My next journal, or “Discovery Draft,” was more of a consolidated effort to establish a clear direction for project 2. After spending some time thinking through writing on this topic, I was successful in designing a short story inspired by “Recitatif” that would allow me to meet the creative criteria of the project.
My initial inspiration from “Recitatif” was to write a story in which an important (and potentially plot-relevant) aspect of their identity was withheld from the reader. My first thought was to write a love story in which the characters are known to be male and female, but I would never disclose which character is which gender. I could give my reader an anecdote of a seemingly innocuous situation in the lives of two ordinary people where the genders of both significant others has massive social implications. Perhaps an individual who works from home brings lunch to their spouse, whose powerful job places them in an impressive corner office. Or a struggling couple attending a parent-teacher conference for their poorly-behaved child. Upon further consideration, however, I felt it would be more appropriate to write from a more personal experience. After all, I have never had a serious relationship, and I’m not completely confident in my ability to create a plausible one through writing.
I recognize that opting not to write about something I’m not well-acquainted with for a creative project is self-defeating in the sense that it would take a great deal of imagination regardless to compose an original story. The purpose of a creative project may very well be to explore something I’m unfamiliar with in an innovative way. However, I feel that my best stories are born of personal experience, and I feel that keeping part of this assignment within my comfort zone might ease the creative process.
I decided to explore writing a story about divorce. I am the child of divorced parents, and most of friends growing up had divorced parents, so it seems only natural that I could write a convincing tale about the difficulties facing a ruined marriage. Given the current social climate surrounding the discussions of gender roles in relationships, custody battles, and the stigmas of a broken family, it seems like an appropriate topic.
My idea was to write from the perspective of a personally familiar trope: an angry teenage girl struggling to navigate the chaotic world around her. I want to challenge gender stereotypes about parenting by creating a marriage so broken and volatile that either parent cannot be in the sights of the other without the eruption of massive conflict. Thus, during the child hand-off, they park on opposite sides of a building and their kids, the angry teenager and a younger brother, have to hike from one car to the other. I want to capture this walk during through the eyes of the daughter.
To prevent the reader from knowing which parent is the mother and which the is father, I felt my angry teenager might be snarky and audacious enough to call her parents by their first names, which will be conveniently gender-neutral (ex. “Sam” or “Alex). She might even have a nickname for one that does not disclose their gender. She pities herself and her circumstances above all else, and she wholly blames her “screw-up” parents for her woes.
Her agony isn’t completely misplaced; these parents are not great parents, and they are humans who encounter real problems that affect modern parenting. One parent might struggle with heavy substance abuse, while the other is a narcissistic workaholic with obvious attachment issues. Whatever their problems are, it will not be known to the reader who is who. Just as Morrison challenges the assumptions reader make about race in “Recitatif,” I want to challenge the assumptions readers make about gender roles and parenting.
The Switch 