Last night, we were to write lists on areas that we felt we had "authority" to speak about. I don't know if I did the list the way it was intended and I drew some blanks. What do I have authority to speak on? And how to I turn that into "eye" instead of veering towards "I" without overlapping the two?! The "I" essays I wrote were difficult in that I chose to speak on very personal stories. As hard as it was for me to share that, I'm finding that this "eye" essay might be even more challenging.
I think it's because I feel like I'm going to have trouble walking the "fine line" in my opinion. From what I understand we are to talk write about a subject as we see it, yet without our own thoughts directly coming through. Rather it seems like our thoughts might be a shadow in the writing. We allow the readers to maybe feel where we might want them to or the opposite, without saying it overtly.
In my mind, I have several things I might talk about. Fishing, addictions, obsessions...but how to make that into an "eye" essay? How do I show that without crossing into "I" essay territory? After thinking some more about it, I turned to my journal for some insight. In it, I had written possible topics. Two really stand out to me: "Rebecca" and "Stephanie." One is my best friend and the other is my sister. I definitely feel that I can write confidently about either one. Does this count as a valid area? I hope so...otherwise I'm grasping for straws
"Rather it seems like our thoughts might be a shadow in the writing. We allow the readers to maybe feel where we might want them to or the opposite, without saying it overtly."
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that the author's thoughts become a "shadow" - yeah - do that!
And do descriptions. Word pictures. With shadows.