Open Creative Nonfiction

Hey Gena and Jeremy I don't think tonight is going to work, so I thought I'd outline what I planned to say during our chat.

First of all, thanks for the feedback, both of you. You both pointed out areas I hadn't considered--most of all that I haven't decided for myself how to I want to portray this city. The ambivalence is reflected in the writing, and you both pointed that out as something I could be more precise about.

Gena, I loved your description of the door to your apartment. And I agree with Jeremy about the door/entryway connection: the writing seems to want to hover there, it's very illustrative and evocative in that area. I wanted more detail about the neighborhood, and I wanted it to have a more cohesive sense of itself--is it defined by being NOT Park Slope, or a cemetery, or Times Square? It feels like a pocket of Old World, but the anonymity of the neighbors upsets this idea of tight community. Why did you select it as a place to live? How has your sense of it evolved over time? Are there places you used to go in the neighborhood, but don't now (for any reason)? I look forward to seeing your piece for next week, when we play with time. I feel like it's going to be a really challenging assignment, and I'm interested to see what other dimensions of your neighborhood and home come up.

Jeremy, I feel in your piece a place that evolves past you. This exercise brought out interesting cross currents & handled those complications gracefully. I'm intrigued by the bulldozing intimacy of this other expat. Why is he permitted to ask such questions? What's the motivation for answering them? I feel like the story is teasing us with a reveal--what sort of abandonment took place recently? What evoked the emptiness? I think I remember "old friend"/absence theme (embrace of an old friend) from last week. Will the story answer it, or circle around it? I also wonder if abandonment is as black-and-white as the last line of the piece--though I liked the image, the overall tone of the piece is more complex.

Let's try skype for the next meeting, which I find to be more reliable. Jeremy, can you email me your skype username? Gena, please download and install skype and send me your username and phone number. That way if we don't have video, at least all three of us will have voice.

I'm really sorry about our technical difficulties--here's to hoping skype is better!