Entry 1v2: Narratives (Revised)

It's the crack of dawn. A writer sits at a kitchen table, staring blankly at their computer screen.

They attempt to puzzle out how to write a thesis detailing the development of knowledge, emotion, and higher education in the American West during the progressive era (1890-1920).

The writer understands the story they want to tell, but they lack the confidence to narrate it.

They know the argument; they just need to make it.

The process has proved hard to navigate. But the writer lucky stumbled into funding to keep the project alive.

December is now the hard deadline. And the stakes rise each day.

So they sit at a kitchen table at the crack of dawn and ask, "How am I going to get this thing done in four short months?

They start with the ideas and concepts they have been thinking about for two and a half years.

What content is essential to the narrative?

What content can they cut?

They kill off their literary darlings left and right searching for answers.

Trust between the pen and mind remains elusive, and the writer feels unsatisfied. They understand there are no "perfect" beginnings nor satisfying conclusions.

Beginnings exist anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere. And, in the end, ends never come and do not mean anything except for what we want or need them to state.

These limitations do not stop the writer's perfection from wanting the narrative to pop and their voice to shine. They want their ideas to grab the reader and pull them in so deep that the thesis will never be abandoned or forgotten. The writer wants the reader to have so much fun reading their dumb thesis that the reader forgets what they are reading while questioning their reality in the most delightful of ways.

The writer pauses, losing confidence.

"These are great and realistic expectations," they hear their friend say. Their friend's voice saturated with sarcasm. And they can almost hear an eye roll.

It has been an ongoing struggle for the writer to establish their voice on the page, and their imagination runs away. The popular quip "a good thesis is a done thesis" psychically haunts them.

Finishing the thesis is not why they started writing it. Finishing is just a coincidence, a happy accident.

But that does not give the writer an excuse to avoid beginning.

Why did they start?

How did they get from where they were to where they are today?

What are they even doing?

These are simply complex questions. Answering them may help the writer set the right course.

Maybe not...but it seems to be helping.

It is no longer the crack of dawn. The writer still sits at a kitchen table, staring at a screen and typing away.

Wish me luck, and enjoy following along as more Lil' Histories are coming soon!