Personal Narrative Nonfiction

Creative Nonfiction is arguably the unit I struggled with the most this year, and in general. Writing about myself has always been hard for me, and when given the chance I always seemed to go too far. I came into the school year fresh-faced, however, and ready to take chances. As the first unit of the school year, it feels right that it open my portfolio, since this is basically a polished and reviewed summary of my year in writing. I also love to lead strong, and I am confident my nonfiction pieces are amongst the strongest I write all year, at least to me personally. During this unit, I learned a lot about myself and about writing about my personal experiences. I also began dedicating myself to the development of my voice and emotional truth,
I challenged this “requirement” of my nonfiction last year in my piece “Little River Rocks.” I started arguably easy, with a memory from over eight years ago, but it was still a difficult topic for me. I originally wrote this about “home,” in this case the place I have felt most at home, and how I felt like I failed the memory of this. I’m proud of the elements of this, and how I made the assignment my own where I could. I have edited it since the assignment to turn it into a more “self discovery” piece, focussing the place within myself, and less on myself in the physical place. Some more strengths in this is my development of place and character, specifically in my own. There are also a lot of little message I include, showing instead of telling, very rarely jumping in as my current self to reflect and letting the symbolism and imagery do it for
This piece originates from my “Delving Into Place” essay, but I moved away from that and more towards a complete, immersive piece, trying to recreate the evening I spent with my dad. I am enthusiastic to end my nonfiction section with this piece, with strengths in imagery, tone, mood, and specifically my voice. This is the piece that I feel really begins the development of my personal voice for the year, and hopefully for the future. I will not talk about it too much; I would rather it stood for