A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Two-Hundred-And-Seventy-Nine

I am still working on that story, and I also began work on an essay today.  I think that is coming along alright, though I find writing non-fiction difficult at times.  It is mostly a matter of comfort and confidence with the material and format.  I am never sure anyone will understand, or that I can effectively express my perspective.  That is a large part of the challenge, of course, and I know that, besides, I think I am often focusing on being persuasive in ways that may not matter for most of this work.  It is not an academic paper trying to make a specific argument, though I may have a point of view and a conclusion I want the reader to understand.  It is not that I don't want to persuade the reader, but that the purpose of the essay is communication first, and the persuasiveness must come as a result of the connection built, of making a visceral impact and bringing the reader into an experience.  I don't know that I am there yet, at least not in this piece, but I am still just at the start of it and it is only a first draft.  Similar to the short story I was discussing last night, and which I am still working on as well, I feel that the best thing to do is to get through a full draft and then work with what I have to create a more cohesive version of the piece.  Right now, I am focused on spewing out all the stuff I have to say about the topic.  Once I have all that on paper it will be far easier to organize it into something coherent and meaningful.

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