In the first chapter you read of Creative Nonfiction, Gerard covered the Five Hallmarks of great creative nonfiction. And now I’d like you to start thinking about what you yourself can contribute. What would you write an essay about, in your life, if you can chose anything? Using these hallmarks as a guide can help you chose. 

In this discussion, let’s focus on this hallmark: creative nonfiction has an apparent subject and a deeper subject. This can mean: you might write an essay about your trip as a child to Disneyland when you got lost (the apparent subject) but the bigger theme could be realizing you will ultimately not always have your parents in your life anyway (deeper subject). Another example: the time you drove with a bunch of young friends in high school when they were drunk (the apparent story) and the recognition that you were not immortal (the deeper subject). Or this: the months you left another country to move to the U.S. (the apparent subject) and the feeling that your life was going to be aiming for much bigger goals now so you’d have to be strong for it (the deeper subject). 

I’m making these up. But the model is this: you have occasions in your life which are events that feel memorable, because they meant something big to you in your emotional growth. Make sense? By including both of these ideas in every essay you write, you are looking at the way that your own opinion about life means something to the rest of world. The way that you yourself are part of a larger picture of humanity. 

So explore that idea here. Give us potential ideas for what you might write about in the final essay, and include any thoughts you have, INCLUDING CONFUSIONS. I can help answer these, and your classmates can show your their ideas about what this whole new form means, and what it can do. Answer what might your story be, and WHAT IS THE DEEPER MEANING of your story. 

As always, your post is due on Friday, and you should respond to two classmates’ posts by Sunday night. Thanks!

Learning about the Five Hallmarks of great creative nonfiction made me excited about sharing my experiences through writing. While I’ve lived a fairly normal life, I could still say that there are indeed some interesting snippets I’d like to share with you all. One example would be when I almost drowned at the public pool when I was four, all because I thought I could swim without a floater and I let go of it while I was in the pool’s 6 ft area.