Creative Nonfiction
While I had written personal essays in some form in an Article and Essay workshop in my undergraduate work, my time at Virginia Commonwealth University was the first time I truly delved into the art wholeheartedly. I found that I truly loved the different aspects of it: self-discovery, storytelling, making meaning. Over the course of my two years there, I produced three essays that made me learn a great deal about myself. I have uploaded all three of them here for you. Two of them are unaltered, uploaded as they were turned in as final projects. As such, they are, to me, very young sounding now. I was 23 and 24 when I turned them in, after all. However, they garnered me “A’s” in the classes, so I suppose they are just young, and perhaps not as representative of my writing now as they are of my journey. The other piece essay, “Trusting the Wind,” was also one started at VCU. I have revised it somewhat, adding to it as I saw that the patterns have continued in my life, and revising the voice somewhat. I am not thoroughly satisfied with the revision, and plan to continue working on it as time permits, but I think it stands as sufficiently representative for the moment, if not by any means perfect.
The final piece is not so much an essay as a proposal of an idea I would like to consider further. I have been thinking for a while about a definition of folklore that struck me, and how easily it could apply to fandom. Given my work in law school with fandom, I consider the question of whether fandom could be considered a folk group and thus the art it produces–fan fiction, fan videos, fan music, fan art, fan customs, fan language–a type of folk art. It isn’t an in depth essay, or at all definitive, just the beginnings of an idea, laying out my initial reasoning.
“Trusting in the Wind” – an examination of memory and connection, looking at the way my military upbringing has led to a somewhat rootless existence and a continual searching for the past, yet a continual need to be moving ever onward.
“Connections over the Rainbow” – looks at my initial introduction to fandom (though I didn’t know to call it that, yet) and the connections and friendships I made via the Internet, finally feeling like maybe I had found a place and people who understood me.
“Shades of Darkness” – considers my fascination with the first vampire story I wrote–how it went from short story to play and why it is one I could not quite let go.