As we’ve discussed, the culminating project for Chapter 11 will be to create a character that witnessed the Civil War and write a memoir from his or her perspective.

This memoir should address two basic issues:

• What was the war like?
• How did you feel about the war?

It should also meet the following criteria:

• Typed, double spaced, 12 pt font, Times New Roman
• 2-3 pages, or approx. 500-750 words

Read the rest of this post for the introductory assignment to help you begin writing your memoir.

Before you can write the memoir, you need to create your character. In your notebook, answer the following questions. Then, think of two or three anecdotes (very brief stories/situations) that help describe something about your character.

Is your character…

• Male or Female?
• A soldier, a nurse, a journalist, or something else?
• From the North or the South?
• Young or Old?
• A veteran of a previous war?
• A farmer, a factory worker, a slave? What did your character do before the war?
• Part of a large family, or an only child?
• For the war, against the war, or indifferent?
• Fighting by choice, or drafted into the army?
• Part of a specific unit?

Now, think of two or three anecdotes (really short stories) that help describe your character. For example, your character may have done something very brave in battle, he may have tried to run away, or he may have witnessed a good friend die.

Once everyone has had a chance to do this, we will discuss it briefly. If you finish before everyone else, go on to the next step.

Based on the information that you’ve written in your notebook, you should have a general idea of who your character is. The next step is to decide how you want to tell this person’s story and begin outlining your memoir.

Think about the memoirs that we read in class (Baghdad Bureau and “Hell Sucks!”). Do you want to tell one story about a single battle or event? Do you want to tell the story through a series of random pictures or vignettes? Do you want to tell the story as if it were being written in a journal, as the war went on?

If you want to tell the story of a single battle or event, choose a specific battle and sketch out some of the details. You may want to refer to the resources used in the “Nation Divided” web quest. Then decide how your character fits into that story.

If you want to tell the story through a bunch of random pictures or vignettes, brainstorm a bunch of different memories that your character experienced.

If you want to tell the story through a journal, think about when it will start and end and what events will be described in the journal.

You have the rest of the period to work on this outline. By Friday, you should have developed this outline into a rough draft of your memoir. We will use Friday to peer edit our memoirs and revise them.