What Is Personal Narrative, Thoughts After A Class

The six personal narrative classes have come & gone.

First Person: Personal Narrative Writing
UAB Art, ArtPlay
Teaching Artist – Javacia Harris Bowser

How did I do on my specific aims for the class? [Thoughts Before A Class]

1) Go somewhere, do something.

Yup.

2) Generate blog posts.

Hit this one out of the park. This is post #7 about the class directly. While in town for class, I found photo subjects for Friday posts and art subjects for Sunday posts. After all these years, I think in blog posts. Can’t say if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It is definitely a thing I do.

3) Professional development.

Meh. I wrote four assignments. Approximately 3,000 words. More writing is better than less writing. OTOH, all of it was very much a piece of what I already write. Partly due to the short time frame. Assignment on Monday, due Friday. Text on a deadline? Pas de problem. Soul-searching, personally innovative text on a deadline? Not happening. One option would be to gradually redo the assignments in a more narrative style. I may. Or I may get caught up in simply getting text out the door.

4) Write & 5) Submit.

Nope. Nothing I wrote cries out for a market.

So what did I learn? I can safely say that Personal Narrative, as a genre, is not for me.

Emotional subtext. I am a subtle as a brick. Would I benefit from increased emotional complexity? Probably. Am I likely to change at my age? Probably not. Nor am I interested in reading books that plumb the profound depths of a stranger. Unless you are one of my nearest & dearest, I do not care to hear about your personal growth. I am delighted you have gained as a human. Please go do it somewhere else.

Trauma. Personal narrative is all about transformation. Because X happened, I learned Y things. Generally, X is some horrible life event. I do not want to have horrible life events. I do not want to read about horrible life events. I will not bring down the tone of this post by giving specific examples of the terrible things that people write about. If you are interested, do a search on Memoir. Or use your imagination. Ick. I do not need more angst in my life. I have a gracious plenty. Why invite more darkness into my life?

Thus endeth the personal narrative adventure.

Post From Another Class Member

Aust’s Proquestinations: Personal Narrative Assignment #1 – Embracing My Roots

My Class Posts

[What Is Personal Narrative, Thoughts Before A Class]
[Why I Write, Personal Narrative Class #1]
[What Is The Story Of Your Name? Personal Narrative Assignment #1, Class #2]
[Turning Yourself into a Character, Personal Narrative Assignment #2, Class #3]
[Life in Seven States, Or Seven State-Like Entities, Personal Narrative Assignment #3, Class #4]
[Confessions of a Confirmed Cat Person, Personal Narrative Assignment #4, Classes #5&6]
Personal Narrative, Thoughts After A Class

Per my own curiosity, posts that arose because of class

[Sunset On A Sidewalk, Photography]
[Heart Of Gold Mural, Art]
[Found Fall, Photography]
[Scattered Reflections, Photography]
[Mosaic Tiles, Art]
[Park photos] pending

So, four writing assignments and a baker’s dozen of posts. Not a bad haul.

Onwards!
Katherine