[stylist] need inspiration

Mon Sep 21 01:38:29 UTC 2009

Thank you so much to everyone who offered me so much 
encouragement.  I decided to take the choir route, but I am 
definitely going to think about writing about blindness for the 
nonfiction unit later in the semester.
The story attached is not a real experience that happened to me.  
The part where I clapped in the song is real, but the choir 
director didn't mind, and I started a wonderful tradition.  But 
one thing I remembered from the textbook is that in ficity, you 
can ask "what if?" So in this story I thought about "what if the 
choir director had not approved of this improvisation, and this 
is the basis for my story.
Everyone in the class is going to read the story and give me 
feedback for revisions, but if you have suggestions, I would love 
to hear them as well.  Again, thank you so much for assuring me 
that my experiences are worth writing about.
Allison Nastoff

> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "James Canaday M.A.  N6YR" <n6yr at sunflower.com
>To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:51:40 -0500
>Subject: Re: [stylist] need inspiration

>Dear Allison,
>please don't be so quick to discount your own experiences as 
being
>"childish."   first, we all have been children, so that actually 
can
>be a positive for your story.  if you are indeed writing about a
>child or a young person, then all of us have been there.  you 
contact
>truths we all have in common, experiences we all can share.  
then,
>you take those and braid them into something unique.  did 
something
>happen when you were singing in the choir that made you laugh?  
or
>something that happened that made you cry?  was there a moment 
during
>your time singing in the choir that you felt the presence of God 
most
>particularly?
>a moment like one of those could make a wonderful story.  was 
there a
>mixup one day with a choir rob?
>once my wife was singing in a church choir.  this church was not 
so
>formal and all the  choir members  had cups of coffee or tea 
which
>they brought up into the high choir loft up behind the seated 
congregation.
>my wife was in an animated conversation, and by the way she is 
blind
>and a soprano.  she waved her hand and swept her coffee cup off 
the
>choir loft rail in front of her, and the cup fell most of a story
>down to the fround behind the seated congregation.  in those days 
or
>at that church, the cups were porcelin and not covered.
>incredibly, her cup landed right side up, and not a single drop 
had
>spilled from it!

>Allison, you have many wonderful experiences.  was there 
something
>you learned through hard work?
>I'm sure you can write a seven page story.
>good luck,
>jc
>Jim Canaday M.A.
>Lawrence, KS

>At 12:17 AM 9/19/2009, you wrote:
>>Hi everyone,
>>This semester, I am taking a creative writing class in college.
>>I love to write, but I am more accostumed to writing essays, or
>>newspaper articles.  But for Monday's class, I have to write a 
short
>>literary fiction story--and by short, my teacher means a minimum 
of
>>seven print pages--and I have absolutely no idea what to write
>>about.  The textbook says that there are stories all around us 
from
>>our personal experiences, to things we hear about in the paper 
that
>>can make a story.  But do you think I can recall meaningful 
personal
>>experiences when I need to? Experiences that I can think of 
(school,
>>being blind, singing in choir), seem too childish for this kind 
of
>>class based on the other stories the teacher has assigned for us 
to
>>read, and all I see in the news is stories about the economy and 
the
>>war, nothing that has sparked a story.  So I was wondering how do
>>you writers find ideas for a story? If you are writing a story 
based
>>on a personal experience, how do you develop it into a seven page
>>story when thinking back on the experience, you have no idea how 
to
>>make a real story out of it, no matter how profound it may be to 
you?
>>Any advice you could give me would be wonderful.
>>Allison Nastoff

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