Strategies to Develop My Educational Narrative

Reflecting on what it took to write my first formal paper brings me anxiety.  We were given examples of narratives to guide us in the type of work our instructor was expecting to see from us.  We also had reading assignments from our text along with in class exercises to guide us in putting our work together. 

 

Try as I might, I could not settle on a specific topic of which to write.  I had a general idea of my topic, but needed to narrow it down to specifics because I felt that I could not possibly write what I needed to say in a mere 1,000- 1,200 words.  It may sound like a large amount of words but in order to say what I felt necessary, in the depth that I had planned to write, that number did not seem to be enough.  The opposite could also be true.  I needed to find a topic in which I had enough material to write about. 

 

I originally planned to write about judging others.  My first blog post about my paper was about that subject.  That topic led me to friendship for another brainstorming session.  I also did a blog post on honesty.  While these topics can relate to my original plan, they seemed disconnected.  I needed something to connect them together and create some sort of transition between them.  I thought about it for some time. 

 

Reading the assigned exercises for our text, I had a hard time following the directions when it came to doing my essay.  How could I follow the processes detailed in the book in regard to putting together the first rough draft?  Especially when I felt that I had already said what I wanted to say in my prewriting exercises.  I would just combine the pre-writings to form the final paper.  The draft would be redundant.  In vain, I tried to find ways to follow strategies from the book for my elusive topic.  Some may have thought that I was procrastinating, but I was actually genuinely stuck on how to proceed.

 

In the end, I just wrote.  I didn’t follow any of the cues in which we were given. I didn’t use my previous writings in my draft.  I did what I usually do, go off on a tangent.  As always, my mind wanders, I get into a project having a certain goal in mind, and I end up with a final product that has nothing to do with my original intent.  It happens all the time.  As I see it, I need wait until I am inspired.  When I am, the work just flows with minimal effort.  Whatever comes out in at the end is usually a surprise to me.  I just hope, whatever final product comes out in the end turns out to be good.  And if I am lucky, it may even be great.