Theme Week 15 "Juxt-asksing"

You start the semester with a journal. Keep your journal online on your own blog.
How did you get here?
what's really happening?

I'd love to save and use this in the future as a sample or model. Yes, no?

Sometimes--in fact, lots of times--writing comes alive when people are trotted out to speak and act. Writers have to listen to themselves; writers ought to always be talking to themselves.
Try...Just watch...what's going on.
Set that scene.

Wishing? Lying? Dreaming? Dancing? Boxing? Cooking? What is writing like for you?

Many a good story was told around a cavemens' campfire, or as medieval pilgrims wandered footsore, or in a cowboys' line shack with blizzards raging outside—without giving a thought, which is where you come in in Creative Nonfiction.

When you finally arrived, it was nothing like you imagined....

You're going to write about people a lot this semester: real people, people you know, people who worry you or make you laugh and cry, people who piss you off, people who are the reason you live. My fear with this theme is that in trying to write, you'll over-perform. A lot of time writing works as a piece of artistry (maybe even art!) because there is more there than meets the eye. A writer makes a point by not explicitly making a point.

It is a truth universally acknowledged.

Here's an example: Baseball legend Ty Cobb used to say, "Hit 'em where they ain't!"

Instead of twisting your mind into a pretzel, try something extremely straightforward and extremely useful.
"I am an English teacher. All English teachers lie. But I am telling you the truth."

If you juxtapose, and remember there are risky topics (Sex, drugs, rock and roll!), one can work successfully with and breathe life into something which seems DOA.

Is there irony in these?