What is “Self-Care?” The New York Times defines Self Care this way: “It can be as easy—and as free—as taking a walk, or as complex as learning a trade. Self-care can include but is not limited to: saying no; buying things; refusing to buy things; taking a long walk; helping others; exercising; crafting…and so on.” Basically, it is something you do that supports you and rejuvenates you so that you can be your highest or best version of yourself. Why is this coming up in my English class, you might be wondering? What does this have to do with writing? I’d like to venture that it has everything to do with writing, this class, and every class you are taking; every day of your life that you spend working and being with family and friends and having obligations and yes, stress. One of the main complaints I hear from students and colleagues is that they are feeling spread too thin—too stressed—to really be the selves they want to be, to be present in life as it is right now, and not be spun out in some future scenario that does not yet exist. I put this unit first as a means not only to examine ourselves under a microscope and find interesting ways to write about ourselves and our behaviors/hopes and dreams/struggles, but also so that you might adapt your own self-care routine this term that will allow you to come to all of your obligations—this class included—with enough gas in the tank, so to speak.
1. Interesting beginnings: In your final draft, I want to see a dynamic and specific opening. Please do not start your paper with the broader definition of self care. Start your paper in action, with YOU. Show us something you are doing or experiencing. And remember that you do not have to start linearly. You can move around in time. You might try showing us a scene of you doing your chosen self care, and then zoom back out to why you chose it.
So, I want everyone for this paper, to try to find a really striking and important moment to open their paper with. This will usually be a scene. It’s the idea that we drop the reader right into scene without “warming up.” We call it, “entering without knocking.” Boom, the reader is forced to orient themselves right away and are usually taken by the sudden immersion of action. We are people: we want to know what’s happening. Most of the time though, when we draft, we think we need to prep the reader. We think we need to wave a flag and say Hi look at me! I’m about to tell a story! But we don’t. We definitely don’t want to start with something universal or general or reads like a self help ad. Let’s look at the two examples and think about what paper you would keep reading;
I stood at the edge of the mountain. There was a turn coming up and then we’d be at the top. I looked down and my breath caught. I wanted to turn back but I couldn’t now. There was no way but forward. “Come on,” my friend Darren said. “You can do this.”
or: We all have to try things we are scared of in life because it makes us into better people. I finally learned that lesson one day and you can too if you say yes to the things that scare you.
Neither one of these is wrong or right per se, but one holds my attention more. We might like the sentiment in the second one, but trust that that sentiment will come through the paper as it goes, and when it comes it will carry much more weight behind it because the reader will have gone on the journey first. When it comes first though, the reader really doesn’t know you and hasn’t formed any attachment or trust. You could be anyone. Personally, I want to know why this person is at the top of the mountain., how they got there and if they will survive. The second one also cuts tension. We know from the top that there’s a happy ending. We then read everything following differently because of that.
2. Use a combination of SCENE and SUMMARY. A lot of times it’s easy to get in a flow and write an entire essay in “telling mode”. Basically, you, reporting what happened and then what happened next and then what happened next. For a reader, though, it can be hard to really SEE and experience what you are explaining without what we call a scene. So what is a scene? A scene is when the writing drops into a moment in action using dialogue and markers that the events are actually happening. Here’s an example of a summarized section and that same section expanded into a scene:
Summary: I was really nervous for the first day of school so I went to talk to my counselor about my goals and she made me feel a lot better and offered new ideas. I went to my first day and everything was great.
or…SCENE: I was nervous for my first day of school so when I showed up for my guidance counseling appointment, my palms were sweating. The room felt stuffy and I worried the counselor wouldn’t really take the time to listen to me. A woman’s head peaked around the corner and called my name. She wore a shirt that said, “In this together” and had a huge smile. “Come right this way, Sally,” she said. I sat in her office and after we went through the basics of my name and major, she looked at me very seriously and asked, “Well, who do you hope to become one day?” It was like everything shrunk down and suddenly my nerves about that math class I wasn’t even sure I needed faded. Who did I want to be? That’s when an image rose up to me and I smiled. “I want to be like you,” I said. A guidance counselor. I had never considered it before, but here it was. I could do what she was doing, and help people navigate the nerve wracking terrain of college life. (and so on).
There is a time and place for both scene and summary in your writing. One is not better than the other, but remember, a few well placed scenes in your paper bring it to life and SHOW the reader what the piece is about. In our scene here, we learn and see much more than the summarized version. We are actually IN the story.
So, in your paper, find two places you want to make into a scene. Remember, a scene usually uses action and dialogue and can feel sort of like the camera is zooming in. Think of summary like the montage scene in the movie where the music is playing and the characters are going through the motions, and then scene is when the music stops and we hear them start talking.
I believe by focusing on these things, all of your papers will vastly improve and it will lead into other revisions that will come to you. Please trust your intuition, and trust that YOU know the story you are telling best of all.
REQUIREMENT :
**MALE’S PERSPECTIVE
***3-4 page essay on your journey implementing a self-care regime which will include a “researchable component.” So, if my self care practice turns out to be yoga, I will weave in a bit of research about yoga into the paper, and cite my sources. You will be required to use at least one outside source for this paper.
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