Creative Non-Fiction Topic

Recently I’ve been reading a few chapters from the book Keep it Real, edited by Lee Gutkind.  This now leads me to my creative non-fiction topic, which oddly enough isn’t about The Hobbit. (I know crazy right!) A few ideas, or aspects, from Keep it Real gives a few ways to help me write my creative non-fiction piece.  So far my topic will be on the yoga class I’ve taken this semester at my local community college, and my experience in trying something so new for me.  In Gutkind’s book he mentions “frame”. How, or in what order, the story is told.  I think for this one I will start at the beginning of how I came to sign up for the class, or start with a description of a typical day in the class. The next aspect that has helped me is “Gunkholing: Finding a Story”. One thing that would prevent me from writing on this topic is the interest level. How many people want to hear about a college girl’s yoga class experience?   But Gutkind points out that one has to find what is interesting in the topic, and write about that. It will be a challenge, but I’m not going to let it stop me from writing about a topic that I feel I can (and will) make interesting.  Gutland also talks about “Influence”.  I’m not sure what or how I will influence my audience, but I feel like something will unfold as I go about the process of creating this story.

I feel that there are some compelling and/or quirky stories in my topic. One is what led me to sign up for the class. I never ever thought I would participate in an activity like yoga, but somehow my friend convinced me. Woody Harrelson’s nephew happens to be in the class. Harrelson, if you didn’t know already, is a lead actor in the recent HungerGames and many other movies.  And his story checks out. Woody Harrelson has two brothers and my classmate’s late name (according to the class list) is Harrelson.  It’s a Claim to fame! There is also a pregnant woman in the class. Prenatal is good for women, but there are a lot of poses and position that she cannot participate in or it will harm the baby.  One last thing that is interesting is that on the first day of class we all noticed that our instructor had an accent. I guessed that it was Swedish, but she is actually German and I think she brings a lot to the class that would be different from an American instructor.