1. Considerations for Writing

2.  What is it? (Your own; unique; unlike any other’s)  What affects it?  Your own personality  Your own experiences  Your own perspective

3.  What is it? (Ours, shared, over-reaching all)  What affects it?  The human condition  The human experience  Shared commonalities

4.  It’s all about love.  It’s all about death.

5.  Uses the individual…  To comment on the universal.

6.  By taking one’s own experiences, view, perspective and sharing it—  With an eye/ear to the larger human experience.

7.  Cold hard truth: The reader doesn’t care about you.  The reader cares about himself.  If your writing is only individual navel gazing, it is not good writing.  BUT…  If your you can share your own experience to help others see their own lives more clearly, you have accomplished a good and worthy thing.

8.  Learn to capture your individual experience  With an eye to the universal.  Need some examples?  Of course!

9.  Individual  I couldn’t find my daughter’s shoe before her Christmas concert.  Universal  We all fall short  We all need forgiveness

10.  Individual – making a prank phone call to my parents’ home when I was in junior high  Universal – feeling ashamed

11.  Individual – A student looked like she was paying attention when in fact she wasn’t.  Universal – We think we’re a little better than we are, then realize we’re not.

12.  Individual – Helped my husband fix the crossing over a creek (connecting two fields).  Universal – Staying connected in a relationship takes work.

13.  Universal – Life lurches forward.  Individual – Someone asked me if I had grandchildren.

14.  Universal – renewal in nature  Individual – tending a baby fawn

15.  Universal - Satisfaction follows effort  Individual - Running Dam-2-Dam

16.  Universal – Disappointment follows effort  Individual – Not making All-State

17.  Universal – Choose 3 of the 5 following “universals” and think of individual experiences (your own) that express the theme.  Sometimes we hurt those we love.  A small act of kindness can turn a day around.  Overcoming fear can be satisfying/exhilarating.  Regret lingers.  Embarrassment is a part of living.

18.  Think of three strong memories. Identify two “universals” that might come from those memories.  Ex: I was called “String Bean” at Girl Scout camp.  Embracing a “new” identity  Worries about acceptance  Value of a close childhood friendship

19.  Part I: Choose 3 of the 5 “universals”; for each, write 3-4 sentences about an experience that speaks to that theme.  Part II: Think of 3 strong memories. Write two “universal themes” that are connected to the memory/experience.  DUE: Before class Tuesday, Sept. 2)