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Writing StudioPersonal and Reflective Writing

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Finding the story

You will turn a loose memory or experience into a specific story with a question worth exploring.

Do this first

List eight moments from the last ten years that still puzzle, irritate or move you. Circle the one you most want to understand, and write one sentence about what you still do not understand about it.

Steps

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  1. Start with what still has heat

    List six to ten moments that still provoke a reaction in you: irritation, tenderness, confusion, pride. Ignore whether they seem important. A moment that still stirs you usually has something unresolved in it, and that is what a reader follows.

  2. Separate the situation from the story

    Vivian Gornick's distinction helps: the situation is what happened, the story is what you came to understand through it. Write one line for each. If you cannot yet write the second line, that is a reason to draft, not a reason to stop.

  3. Turn the topic into a question

    Write the question you do not know the answer to, such as “Why did I stay in that job for three years after I stopped believing in it?” A real question gives the piece direction and stops it becoming a summary of events.

  4. Shrink the frame

    Choose one afternoon, one conversation or one decision rather than a whole year or a whole relationship. A small frame leaves room for scenes and detail. You can add wider context later in a few sentences.

  5. For assignments, choose an incident with learning in it

    In nursing, education and social work, pick a critical incident: a moment that surprised you, went wrong, or left you unsure what to do. It does not need to be dramatic. Check the brief for what counts (a placement event, a class, feedback) and whether a named model such as Gibbs or Rolfe is required.

Templates

Moment inventory

Moment: [what happened, in one line]
When and where: [date or season, place]
What I felt then: [specific feeling]
What I think about it now: [current view]
What I still don't understand: [the open question]

Situation and story

The situation: [what happened, who was there, what was at stake]
The story: [what I came to understand, or am still trying to understand]
The question driving the piece: [Why / How ... ?]

Choosing an incident for a reflective assignment

Incident: [what happened on placement, in class or at work]
Why it stayed with me: [surprise, discomfort, success, uncertainty]
Link to practice: [standard of practice, competency or course theme]
Model required: [Gibbs / Rolfe / Kolb / Johns / none stated]
Can it be fully anonymised? [yes / no]

Check your draft

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In your field

Reflection usually appears as a learning journal, a lab or design project reflection, or a portfolio entry. Good incidents are a technical decision, a failed test or a team problem, with the focus on process and what you would change.

Read more about this stage

Gornick's distinction explains why many personal drafts stall: the writer has the situation (the context, the plot) but not yet the story (the insight the writing is reaching for). Drafting around a genuine question is usually how the story surfaces. Her book includes close readings of essays and memoirs that show the distinction at work.

In academic reflective practice, the equivalent of a story is a critical incident: an event that made you stop and think. Donald Schön distinguished reflection-in-action (thinking while you act) from reflection-on-action (thinking afterwards). Most assignments ask for reflection-on-action, written up with a model your course names.