[stylist] Creative non-fiction writing excersize--Taking the Fall for Federationism- what's acceptable in CNF

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Donna,

Yes, it's perfectly acceptable to use different POV's and tenses in
creative nonfiction, and you can even use conjecture if attempting to
enter the thoughts of other people.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter, editor, Slate & Style
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can
satisfy, we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for
another world."
C. S. Lewis

Message: 11
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:43:48 -0500
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Creative non-fiction writing excersize--Taking
	the	Fall for Federationism
Message-ID: <888CEAEA3E1C4D1FB158F9070B9C85D3 at OwnerHP>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Shawn,
I've been following both threads on this piece, and I wanted to make a
few comments. First, you hit a nerve with me -- so much so that I broke
with my routine yesterday and spent three hours writing about several
similar incidents. In my case, I view them as sign-posts that were
ignored by myself and others who didn't want me to be "blind" no matter
what the doctors said. I know other folks with degenerative eye
conditions who had near misses while still driving long after they
should have quit. One gal I interviewed a few years back got a wake-up
call when crossing the street with her toddler -- a bus had to slam on
the breaks to miss her.

I gather for you that it is something you perceive as evidence that you
weren't paying attention. You make a valid point that having a cane is
no guarantee of not taking prat falls, as you call them, or colliding
with anything. When we lived in Philadelphia, people would tell me
stories about a blind man who used a cane to get to his job at the state
office building. He traveled by subway, and every day he would run
straight into the same column. It brings to mind that old Einstein quote
about insanity being continuing to do the same thing and expecting
different results. It's also possible to ignore one's guide dog and run
into hanging branches, trip over cracks in the sidewalk and the like. 

I think that part of the reason you get a bit of flack about what is
clearly your choice in getting around has to do with the pervasive
public opinion that whatever "accident" or problem we have, it is
primarily due to blindness. My old economics professor used to be fond
of saying that monocausal explanations for anything are ipso facto
inadequate, but with regard to blindness, that's what we're fighting.
Sighted people walk into things, knock things off the table and lose
track of their keys, but if we do, it's because we're blind. My sister
is fully sighted, but that didn't stop her from breaking a toe on the
family toilet. The toilet, in its defense, maintains that it had been in
the exact same place for 40 years.

  The problem isn't just one of our public perception as adults. Blind
children are the most impacted. There are few expectations. Even the
standards for reading at grade-level don't apply to blind kids in most
states. Schools aren't as inclined to test blind kids for learning
disabilities like they do with sighted kids. With blind kids, whatever
deficit they exhibit is automatically assumed to be related to blindness
and therefore hopeless.

In terms of the piece, Chris did catch some typos, and I would have to
agree about the use of the present tense. Lynda mentioned the first
person vs. third person question, but that's a whole other animal, as
they say, and I don't know if that would be considered creative
nonfiction -- perhaps, but I don't know; I am only familiar with the
first person in that regard. I'd change tenses and see how that goes. 

It would be an interesting exercise to try telling the same story in
third person omniscient. You could also try telling it from the POV of
someone who was there (doesn't have to be a real person). That would
open up possibilities of turning it into a fictional piece and perhaps
developing the character of the narrator to enable some sort of flash of
insight. 

As far as changing your request for help not being polite, ... I didn't
really take it that way. Also, what you said or what you want the reader
to experience you saying is what it is. I changed something in an
article several years ago because a blind person in a leadership
position suggested that my wording didn't present the person's
experience in the most independent light. The fact was that I told it
like she told it to me. I changed it to whitewash a small detail to make
her look more "capable." I wish I hadn't.

Anyway, I'll post mine soon. Thanks for the inspiration. I haven't been
doing anything except as it pertains to getting my novel out, so this
was a welcomed break. Donna