This picture is from http://www.blackberryforums.com.au/gallery/files/1/BlackBerryWorldPhone.jpg
Our assignment on drafting a podcast has been incredibly difficult for me for a number of reasons. So throughout this blog post I will focus on one of those reasons told through the context of a personal struggle.
The biggest struggle I’ve had with this assignment (the podcast draft) was how to tell a personal story. I’ve never been great at telling a personal story and I’ve never known why; you could academic essays are my specialty. My personal stories on paper are very abstract, theoretical, and removed from the story itself and my oral stories are usually boring, verbose and long-winded (surprise), and lack that key punch line. I’ve never known why but that has been something that Delia and I have been discussing so that I can improve my podcast.
One of the first things that I did was to revisit past personal narratives that I’ve written and to see how I did it then. The last time that I’ve written one was when I had to write a series of vignettes for my ninth grade English class modeled after A House on Mango Street. I read through these vignettes and noticed that I did the same thing then that I do now. I insert academic fluff and random diatribes into my stories. That’s how I hit the minimum number of words.
This was exactly what happened with my first draft. So, as a result I threw out that draft and wrote a completely different one. I was struggling with how to tell a personal narrative about technology, so eventually I just wrote about a story that glanced on technology.
This brought me to my next biggest issue: I can never remember things in enough detail to be able to recite them as a story. I don’t know why, and once again this was something that Delia and I tried to probe at. Then, while struggling the night before the first draft was due to rewrite my whole essay Delia gave me a great piece of advice: write about something that happened in the last few days because I would have a better memory of it. My memory was still a little forgetful, but this was where my blackberry was critical.
Our stories were supposed to be about how we interact with technology and how technology describes our lives. As I was writing my new draft and struggling with my memory, I looked at every text, email, calendar event, etc. that I had sent from my Blackberry so that my Blackberry would serve as my memory. It worked great because it’s always nice to have a digital archive of your memories, especially if you’re like me and can’t remember things. That’s probably why on my computer is every document I’ve ever typed since sixth grade.
What is the point of all this though? The topic I was struggling so much to write about was going on exactly as I was writing about it. I couldn’t figure out what story to tell about me and technology until I had to use technology to help me write the story. I should’ve just written about how my Blackberry saved me on this assignment, and how that says how dependent I am on technology. At this point that would be hindsight and I’m trying to avoid writing a third draft from scratch, but I found it incredibly ironic that the topic I was struggling with was helping me through that topic the entire time.
Sometimes the most basic things are right at our fingertips and we don’t even realize it. So the next time you’re struggling on anything take a step back. Look at the abstract about what is going on, and then look at every little detail in that abstract. That works for me now, and had I realized that at the time it would have worked even better.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about memory and make me evermore fearful of Blackberries. To a certain degree, you're no longer encouraged to remember anything because you know you can store it in your Blackberry or a nearby computer. So, which came first: the lack of memory or the presence of the Blackberry/computer. Can you even remember that? I do have one idea for you: embellish. If you can't remember the nitty gitty of a story, fill it in with things that seem appropriate. When you tell stories at a bar, you have to be entertaining, exaggerating a few details won't hurt anyone.
As for the early part of your post, I agree with you on the writing style. I have this problem from time to time (less so nowadays) and I think it has something to do with efficiency. Or at least the perception of efficiency. In a lot of academic writing, and especially in scientific writing, the author is restricted to putting as much information in as little space as possible. The idea being that the evidence will speak for itself, and *that* will have people reading your work–no matter how terribly written it is. I wrote about this a little bit on my blog after we discussed Deux Ex Machina last week. I feel for you. I think the only way you around it is with non-scientific, non-academic *reading* which is sometimes hard to come by as a student. It's worth it though. Good luck.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteIt's my first time reading your blog, and I have to say you drew me right in. First off, visually your blog is captivating! I have never seen such a fun but yet academic layout all at once.
In regards to your post, I think that your blog was definitely a great space for your to explore ideas for your draft. I always feel like I can never really know what I am going to write about until I talk it out with a friend first. Although, you did consult Delia for advice, I think your "friend" in this scenario is actually your blog. You use your blog to talk about your struggles, etc. and I think that it has obviously helped you settle on a topic.
I look forward to hearing your final podcast.
Great work,
Alex
P.S. I also read "A House on Mango Street," good memories!