|
Yesterday I had multitudes, today mirages in the desert.
We have to write a lyric essay for my Creative Nonwriting class (which I will still call, despite it actually being “Essay Writing”, which, yeah, but is sounds too much like Freshman Composition, which is not quite right). Now what is a lyric essay, I wondered? Would I have to find words to match with “hippopotamus”? Would I have to find some event in my life that would warrant me being able to use “hippopotamus” in an essay?
One concept of the lyric essay is that it does not follow a straight narrative path. According to the textbook, the essays “favor fragmentation and imagery: they use white space and juxtaposition as structural elements.” There are also different forms of lyric essays, including the prose poem; the collage; the braided essay (the essay can wander to and fro, play in the traffic, but it has to come back to the same place--it must have a spine to make it stand); the “hermit crab” essay, which the authors made up to basically say you could use any form to write your essay in, whether it be a recipe, a to-do list; an address book.
So I sat down the other day, in the long gap between taking a Journalism test and getting into the Programming lab, and wrote down all my different ideas and/or possible forms.
1. Google map directions -- covering the time between when I was first kicked out of my parents’ home until I joined the Air Force, touching upon the directionless way I felt during that time and the almost inevitable mistakes I made. This would have included what I still think of as one of the funniest “first time” stories I’ve ever know. I had to cut this one soon after I started writing it, because the directions (unless I cheated on them) would just take too much space.
2. To-do list -- to-do lists are a huge part of my life. And yet I couldn’t think of any essay subject to work into this.
3. Snapshots -- this, I guess, would be the collage one. I wanted to show moments in my life in which death was there or nearby. This was, surprisingly to me, the one I ended up writing. I was not enthusiastic about it, but the topic and form (which changed somewhat as I wrote it) worked well together.
4. People watching -- I thought about this while I was sitting and trying to figure out what I wanted to write about, and I would find myself watching people as they go by, just observing their habits, dress, etc. I could have done something with it, but right now all I can think of is cliche stuff.
5. iTunes shuffle - this is just like one of those things you see on FaceBook every once in a while and you have to hit shuffle on your iPod and put whatever song comes up into some slot (“Song You Marry To”, “Song on Your Deathbed”, etc.). Somewhat interesting, but nothing that would in any way be elevated beyond a FaceBook type of note.
6. I thought I would like to write something about seeing through my eyes, about all the issues I have with my sight, all my phobias about my eyes. I think this would be something good, but I have to turn something in by Thursday, and while I have the spine for this, I just don’t have the rest of the skeleton to attach to it.
7. Christmas list -- I love Christmas, but love doesn’t mean you can do something just because you wanna.
8. Summer trip - I actually thought about this while thinking of another, because one event in there (the third on my list) occurred during this trip. Again, something wonderful to write, but right now no substance to it that I could write about.
9. Word a Day calendar -- I have a love of language, and thought of a way to work that in. I could have done it (I ended up doing something similar with the snapshot essay, except I ended up using colors instead of words).
10. Essay only using song lyrics -- this just would have taken too much research and time. Especially if I wrote an essay in which I used names (in the essay I did write, I mention two girls I had crushes on in elementary school, Dawn Milam and Melinda Wampach--never gonna find those in song lyrics.
11. Stand-up routine -- I think I was getting punch-drunk by this point. I don’t really see how this would be different from a regular essay, except maybe more dick jokes.
12. Cave -- I thought of doing something with the parts of a cave, but this one is just a form in search of a story, and it wasn’t there at this time.
13. Child’s nursery rhyme - yep, punch-drunk.
14. Movie review -- I was just thinking I would have to actually do one of these for my Journalism class, so it was natural to think about it.
Of all of these, I whittled it down to Google maps, snapshots, and eyes. I have already written snapshots. I need to do another edit, because some of the intent of what I wanted to write changed as I wrote it, but I think it is pretty good form. I started the Google map one, and I think it could be good, but our essays are supposed to be five pages or less, and, quite honestly, I would probably have five pages of just directions, not including what I would add (I was looking forward to this, since I would write it in second person and frame all the sentences as instructions. Ah, well). The eye one would also have been good framing, but no picture.
I don’t know how I feel about this essay form. I’m going to do a second draft, turn it in for review, and then do another draft for final turn-in, and we will see.
