Response to "Semi-Colon," etc.

Each of the creative non-fiction pieces for today all had very vivid imagery. Ann Pancake thoroughly described neighborhoods and villages in Thailand; each time she veered off to address an important issue with the economy or government, she would always navigate back to a description of her surroundings. The most striking sentence for me was: “One such billboard stood at the end of our road, over a swamp dump where little boys paddled around on discarded chunks of Styrofoam.” Similarly, Susanne Antonetta opens her story with the image of gray whales swimming just off shore from her and her son, Jin. She describes their slow and deliberate movements in and out of the water, as well as the sounds they make while doing so. The one characteristic I found interesting about her and Barbara Mallonee’s story that seemed to be different to me was the use of such fact; both women spit facts from history or science to further their ideas. They would both talk about their topic (watching whales and grading papers) and then move into fact, then move into description of the scene, etc. Upon reading the stories, I realize that I need to have better descriptions; I always look for an interesting way to describe things. I need to just write and perhaps these things will flow out of my pen naturally. I can’t force ideas, they will come to me. Pancake describes a neighborhood so much and in so many different ways: the houses, the lights, the billboards, the attitudes of people, the people themselves, the landscape, the smells. When I describe my scenes, I merely describe one aspect normally- one sense. I need to focus on many different senses: sight, smell, etc. This will create a better-rounded image. I also have not even thought about putting facts in my stories to not only teach the reader something, but also back what I’m trying to tell them. I’m sure I need to figure more out about how to do that before I can attempt it.