Honesty and Courage
If you’re going to write…you have to be willing to do the equivalent of walking down a street naked. You have to be able to show too much of yourself. You have to be just a little bit more honest than you’re comfortable with…
-Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline
To practice honesty in your writing, choose one of the following moments and write a few paragraphs about it. As you write, pay attention to your inner register about what you’re writing, noting the particular things that make you uneasy. Try to be a little “more honest than you’re comfortable with.” Remember that being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared; it means you do it anyway.
• A time when you were deeply embarrassed.
• When you regret something you did.
• The saddest moment of your life.
• A secret you are afraid to talk about.
Take the work you wrote above and either read it aloud to someone you trust, or read it alone and pretend that you have an audience. Listen to the way you sound and pay attention to the sensations in your body as you’re reading the difficult moment. Consider what you’re afraid of being judged for, or afraid of saying out loud.
Write those things down.
This is an ungraded assignment–you will get credit for doing it (100 or 0) , but I will not review it, and you will not get a grade.
For Next Tuesday please prepare a story idea or draft (from NMD 334?) you want to work on that you can share with the class–you will have 5-10 minutes to share your story idea and get feedback. You can include images, story models, a draft you have written, to show your current thinking. Make this robust even if you are starting a new story. Many revisions will happen on the way, so don’t worry if it’s not yet what you expect it to be. Feedback will help you craft it, if you have put some thought and creativity into it.