We have to write a lyric essay for my Creative Nonwriting class (which I will still call, despite it actually being “Essay Writing”, which, yeah, but is sounds too much like Freshman Composition, which is not quite right). Now what is a lyric essay, I wondered? Would I have to find words to match with “hippopotamus”? Would I have to find some event in my life that would warrant me being able to use “hippopotamus” in an essay?
One concept of the lyric essay is that it does not follow a straight narrative path. According to the textbook, the essays “favor fragmentation and imagery: they use white space and juxtaposition as structural elements.” There are also different forms of lyric essays, including the prose poem; the collage; the braided essay (the essay can wander to and fro, play in the traffic, but it has to come back to the same place--it must have a spine to make it stand); the “hermit crab” essay, which the authors made up to basically say you could use any form to write your essay in, whether it be a recipe, a to-do list; an address book.
So I sat down the other day, in the long gap between taking a Journalism test and getting into the Programming lab, and wrote down all my different ideas and/or possible forms.
1. Google map directions -- covering the time between when I was first kicked out of my parents’ home until I joined the Air Force, touching upon the directionless way I felt during that time and the almost inevitable mistakes I made. This would have included what I still think of as one of the funniest “first time” stories I’ve ever know. I had to cut this one soon after I started writing it, because the directions (unless I cheated on them) would just take too much space.
2. To-do list -- to-do lists are a huge part of my life. And yet I couldn’t think of any essay subject to work into this.
3. Snapshots -- this, I guess, would be the collage one. I wanted to show moments in my life in which death was there or nearby. This was, surprisingly to me, the one I ended up writing. I was not enthusiastic about it, but the topic and form (which changed somewhat as I wrote it) worked well together.
4. People watching -- I thought about this while I was sitting and trying to figure out what I wanted to write about, and I would find myself watching people as they go by, just observing their habits, dress, etc. I could have done something with it, but right now all I can think of is cliche stuff.
5. iTunes shuffle - this is just like one of those things you see on FaceBook every once in a while and you have to hit shuffle on your iPod and put whatever song comes up into some slot (“Song You Marry To”, “Song on Your Deathbed”, etc.). Somewhat interesting, but nothing that would in any way be elevated beyond a FaceBook type of note.
6. I thought I would like to write something about seeing through my eyes, about all the issues I have with my sight, all my phobias about my eyes. I think this would be something good, but I have to turn something in by Thursday, and while I have the spine for this, I just don’t have the rest of the skeleton to attach to it.
7. Christmas list -- I love Christmas, but love doesn’t mean you can do something just because you wanna.
8. Summer trip - I actually thought about this while thinking of another, because one event in there (the third on my list) occurred during this trip. Again, something wonderful to write, but right now no substance to it that I could write about.
9. Word a Day calendar -- I have a love of language, and thought of a way to work that in. I could have done it (I ended up doing something similar with the snapshot essay, except I ended up using colors instead of words).
10. Essay only using song lyrics -- this just would have taken too much research and time. Especially if I wrote an essay in which I used names (in the essay I did write, I mention two girls I had crushes on in elementary school, Dawn Milam and Melinda Wampach--never gonna find those in song lyrics.
11. Stand-up routine -- I think I was getting punch-drunk by this point. I don’t really see how this would be different from a regular essay, except maybe more dick jokes.
12. Cave -- I thought of doing something with the parts of a cave, but this one is just a form in search of a story, and it wasn’t there at this time.
13. Child’s nursery rhyme - yep, punch-drunk.
14. Movie review -- I was just thinking I would have to actually do one of these for my Journalism class, so it was natural to think about it.
Of all of these, I whittled it down to Google maps, snapshots, and eyes. I have already written snapshots. I need to do another edit, because some of the intent of what I wanted to write changed as I wrote it, but I think it is pretty good form. I started the Google map one, and I think it could be good, but our essays are supposed to be five pages or less, and, quite honestly, I would probably have five pages of just directions, not including what I would add (I was looking forward to this, since I would write it in second person and frame all the sentences as instructions. Ah, well). The eye one would also have been good framing, but no picture.
I don’t know how I feel about this essay form. I’m going to do a second draft, turn it in for review, and then do another draft for final turn-in, and we will see.
