Original Prompt, Week 5

In "The Date," Brenda Miller anchors the piece with the first line: "A man I like is coming for dinner tonight" (381). Miller repeats close versions of this line four times at the beginning of paragraphs, then closes the piece "casually walk[ing] out to greet this man I like, this man who's coming to dinner" (388). The repetition of this loaded fact works to keep the writer focused on the anxiety and expectations permeating it, giving her a new opportunity each time to reflect on a specific association. For example, after the first mention, Miller admits to sleeping very little, getting up early and mulling over rearranging the photos on her fridge, the ones he might use to read her life in some way, to decide if she's worth pursuing. In other sections, Miller talks about "[choosing] and [discarding] recipes as if trying on dresses" (383), whether or not she should "wash the sheets, just in case" (384), whether to get ready early and how much effort she should invest, and, finally, when he's late, she stresses over the possibility that he won't show.

Especially since Dr. Davidson has pointed out the need to incorporate more reflection in our work, I thought a prompt taken from Miller's strategy might prod us (emphasis on me) in the right direction. Repeating an anchor line may represent the opposite approach to starting an essay with a thread that serves only as a trigger into something else, but as an exercise to trigger reflection, I see it as a positive exception. Besides, Miller found an escape into a brief exposition of the word "date," playing off the title to discuss date orchards and her memories of eating fruit on summer car trips as a child (386). In fact, the fruit paragraph may be the only one that mentions the word "date," and the context contrasts with and complements nicely the essay's primary focus.

Davidson (rightly, I think) cautioned us that trying to come up with a great idea for an essay can lead to anxiety and inhibit the writing process. Hence, the benefit of object studies and the like. Instead of pulling a one-liner from the air, revisit one of your essays or journal entries that you want to expand and look for a grounding sentence that you can repeat and reflect on every so often in your piece.

(Edited to add: You might find a loaded one-liner in your junkyard. Imagine using a quote you admire as an anchor for an essay.)