My blog post this week will explore the appeal of my final piece to both the public and publishers. I have completed this research by examining recently published creative non-fiction works, and researching best sellers.
The human species are intrusive by nature, and through no fault of our own. The media thrives upon this dependable of aspect, and feeds us reality television, soap operas, and fly on the wall documentaries. As a species, we have an undisputable urge to know what’s happening around us. I believe that it is this insatiable thirst for personal knowledge that will create an audience for my piece.
Via my research of recently published works of creative non-fiction, I can see that true-stories about real people and life-changing events are currently reaching the top of creative non-fiction ratings and sales lists. Personally, the feedback I have received when explaining my idea to people off-course has also been largely positive.
On a personal note, regardless to whether or not the story would attract interest of readers and publishers, I feel like the research that went into writing the piece, and the story as an entirety, was worth both my time and my attention. I hope I can convincingly convey to my readers how important this story is to every person out there who has ever experienced abuse. And help those suffering to know that things do get better. You just have to get out.
During the proceedings of researching John’s story, some of the hardest problems have been as follows: Distancing myself from the story, so as not to let my personal opinions shine through into the story. This was made increasingly more difficult when one of the central characters of the story announced that she refused to give her side of the story to a ‘bitch’ like myself, and that I could write ‘whatever the fuck’ I wanted. After informing John of this conversation, he resigned to be as honest and unbiased as possible so as not to jeopardise the legitimacy of my research. This incident also contributed to the decision to write the dramatization from John’s point of view.
Deciding on a suitable time frame in which to focus the creative piece was another issue that arose quite early on in my research. Although the timeline of the couple’s relationship spans 3 years, majority of those days were extremely repetitive and routine. This being said, the 3 significant events are spread throughout the timeline, creating the task of finding a way to span through them all. It wasn’t until the topic of ‘framing’ was discussed in my week 9 lecture, that I decided my story could be adapted to fit a convoluted timeline. This would enable me to overcome my personal problems writing transitions in time, as well as enable me to skip forwards and backwards and cover the majority of scenes I had endeavored to include.
One final problem I have been wrestling with throughout this research process is the question of whether or not my final piece will be one that readers actually want to read. And whether the content will be deemed too controversial for publisher’s interest. This is a problem that I will be researching and resolving in next week’s blog post.
I aim to develop a meaningful narrative from my research by adopting the narrative perspective of John, and walking the reader through the day he decided to leave, and the day he left. This narrative works well with the research I have been able to gather from my interviews with John, and will also help to evoke sympathy towards his character from the readers. I chose to use a first person narrative, as it enables an in depth perspective from the source of majority of my research. As one of my biggest worries throughout the entirety of this research has been maintaining an unbiased story, I believe that taking John’s perspective will enable me to tell his side of the story, whilst maintaining the facts of the events.
The framing of my piece will be largely convoluted. This is because although the main story-line will follow John as he drives home and packs his bags, various objects around his surroundings will spark flashbacks in which he will recall a scene from the past. I have chosen to frame my story in this way, as I believe unlike chronological and manipulated timelines, the convoluted offers more freedom for necessary time skips and flashbacks, without the need for a complete ending to the story.
I will be choosing the scenes for my story by looking back through the interview sessions between myself and John, and picking not only scenes of intense conflict, but also of high emotion and adrenaline. These scenes will then be linked into the main story via trigger items, a technique used in fiction such as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
Next week I will go into further detail discussing problems I have encountered during my research process, and explain why I have had to take one character’s perspective of the events.
This week, my research led me to statistics and characteristics of domestic abuse. The UK Government defines Domestic Abuse as: ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional.’
