Rewriting

Exercises in verb tense, time management, point of view, figurative language, etc.

Exercise #1: Point of View

To help you break from first-person point of view, experiment writing in all of these different POVs. Write or rewrite a paragraph from your draft (of at least three sentences each) using each POV or pronoun.

First-Person Plural: We

  1. Narrow: we = I + one or more others (couple, friends, family, group)
  2. Broad: we = the human “we” or broad group

Second-Person: You

  1. Singular, Introspective: you = the Author
  2. Singular, Specific Address: you = another character being addressed
  3. Singular/Plural, Extroverted: you = the Imagined Reader(s)
  4. Ambiguous: you as ?

Third-Person Singular: he / she / one

  1. Specific character in story: he/she –> get inside his/her head
  2. Ambiguous (reader? writer?): one

Third-Person Plural: they

  1. specific group of characters
  2. general category of people

Exercise #2: The Hypothetical

Two of the most useful (and underused) words in the CNF author’s arsenal are “I imagine…” (or variations thereof). An author’s imagination is as much a part of his or her reality as documented facts. Imagination, properly acknowledged as such, is also a powerful tool through which to create “scenes” from the past, through the eyes of other people or even to look into the future.

Examine your draft for appropriate moments and use “I imagine” (or something similar) to create hypothetical moments or scenes or descriptions of the following situations:

  1. Past Tense, First-Person: Use the hypothetical to imagine yourself back into situations from your own past that you can’t fully recollect now.
  2. Third-person: Use the hypothetical to imagine yourself into the mind (n the past, present or even future) of a person other than yourself in the essay.
  3. Future Tense, First-Person: Use the hypothetical to imagine yourself into your own future

Exercise #3: Involuntary Memory

A memoir typically involves a conscious recollection and dissection of the past. However, “involuntary memory” (often linked to sensual stimuli) forms another important connection between our present and past—and a powerful tool for CNF writers. Explore your drafts or just brainstorm on a blank page for how certain sense experiences in the present pull you back into certain experiences or even emotions related to your past. Try to describe both sides of this equation in vivid and even figurative detail to help a reader appreciate this personal experience.

  1. Smell: Which smells (the sense most closely associated with memory?) evoke memories relevant to this draft or theme?
  2. Taste: Which foods and tastes (again, often linked to olfactory memories) evoke important memories?
  3. Touch: Which textures and other palpable sensations prompt sharp memories?
  4. Sound: Which sounds (voices, songs, ambient noise, etc.) open an aural window into the past?
  5. Setting: Which physical settings (which may involve a complex of different senses)  bring you back into your past either to the same place or a similar location?

Exercise #4: Symbolism and Extended Metaphor

Extended Metaphor

  1. Create a metaphor or simile for the major concept or focus or character of your essay. “Our relationship was like an X.”  Or: “My mother had a heart like a Y.”
  2. Extend the metaphor by finding similar relevant points of comparison between the tenor (ie, original subject) and vehicle of the metaphor.

Symbolism

  1. Identify (or add) an image, object, character, reference or some other specific element that could stand as symbol for a larger idea or emotion in your story.
  2. Make the symbolism (ie, what the symbol represents) more explicit in your draft.
  3. Find places in your story where you can repeat and develop this symbol, especially the conclusion.
  4. Find places in your story where two symbols can come together and create friction. Perhaps they contradict each other. Perhaps they synthesize and create new meaning.

Exercise #5: Time Management

Go through your draft essay and rewrite sections and add new lines and paragraphs to include all (or as many) of the following verb tenses and time shifts. (More descriptions and explanations here.)

The Past

  1. Past perfect simple (“Before graduation, I had worked…)
  2. Past perfect continuous (“Before I heard the news, I had been working…”)
  3. Past simple (“That night I worked…”)
  4. Past continuous (“Jim called while I was working… “)
  5. Past simple / iterative (“For two years, I used to work…” )
  6. Past real conditional (“If the weather was bad, I used to work on my car…”)

The Present

  1. Present simple (“I work…”)
  2. Present simple / iterative (“Every Monday, I work…”)
  3. Present continuous (“As I think about him, I am working…”)
  4. Present perfect simple (“Since graduation, I have worked…”)
  5. Present perfect continuous (“For six months, I have been working…”)

The Future

  1. Future simple (“After I graduate, I will work…”)
  2. Future continuous (“Next week, I will be working…”)