Final Folio - Table of Contents & Summary Report

Welcome, dear reader. If you're new to this blog, please click on and read this post first.

This blog was created for Creative Writing Studio: Collaborations, a part of RMIT University's Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing) program. My name is Katie Manalo, AKA the titular 'Plague Wanderer'.

Below is a Table of Contents for the posts relevant to the development of my essay for the 6th Bowen Street Press Literary Review, Plague Stories. It is one of the 23 essays featured in that anthology. Links to my colleagues' blogs can be found on the left hand sidebar on the main Home page. The posts below are strictly relevant to the essay, and have been collated and tweaked here for easy reading. This is the suggested reading experience, but you're welcome to check out all of the posts uploaded (it may be a little messy, however). The dates used are in the D-M-Y format, so (04/08) would be the 4th of August.

After the Table of Contents, there is a brief Summary Report on the overall essay development. New readers may feel free to read that first before checking out the rest of this blog.

Table of Contents

01 .................... Essay Machine Experiment (24/07)

02 .................... Idea Generation - List & Discussion (24/07)

03 .................... Rough 500 Words of Memoir (28/07)

04 .................... Lawrence Ypil & Editor Justine Check-in (29/07)

05 .................... Playing with and Reflecting on Forms & Approaches (31/07)

06 .................... Unsubmitted Draft - Subject 3 Essay (04/08)

07 .................... Vivian Gornick & Ali Cobby Eckermann (05/08)

08 .................... Draft for Workshopping - Withdrawal Symptoms (06/08)

09 .................... Friday Workshopping - Withdrawal Symptoms (07/08)

10 .................... Second Prompt - Taking Stock (08/08)

11 .................... Research & Plan - Withdrawal Symptoms (08/08)

12 .................... First Draft Submission - Withdrawal Symptoms (09/08)

13 .................... Third Prompt - Reflecting on the Journey so Far (10/08)

14 .................... Fourth Prompt - Peta Murray & Deep Listening (14/08)

15 .................... Phillip Lopate & Flawed Characters (19/08)

16 .................... First Draft Feedback from David & Carly (21/08)

17 .................... Second Draft - Symptoms of... (25/08)

18 .................... Carly Consultation & Fifth Prompt - Lessons from Carly's Responses (26/08)

19 .................... Virginia Woolf & Workshopping Second Draft (28/08)

20 .................... Unsubmitted Draft & Extras - A Moral Way to Cope 1.5 (02/09)

21 .................... Unsubmitted Draft & Extras  - Rant Essay (05/09)

22 .................... Final Draft Submission - A Moral Way to Cope 2.0 (06/09)

23 .................... A Thorny Decision & Editor Copyedit Consultation (16/09)

24 .................... Final Draft Workshopping (18/09)

25 .................... First Pages Proofreading (30/09)

26 .................... Personal Remarks on the Essay (09/10)

Summary Report

I began this project intent on making an essay validated by its educational value. This is because of its usual definition as an academic and informative piece of writing. I was apprehensive of focusing it on myself, but I became more open to it over the course of several guest interviews. Two in particular struck a chord in me: Lawrence Ypil’s wisdom that powerful writing comes from things that leave us feeling a bit vulnerable, and Ali Cobby Eckermann’s advice on writing from the heart.

My initial draft was a psychoanalytical report where I coldly documented my behaviour and feelings, but I realised that it was too distant and lacked emotional gravitas for the reader to be invested in. I rewrote it, scrapping the descriptions of me to focus more on touch starvation, incorporate some research, and conclude with a hopeful ending, where I offered the reader a hug through the book. Unlike its segmented predecessor, it was written in a stream of consciousness and focused on my ‘Withdrawal Symptoms’ from physical affection, the “drug”. The essay still suffered from an unconvincing opening and its very linear structure.

I attempted to address these issues in a consequent draft, titled ‘Symptoms of…’, however my peers ultimately suggested erasing the unnecessary ‘BURNOUT’ academic section I left in to stop the essay from being “all about my feelings”. I personally felt it was the last wall of resistance from making it a full memoir, something a “vain” author would write because they “think their experiences are worth people’s attention”. But I overcame this sentiment and decided to make touch and relationships the focal point of my next draft.

‘A Moral Way to Cope’ centred on how difficult navigating relationships could be in Covid-times. The title can be read in a second way, ‘Amoral Way to Cope’. The essay had two versions: 1.0 had an abrasive introduction that was harsh towards local couples experiencing the difficulties of long-distance relationships, and 1.5 where I was more sympathetic. The people I consulted agreed the essay was solid, but David Carlin told me that I had smoothed out my spunky, dynamic voice. He said it was submittable, but encouraged me to make another pass with that voice in mind.

Confused, I made the ‘Rant Essay’, rewriting the draft in as spunky – admittedly aggressive – a voice I could muster, before fizzling out in frustration. That draft was not entirely useless, as I melded the two to form the final 2.0 version of the essay, this time fittingly ending by discussing the morality of my behaviour and feelings. It was tweaked further after submission, adding some date events I had removed to create more build up to the finale.

I have finally arrived at the end of my writing journey now, satisfied with the raw, sincere emotion presented in my piece, musing on my behaviour and feelings on a moral spectrum. I am pleased with how relatable it has become too. Overall, it has been a very enlightening experience in improving my writing practice, and making me more open to authoring nonfiction pieces in the future.