The NHS provided list of types of abuse is as follows:
- Being threatened
- Being shoved or pushed purposefully
- Fearing for your own personal safety
- Being put down and feeling your self esteem has been undermined
- Being controlled e.g money taken away, contact with family limited
- Your abuser may be possessive, or extremely jealous
- Being frightened of your abuser
- Being physically injured purposefully
- Being forced into acts against your own will
It is important to note that even though male victims of domestic abuse are less publicised, all of the above forms of abuse are still applicable. In average, 700,000 male victims come forward about their abuse every year. This is 4.5% of the UKs population. [Figure 1Caada (2014), In Plain Sight: Effective help for children exposed to domestic abuse. Bristol: Caada.]
This week’s research – as well as an interview with my subject – helped to put into perspective the severity of abuse experienced within the confines of my story. Next week I will begin to explore how the entirety of my research can be used to create a meaningful narrative. This will include thoughts about tone, perspective, and the framing of scenes.
For my true story, I have chosen a story close to my own heart. Under request of those involved, all who feature within the story will be given pseudonyms.
I will be telling the story of John Summers, his experience in a highly abusive relationship, and his reflections on how the relationship has affected his current mental health and more recent relationships. Prior to the incident, John was a perfectly normal teenage boy. He achieved all A grades at GCSE level, he had a strong group of friends (some of whom he is still extremely close to), and regular hobbies such as gaming and playing football.
This week I sat down with John, and went through notable dates in the timeline of his relationship. I will use these throughout my research in order to fact check and verify the details disclosed within future interviews.
Key Dates:
September 2009 –
The two sixteen year-olds meet for the first time.
January 2010 –
The couple becomes official and exclusive, despite Harris’ history of cheating in relationships. This pre-existing factor weighs on Summers’ mind, and coupled with Harris’ constant belittlement's and criticism, the psychological abuse begins.
March 2010 –
Harris discovers she is pregnant, and despite the wishes of Summers and his family, is adamant on keeping the baby. The couple stay together, despite Harris’ temper and the increase of abuse in the relationship. Harris uses her new found pregnancy as an excuse and emotional blackmail. She revels in the fact that ‘he can’t hit back’.
19th December 2010 –
Baby Liam was born.
I will aim to use this research continuously throughout the remainder of my research, as keeping track of events will be crucial when assembling and framing my story.
Hello readers, thank you for stumbling into the depths of my blog. This will be the place to be if you’re following my progress throughout my research assignment for Telling True Stories. Today’s post presents brief overviews of the possible people/events to base my research, including pros and cons.
Jeffrey Dahmer:
Dahmer was a prolific serial killer, sex offender, and cannibal of Milwaukee, America.
My research will focus mainly on life events leading up to his first kill, looking at the nature versus nurture argument in reference to psychopathic behavior in teenagers.
The main advantage of researching Jeffrey Dahmer would be my interest in the topic of serial killers, and the already detailed records of his crimes and arrest.
However, being an American serial killer, achieving first hand research such as interviews, and objective views of the topic would be difficult. Also, the story of Jeffrey Dahmer has already been developed into film and literature.
Abusive Relationships between young adults:
This topic would focus on one example of an abusive relationship (the people involved wishing to remain un-named), and how it affected their future relationships and people around them.
My research will focus mainly on the severity of the situation, and bring to light how common abusive relationships are in young adults.
The main advantage of researching this topic would be the amount of primary research available to me, as well as the secondary research often undergone by social-scientists, and psychologists.
The cons of this research may be my own ability to develop it into a story without sacrificing the depth of research. However, this is something I may be able to work out and overcome.
H.H Holmes:
Another prolific American serial killer, Holmes was the designer, creator, and owner of the “World’s Fair Hotel”, also known as the “Murder Castle”. Holmes is also considered to be the first American serial killer, taking the lives of between 20-100 people in his hotel – the actual figure is ambiguous due to Holmes’ constant change in statement in the time between his arrest and hanging.
Similar to Dahmer, the interest in this topic would be the serial killer aspect, although my research would focus on the day-to-day running of the hotel.
The biggest disadvantage of choosing this topic for research is the amount of false information available about the topic, due to its prolific presence in media and literature.
Next week’s blog post will present a brief overview of whichever of the above ideas I choose to develop and research further.
