Almost all communication is built on the chassis of story. Your upcoming personal essay will be a kind of story, of course. But even the more formal, academic-type essays you’ll write in your college career can be considered stories, stories of your thinking about a topic.
The more you understand about storytelling, the more interesting and powerful communicator you will be in every area of your life. So watch these short videos featuring Ira Glass. On one level, he’s talking about broadcast storytelling, but on another, deeper level, he’s talking about learning, writing, and storytelling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loxJ3FtCJJA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6x7lOIsPE&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baCJFAGEuJM&feature=relmf
Mick Jagger Content:
Think about the main character’s personality. Track how it changes over the course of the essay. What are the changes? Remember to point to specific areas of the text. What are the forces that change her?
What do you think the writer thinks of her younger self? Why do you think that? (Use evidence from the text)
How are your ideas about what essays are and what essays can do evolving?
Mick Jagger Craft:
Describe Gilman’s technique for the opening. What is she doing, and how is it different than a typical “intro paragraph” for a 5 paragraph essay?
Mudpit (material for your own upcoming essay):
Stories are almost always driven by desire (this one certainly is). In your personal narrative, what is it that you desired? Where’s the yearning?
What’s getting in the way of the yearning? Where’s the tension, trouble, conflict, or choice in your story?