English 354: Final Craft Essay
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You Can’t Beat a Deadhorse
The process of taking the work of this intense, six-week creative writing/non-fiction course and weaving it into one final portfolio was truly a learning experience.
“Show, don’t tell,” was New Rule Number One that I learned from my instructor Kelly Magee, and my 15 fellow writers who generously critiqued my work. The students had heard there was sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll in the early oilfield. They wanted to know more, but through scene, not summary. New Rule Number Two.
Framing was critical, New Rule Number Three, so I revised and rewrote to try to present my scenes from my point of view.
I learned about tension, pacing, and manipulating energy (NR#4) while avoiding wordiness and writerly language. Most of my rewrites resulted in less words with more bang for their buck; I searched and destroyed, seeking out excessive adjectives and dispatching them, in cold blood.
I had a serious challenge in the last section of my portfolio: I needed to sum up 30 years of arctic retailing without using straight narrative, my new worst enemy. I wanted to avoid the clichés, the wrap-it-up-in-a-bow pat ending that we love in our sitcoms, hate in our writers. I consciously added some scenes but am not sure if the final quote, “It’s just Deadhorse” is conclusive enough.
Reference: at the end of Jack Nicholson’s movie Chinatown, the woman he loves, Faye Dunaway, is gunned down in the streets as she flees in her car.
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Final line: “Forget about it, Jake. It’s just…Chinatown.”
That’s what I was going for in mine but I’m not sure I provided enough drama.
I strove to be generous to my (loyal) subjects, not smugly judgmental (NR #5.)
I tried to work small and not just give some haughty overview.
I loved learning the word didactic and vowed not to be that way in my writing.
My goal is this final piece: “Get out of their heads and into their bodies.”
I take away this great quote: “Sanity is madness put to good use.” Who said that? Was it Adam or Nietzsche? I always get those two mixed up.
Did I succeed in my communication goals in this final piece, of sharing that crazy, mushroom-trip-of-a-world with my readers? Only you and my other readers can tell me that.
But I am grateful for this: the skills and techniques that I learned in this class will forever influence all my future writing. These New Lessons will also influence how I live:
With gusto, energy, variety. With generosity. Varying my pace to keep everyone interested, and engaged. Most of all me.
Thank you, Kelly!
And thank you, fellow writers.
How inspiring you are!
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