Reading through chapter one I realized how many personal narratives I have wrote without even realizing it at the time. I believe writing narratives become so natural because how easy is it to talk about ourselves? Before I write any narrative I stress out a little with how to go about it and how to summarize such a big portion of experience but once I begin writing it flows out. Although, when I read a section about pacing myself I came to the conclusion that I don’t do that very well. I always think about the order but sometimes it gets a little scrambled and seems like I cut to the chase too quick or too slow. Pace matters a whole lot when writing.
It makes a good point about how as humans, we are naturally going to forget details. I agree with this to an extent. I believe if you’re writing about something that has had a major impact on you that you will most likely remember the main details. If it is a situation that has little meaning to you but you still find important, you might forget some of those details. Overall, the section about jogging your memory is helpful for some writings.
I noticed in chapter 66 with the examples of the papers, there was plenty of dialogue and sensory details. In my opinion, that is especially hard to add into a paper because then I feel like I am about to write an award winning novel. That’s what doesn’t come natural in a narrative is writing dialogue between people. Honestly, it makes me a little uncomfortable. Using sensory details in a narrative would for sure help the paper. I have read narratives with sensory details and it makes you feel like you are with them experiencing it. Having that in mind, I could definitely use that next time in my writings.
I really appreciate what you say about adding sensory detail and dialog because I think you gave me some insight on the mind of a student that I have not had before. I have always written like I was going for an award-winning novel-- I wrote my own novel between 4th and 6th grade-- so it hasn't occurred to me that maybe it is the awkwardness, the scariness, the nervousness of doing this that stops students from experimenting more with description. Does this mean that some people experience writing anxiety when asked to try new things in writing? This could be very important to the way I teach description.
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