writings always gift me such joy, as they can be challenging to write but always pleasant to read. One of the lessons I am pleased to come away with is the introduction of the 5 R's. Real life experiences can always be added into your work to add a distinct personality that is your own. Reflection delves into the personal aspect by having the thoughts and feelings of the writing mirror the author. Research is important no matter what you're writing, as to take a definitive stance on writing means to be well educated and knowledgable in it to be able to write about it. Reading is almost a companion piece of research, as this furthers the way you can become knowledgable on the subject you are writing. Riting proves to be the most impassioned of the R's, as you must be able to scribe your ideas and thoughts that have been developed by the previous R's into something that carries the weight of your ideas.
ReplyDeletePadini Paolo Santiago