In-Class Work and Drafts -- July 1, 2013

Qualities of a good narrative:

            Well developed
                        beg, mid, and end
                        fluid

            Provides insight to the author’s viewpoint/experience

            Allows for personal connection(s)

            Is consistent in its context/content (unless otherwise explained later)

            Believable

            Considers audience

            Engaging

            Strong tone/voice

            Character(s)

            Plot

           

First free-write for narrative:

After having made an emergency trip to South Dakota for my aunt’s death and funeral, my family suffered a hardship of our own near death experience. We were about halfway home; Bozeman Montana seemed like a nice place to stop for the night. It was about 9:30 at night when we rolled in to find a hotel room. Unfortunately, all of the hotels were booked in town for that night. Now, I tend to exaggerate, as I know most people do, but when I say the whole town was booked, I mean they were packed. We stopped at one, called another, and were told that it was the first big weekend of Yellowstone travelers, so the whole town was at capacity for the night and even the hotels had tried calling each other to find rooms for people. All of this being said, we decided to move on and go for Butte.

Butte was about an hour away, so my dad offered to drive since my brother and I had been switching off and on for the day. Dad has just woken up from a nap and was feeling anxious to do something other than sleep. My brother, mom, and I, however, wanted to do the opposite. As my dad got on the freeway, the three of us passengers started to doze off. I had just sent an email to my ex-boyfriend when I slipped into a quick sleep. What I’m guessing was about a minute and a half had passed when I was suddenly woken up by a huge impact.

Second free-write for narrative:

When I was 16 years old, my parents called a family meeting. This threw my siblings and me completely off because I can’t think of any other time in my life that a family meeting was held in our household. My parents seemed really somber and withdrawn but told us kids that there was something pretty big they needed to talk about. I sat there quietly as they dropped the bomb on us like a hit across the face with a tank: “you have an older brother that we haven’t told you guys about.” My oldest sister, Carissa, saw nothing huge about this news. She had always been rather distant from everyone in my family and she didn’t feel like it impacted her much at all. My other older sister, Christina, instantly thought it was so cool! She had got on the phone right away and told her two best friends about this new information. My little brother, Benjamin (who was 12 at the time), took it much more calmly. I think the fact that he was a bit younger gave him less experience in the family a I knew it to understand the importance of this information. He mostly just wanted to get in contact with this new family member we learned about because it meant he actually had a brother and wasn’t alone with the three of of girls. I took it with much more impact. My parents had lied to us for years!  I felt betrayed and hurt. It took me a good hour of silence to process what they were actually telling me. I actually had an older brother, like I had always wanted, but I knew absolutely nothing about him.

Third free-write for narrative – fictional setting:

Living on the west coast of the United World Community (formerly called the United States of America) was tough. Everything was taken over by nature and the only people allowed past the Oakonwa line were those involved with the research team from the United Nations. Nobody knew how that one organization had survived through the horrific years of war, plague, terrorism, and disbandment of every other peaceful organization, but it was trying so desperately to maintain its stance on human equality and rights. Those involved in research held this same hope that everyone would someday get to a point of peace again like the world had seen two-hundred and seventy-six years prior, before the big event. However, living in such a foreign place proved to take its toll on those inhabiting the lush forest.

Back in 2186, the world was actually doing pretty well. War had all but nearly ceased and the USA had merged with other nations to become a stronger super power than before, but with true peace on the agenda.