3.6 Writing prompts for Chamberlain

Pre-writing = double-description:  last week you made a list of non-horrific, mundane traumas associated with your expereinces with writing.

Spend some time analyzing these prompts as external to yourself (as embedded in larger systems and power structures that surround us, operate as wholes that we are parts of, have agendas and issues that are not necessarily identical to our own, etc) .

After you have identified some of these systems, we will have a conversation about the role of these systems in bringing the issues that affected you into being.

Wrinting into Chamberlain's questions (by function)

1. Externalizing
What name would you give this problem (set of writing issues)?
So, what has X (the name you gave the problem) tried to talk you into about yourself?
How has X tried to take over your life?
When did X first enter your life?

2. Contextualizing
Where did this story take place? When? Under what circumstances? What people does it connect to?
What groups of people are associated with it - structurally?  emotionally?
What have you learned which enables this story to be (positively) important in your life?
Where did you learn that this was important?

3. Deconstruction
What do you need to assume for this story to make sense?
What were the ideas that might explain how people in the story are acting and speaking?
What are some of the taken-for-granted ways of being that are connected with the problem?
When did you first think that you might be the opposite of the role you see yourself as in in this story?

4. Building a story that belongs to you
I was curious that you thought (some feature within your representation that is OUTSIDE dominant/oppressive readings).  What does this thought indicate that suggests there is already a part of you where the domeinat story/problem has been challenged?
Can you think of a time when you were able to do something different/outside the dominant story?

5. Experiencing the experience questions (telling experiences differently)
If you had been watching yourself as a younger person, what do you think you would have witnessed that would allow me to understand your recent experiences?
Who would be able to tell me about times when you have successfully challenged writing difficulties in your life?
When you knew that you were ready, what steps would you have taken to become ready?
How willyou know when you have done enough for long enough (to resolve the problem)?

Other kinds of questions:
Orentation questions - giving advice to someone with your problem=> what would you say
Circulation quesitons - who needs to know about this probelm, how will telling them affect your relationship to them
Insider/outsider questions- who is inspired by your efforts; who has inspired you to make these efforts