Author: Kaitlyn

“Kaitlyn?”  hearing my teacher calling me from across the room made my heart stop. I knew the answer. It was at the tip of my tongue. But what if I was wrong? I felt an audience of eyes looking at me. There was a knot forming in my throat preventing me from speaking. I knew the answer, why was it so hard for me to just open my mouth and speak? Those few instances felt like an eternity, it felt like everyone had been waiting for my response for a while. I felt my cheeks turning hot. My nervousness was pinkening my face. This was just one of the many moments I experienced at school when I was younger. Every single person has a unique personality. But for the most part there are two people in this world.  Introverts and extroverts. When I look back upon my childhood years there is one characteristic that stands out far more than anything else: quiet. During my childhood, I was always considered shy by teachers, family members and friends. I guess my quietness came from my lack of confidence and social skills. For most of the time it was merely a choice. My quietness presented challenges for many years in school, some of which still remain. 

As a child, being called on by my teacher was my biggest fear. Especially when I had no idea what to say. Silence would almost always be my answer. The greatest fear of mine was being wrong in front of my class. I didn’t want to be judged by my peers. I always found it difficult to interact and socialize with my classmates. I learned English at a pretty young age, around 6 years old. I think I grasped onto the language pretty easily. My social skills and lack of confidence were the things that were slowly draining me constantly. I eventually started to despise school due to the fear of being judged or afraid of being wrong. I enjoyed studying and doing everything on my own. Throughout my middle school years the moments I thrived were during reading time, art class, and journaling sessions. I felt at peace having these subjects. School is the place where we are supposed to make mistakes and learn from them. I wish I knew this earlier down the road. I can appreciate who I was throughout my 12 years of school. From the shy elementary school kid, afraid of being called on but who loved reading, to a college student who is still afraid of being called on but still loves reading. I consider it to be beautiful when one is able to be alone but not feel lonely.  I express myself through writing, reading, through music and through art. Being alone doesn’t have to be boring. :)) 

After reading these three passages I noticed a similar pattern. All of these stories talk about a personal experience that the author faced and how they felt in the process. All three of the authors share with us their point of views and give us an insight of a difficult process. The problems the authors share with us have shaped who they came to be and have a big part in their identity. The key conventions that make up this specific genre include complications of a series of events and a solution on how they resolved their issue. The authors share their stories with us in a first person point of view. It makes the reader feel more connected with the author. Allowing the readers to engage with the author by imagining the story the author is captivating. 

A place to get started with this genre yourself could be to take a very important event that happened in the past that has influenced you as time went by and makes up for who you are today. It could be a personal problem that you faced for a while. Explain to the readers what got you through it and how you overcame that problem. Express your feelings. You have to make the reader feel as if you’re engaging with them and letting out your feelings with them. 

I still need to think about an event to write about, but a few questions that i think are important for me to start writing my narrative could be,  

What do I want my readers to learn from my story? How can I make my story interesting? How can I make the reader feel touched by my story?

When Mike Bunn writes “You are already an author” he means that as we read we become more proficient in our writing abilities which makes us authors as well. As student readers, the types of writings that we read helps us as readers to improve our writing abilities. Reading various genres of writing enables us to learn about the author’s writing methods and strategies, which we can then apply to our very own writing. We are writers in our day to day lives without realizing it. It simply depends on what we’re writing that dictates what writing format we use. Some things that I consider as writings that I write in my everyday life could be emails, assignments, text messages, social media posts and probably many other things that can’t come to mind right now. I believe that our everyday language that we use in our day to day basis can benefit our writing by building stronger connections and making our writing more personalized for our readers. A piece of Bunn’s writing that I’d like to incorporate in my own writing is when he described his job. He used a very descriptive type of writing to describe the place he worked in. “The Palace was a beautiful red brick, four-story theatre in the heart of London’s famous West End, and eight times a week it housed a three hour performance of the musical Les Miserables.” His writing consisted of a very good description. From describing how the theatre looked like, where it was located, and even what he wore. Using simple but formal and to the point vocabulary.  Bunn also mentions these two questions that ill keep in mind for when i’m reading or writing, which were “What is the author’s purpose for this piece of writing?” and “ Who is the intended audience?” These kinds of methods could easily help me develop as a writer.