Here I provide an introduction to my Life-Choice Memoir Assignment and links to the relevant blog posts that served as part of my writing process.
This memoir is about a life-choice that I made which had high risks involved with the decision. Surprisingly, I felt like I had many options of what I could write about. Within the past couple of years, I have made many choices that have truly impacted my life. Two life choices that I made are included in my blog posts Life Choice: The Powers That Be? and Life Choice: To Tell the Truth? At first, I was going to write about the time I made a choice to leave a toxic friendship which I wrote about in my blog post Life-Choice: Should I Stay or Should I Go? As I was writing it, I really struggled to develop description in the memoir because the whole ordeal occurred over the course of months. There were not any specific scenes where I made the choice that I did not want to be in the friendship I was in.
After some brainstorming, I decided to write about the time where I chose not to go to nursing school. It was a very difficult time in my life and my choice was hard to come to terms with. I remember the specific day where I began to realize that a career in nursing would not be a good fit for me. The hardest part was the fact that I had to start from scratch and rethink about my entire future. My Life-Choice Memoir features scenes of me shadowing a nurse during my senior year of high school and background information about why I wanted to become a nurse so badly.
When I submitted my first draft, I read over my professor's comments and realized I needed to cut down on my telling moments substantially. I gave too much backstory and weaved two stories into one which was risky. Therefore, I revised it to three brief paragraphs about why I wanted to become a nurse. I rearranged many parts of the story and developed my conclusion further to make it clear why I made the decision I did. My blog post Life-Choice Memoir Process Reflection also helped me revise and choose specific areas of my paper that I needed to work on.
After my second draft, my paper was portfolio ready and I only had to make minor edits to fix my tenses throughout the story. If I were to make any changes to my Life-Choice Memoir it would be to play around with the scenes a bit more. It is possible that my ending could also be my beginning and then the scene at the hospital fills the audience in on why I made my decision. However, I am pleased with my final draft and very proud of my writing. My final draft is posted below.
This memoir is about a life-choice that I made which had high risks involved with the decision. Surprisingly, I felt like I had many options of what I could write about. Within the past couple of years, I have made many choices that have truly impacted my life. Two life choices that I made are included in my blog posts Life Choice: The Powers That Be? and Life Choice: To Tell the Truth? At first, I was going to write about the time I made a choice to leave a toxic friendship which I wrote about in my blog post Life-Choice: Should I Stay or Should I Go? As I was writing it, I really struggled to develop description in the memoir because the whole ordeal occurred over the course of months. There were not any specific scenes where I made the choice that I did not want to be in the friendship I was in.
After some brainstorming, I decided to write about the time where I chose not to go to nursing school. It was a very difficult time in my life and my choice was hard to come to terms with. I remember the specific day where I began to realize that a career in nursing would not be a good fit for me. The hardest part was the fact that I had to start from scratch and rethink about my entire future. My Life-Choice Memoir features scenes of me shadowing a nurse during my senior year of high school and background information about why I wanted to become a nurse so badly.
When I submitted my first draft, I read over my professor's comments and realized I needed to cut down on my telling moments substantially. I gave too much backstory and weaved two stories into one which was risky. Therefore, I revised it to three brief paragraphs about why I wanted to become a nurse. I rearranged many parts of the story and developed my conclusion further to make it clear why I made the decision I did. My blog post Life-Choice Memoir Process Reflection also helped me revise and choose specific areas of my paper that I needed to work on.
After my second draft, my paper was portfolio ready and I only had to make minor edits to fix my tenses throughout the story. If I were to make any changes to my Life-Choice Memoir it would be to play around with the scenes a bit more. It is possible that my ending could also be my beginning and then the scene at the hospital fills the audience in on why I made my decision. However, I am pleased with my final draft and very proud of my writing. My final draft is posted below.
Here are the links to my drafts: