(11/4) HW Assignment

In Response to the Reading:

Since I've had a girlfriend for the past three years, the information presented in this week's article came at no surprise to me.  I feel as if I wrote this word for word.  I've spent so much time explaining that I didn't mean what she thought I meant, or I didn't meant to say what you thought that I said... I've been doing these god damn practices every freakin' day for thirty-six months (not that I'm complaining).  Though it is frustrating at times not to be heard accurately, I cannot deny that I have learned a tremendous amount of information about human conversations.  In terms of a writer, I feel like my character dialogue is much more believable because of it.  

In addition, I feel completely comfortable talking with any woman.  I know a lot more about how I am interpreted, so I can skip over the mistakes that can easily be made.  Over the past summer, I heard a comedian who made this comment:

"In preparation for our wedding, my wife asked me what flowers I thought looked nice for the table arrangements--the pink or the yellow.

I said I don't care.

Now to me, and the rest of the guys here, that means--Honey, this is your day, do what ever makes you happiest because I love you.

To her, it meant--I don't care"

So, for the practice assignment, I wanted to try an exercise that's a little more different than word/mood/emotion interpretation.

Practice 20. Listen for Content, not Delivery 

For an Honors writing workshop, we have to edit each other's stories and provide feedback.  There is a girl who's English is very broken and comments are very fragmented.  For my last class, I really tried to look over the incorrect uses of english, and only concentrate on the nouns and actions.  In reality, we don't need words like "the, and, with."  If I say "Bill, Apple Eat"  Bill will probably understand that I want him to eat the apple.

Seeing this girls comments in writing also helped--even though she wrote how she spoke.  I guess I'm just more of a visually oriented person, or maybe I had more time to analyze things when I could pause and double check things. 

Practice 21.Be Genuinely Curious

I found it odd that after one of our classes, I tried this exact practice with talking to my girlfriend.  I sometimes dose off when she's speaking at length about something, but if I genuinely try to listen to her and her feelings about something, I feel more actively engaged.

Practice 37. Break the "I" Habit

Not using the word "I" is something I try as often as I can in my 1st person stories.  From a narrative perspective, it gets old.  It seems very stale, as if there's only one thing to talk about.  True, a character would relate everything to themselves for the most part--but the most interesting moments are when interactions replace those "I" phrases.