Philip Gerard, Chapter 6, "What Form Will It Take?"

I think Gerard brings up some important stuff in this chapter. I especially like the lines:

"It is not the great writers but the amateurs who hide behind a gauze of complexity, whose writing is deliberately difficult and unnecessarily obscure... The art of the craft of writing is to make it seem effortless, transparent as window glass, to make the difficult look easy." (97)

And to that I say: ain't that the truth. How many times have I restated the same thing over and over again in slightly different and overly flowery language when I have absolutely no purpose in writing a paper? Way too many times. I don't do that anymore--at least, I don't think I do that anymore. Maybe only when I'm tired. Anyway--It's something that a lot of people do--they try to cover up the fact that they don't actually have anything substantial to stand on with pretty words and convoluted, tri-part thesis statements. It's not good--but it happens. A lot. So, Gerard is basically calling us out--he's saying: Listen, that's not good writing. There's really no excuse for it because it comes from either laziness or directionlessness--both of which cloud the writing process. Thanks for the tip, Gerard. Concise writing is the way to go! I'll try to keep that in mind. I should probably try to keep that in mind when it comes to these blog postings...

Gerard, Chapter 5, "On Assignment"

This chapter was a fun one--I always like it when writers teach the reader through their own stories, so reading about Gerard's search for Hemingway's Paris was good. It's interesting, personal, and insightful. And, the idea of going on assignment, and especially to a large European city, builds vivid images in my head of the London I was just pulled away from. So, here's the quote:

"It's exactly the unexpected, the thing you never counted on, the problem that inspires an inventive solution, than can carry a fairly predictable piece to a new level."

This is the same thing I seem to keep getting from the readings so far this semester: we start out in one direction, but personal experience and the text itself force us to find new ways of looking at things. Gerard says here that if we listen and are flexible, then we can find the story.

Gerard, Chapter 4, "The Art of the Interview"

I guess this is an important chapter seeing as we're about to actually start on (some of my peers may have already taken the initial steps--ghasp!) our immersion projects and interviewing people is an important part of that. Okay, so here's my quote:

To "fashion a piece of artistic truth, a true story [,]...requires sound judgement and the craft to capture truth in the exact words of another person--exact, but not entire and not verbatim. Not the whole truth, but at least nothing but the truth." (75)

Using the words of someone you've talked to is a lot different than using direct literary quotations in an academic paper. All of a sudden, the focus is away from some non-feeling text and on a living, breathing person. A person who may or may not read your work. That's pretty scary if you ask me. Just from my experience of writing about my family, I've been terrified that my mom or dad would get ahold of my essay and get their feelings hurt. Not always, of course, but sometimes. When I'm getting deeper than just talking about how my cast smelled when I went to Jeckyll Island in the fifth grade. So I can only imagine how stressful it can be to incorporate the words of someone who doesn't already love you into your writing...although, now that I'm thinking about it: it might just be easier. I'm not sure; I'll let you know later. Either way, I think Gerard's words are important ones to keep in mind--as the writers, we're responsible for the way we make people look and it's necessary to tell the truth, to be kind and honest.

Philip Gerard, Chapter 11, "Law and Ethics"

Gerard tells us:

"Writing is a way of life. It uses all of your talent, your energy, your passion, even your doubt and failings. It is a complete use of your personality."

I love this idea, and I love that it's true of creative nonfiction. It's a shame we can't see more of the personality in academic writing--I think it would really liven things up! It's so interesting to create yourself as a character, to speak candidly to a reader who trusts you to tell the truth--so you try to. It's weird to try to look at your own life and make connections to something bigger than yourself. And reading Gerard makes me want to do just that. Better yet, he gives hope that it's not an impossible feat, even if "It's not fun, exactly: It's difficult, soul-searching work of the most exacting kind."

Philip Gerard, Chapter 3, "Researching"

Here's a good point from Gerard:

"All narratives move through time and space."

He says this in the context of telling aspiring creative nonfiction writers about the value of looking to maps for information about a subject. So, it's a good quote because it actually gives us an important piece of advise, but it also reminds us that literature (even contemporary essays) do not exist in a vacuum. An entire world is going on around this piece, and it is our job (as someone who aspires to tell the story as truthfully as we can) to understand and acknowledge this fact in our writing. This chapter is a good resource, totally chalk full of words of wisdom. That's always helpful.

Philip Gerard, Chapter 2, "Finding an Original Subject"

This is a really good chapter for those of us who are just starting out in the genre of creative nonfiction. For one thing, I really took comfort in the short passage:

"The writer has to take raw data and somehow refine it toward meaning.
Sometimes the interest is obvious, in a general way; other times it is not
obvious to anyone, even the writer."

I guess I was sort of under the impression that good ideas just sort of flow to good writers. But I think Gerard makes it clear here (and in subsequent chapters) that we often set out to write something only to discover that we've got something entirely different--and that something can be difficult to pin down. This is good news for me!

Gerard Ch 1

So, I finished reading the first chapter of Philip Gerard's book Creative Nonfiction and I wanted to draw attention to my absolute favorite line from what I have read so far. On page eleven, Gerard describes what is almost impossible (well, maybe just difficult) to produce. He says: "Good writing is elegant--cleanly arresting rather than gaudy or merely decorative." Which, in itself is a clean, concise way of writing. Ah, the simple ease of reading elegant prose. Isn't that the goal? But then, it is so difficult to actually do--you leave too much out and you sound like a seven-year old. But you put too much in and you sound like an arrogant ass hole. What we need is a poetic balance. Something that is work to produce and complete ease to read. Nicely said, Gerard. That's definitely food for thought.