Progress

I've got an interview! Next Tuesday I will meet with Mary, the volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities, for my interview as a volunteer. She promises she will keep the process to an hour. That's good, because what would we have to talk about for more than an hour?

I pitched this idea to my workshop group Monday evening and they really liked it. All the others in my group are writing memoir--the Christmas when a boy's dad ran over a bunch of deer in Pennsylvania and he thought he had killed Santa Clause; a Gen-Xer delaying adulthood as long as possible by contemplating buying the house of an ex-serial killer; a collage of micro-essays about the musical backdrop of one girl's coming-of-age. I have nothing against memoir narratives; in fact they can have a lot of value as literature and as entertainment, not to mention the psychic catharsis of confronting and examining memories. But Creative Nonfiction is so much more than just memoir. Besides, writing about other people is way more fun than writing about myself. Even in other people's writing, I lean toward reportage or investigative narrative, pieces wherein things happen, rather than essays. And that's what this entire project is about for me: making something happen so I can write about it.

Scheduling an interview is progress, albeit slow progress. I am learning patience while I conquer my fears this semester. So I will wait as patiently as I can for next week's interview, and accomplish much in the meantime.