Process Writing for the Quarter

In general, I found writing the articles for this class quite challenging. First, most of the articles required extensive reporting and this is an area I always fear doing. Approaching complete strangers has never been my strong point and even less so when we are expected to get a “story” out of them. Secondly, since this is a narrative journalism class, we are forced to write considerably more creatively than, at least, what I am used to. This was probably my first significant exposure to the elements of creative writing since, I don’t know - middle school? These two aspects of the class, taken together, constantly challenged me on each article I wrote.

My first article, my personal essay, was very difficult to write for several reasons. On the one hand, I’m not used to writing about myself and on the other hand, the topic I chose to write about, my parent’s divorce, is still something that is hard for me to talk, think and, in this case, write about. In my first draft, I had considerable issues with the “time” of events and, after the workshop, I think I was able to adjust it and make it clearer to the reader when and where all these events were happening in my life. I think writing about this particular aspect of my life served to help me deal or at least reflect more upon these issues and what effect they have had on me.

My second article, the profile on the barbershop and Eddie Anderson, presented me with those issues of approaching strangers. This issue was further complicate by the fact that this barbershop, in several ways, is an ethnic enclave and at multiple times I felt like an unwanted intruder. I felt like sometimes I was an anthropologist going into study this place from my privileged position in the ivory tower. I was also concerned about accurately portraying the subject without patronizing them or casting them in some negative racial stereotype. Another issue I encountered was the flakiness of my subjects. My scheduled interview was canceled several times and this really stressed/frustrated me. However, once I conducted the interview and started writing I found that the story came out pretty easily and naturally. There is just something that I like about barbershops and getting a haircut that I think enabled me to write creatively and effectively for this piece.

The last piece, the profile of my neighbors, has been a little tricky. Most of them are consistently in some sort of a drug-induced stupor, so approaching them doesn’t always work out. My main contact, Olivia, was nice but it was very hard to get a hold of her (no email, cell, etc) and finally she moved without letting me know (we had another interview “scheduled”). Though I didn’t have the complete access I had hoped for, I kind of thought that this would be an interesting thing to portray in a story and I also think it is an element of the story itself – how this group of people is really isolated and wary of outsiders. I’m not sure I could get the access I want without making this an immersion piece and that’s something I just didn’t have time for. But, like I said, I think the story works in its own way.

I think writing for this course really helped me to refine my creative writing abilities and most importantly I think this course taught me a lot about myself by constantly challenging me and making me feel uncomfortable. I think being forced to reflect (the personal essay) and being forced to work outside my comfort zone (interviewing strangers) allowed me to grow as a person by identifying some of my weaknesses and allowing me to work on them. After writing these articles I’m exponentially more confident in my creative writing abilities.