The Bell Jar Writing Project

The Bell Jar is a loosely based true account of Plath's life. All the details and dialogue, etc. are embellished as a thin veneer of fiction. Underneath is truth. This helps make the book a success.

Writing non-fiction is very much like writing fiction. As the writer, you have an obligation to the reader to provide interesting details, vivid description, characterization for character development, plot, setting, and theme. Reading non-fiction should look and sound very much like a normal everyday ordinary fiction story--except the core of the story is true.

Plath changed the names, some locations, and details and dialogue she couldn't remember and made it all work, weaving the story together. Her novel does not sound like an essay. It is a story. Being a poet, she also chooses her words carefully and artistically. You, too, can do this sort of thing when writing non-fiction.

TASK:
1. In your journal brainstorm all the difficult and/or interesting events of your life. If you have several that sound similar, separate them in your journal but realize you can meld these together for the purposes of your story. One technique is to give your life events chapter titles. For example: The Day My Life Changed, or Mean Mr. Craddock, or My Cancer Year, Attempted Suicide! or An Unexpected Trip (somewhat vague, yes, but you should know what the title refers to in your own mind).
2. Once you have a list of events, choose one that you would like to write about.
3. Change the names, ages, locations, certain details as you see fit to make an interesting story that has a beginning, middle, and end.
4. Work on getting into your protagonist's head. What is your character (yourself, most likely) thinking? What does your character think when you meet a new person for the first time, or a loved one says or does something that made you upset?
5. Include dialogue, plot, description/details, characters, setting, simile, metaphor, rhetorical, literary, and poetic devices, etc. Just because this is based on truth, doesn't mean you get to be boring.
6. Once you have considered and planned in your journal, begin writing.

Remember: your story should be based on truth, but you can bend it any way you see fit--we'll never know.
You are writing a story that happens to be true, not an essay. Do not bore your audience. If you are bored while writing about your life event, we (as readers) will be too!
Remember that just because this doesn't look like a poem that you can't use poetic devices and other literary techniques you see and use in other forms. Use what you've learned!

HOMEWORK: Complete The Bell Jar. There will be a test and discussion on the book Thursday. You should know the basic plot, characters, and identify what makes the writing of the book work.