Response to Reading, for Week 3

I have actually really enjoyed reading Writing for Story, which, I'll admit it, is kind of a surprise.

I like that the way the book itself is set out like, well, a story. I really was hooked by the two examples Franklin sets out at the opening of the book: both Mrs. Kelly's Monster and The Ballad of Old Man Peters were so engrossing, I felt like I was reading for pleasure. I WISH I could write that well.

The point where I became confused had more to do with the "outline" that Franklin sets up as the way of constructing narrative stories. (I did, however, appreciate how he describes the Roman Numeral Outline as "the English Teacher's Revenge." I have always felt that way).

I realize that the outline serves to establish a clear focus and direction for stories that are big, messy, and long, with lots of details. Maybe its just that it seems so hard to create an outline as simply as Franklin describes - and that is why I am resisting.

Also interesting to me was Franklin's assertion that "polishing" a piece is something that should be easy - for me this has always been the hardest part of writing for me. I think that perhaps this is because I just start writing to "get it all out there" and then I have a mess to deal with, that requires a lot of backtracking into my own train of thought while I was writing the piece.

I will give it a shot though - I think it will help to keep the outline in mind BEFORE I start interviewing and doing the legwork for this upcoming profile piece.