On one hand, it is really freeing to be able to think of any topic that you want to write your paper. On the other hand, it is challenging to come up with just the right idea and to be confident that your idea is correct. That is okay; you have several resources to help you: this page, AP friends, the writing lab teacher, and Mrs. Bush.
The following questions are to help jumpstart your thinking:
Which literary techniques did you discover or observe in your text? (These might include: flashback, framework narrative, vernacular, unreliable narrator, themes, symbols. . . )
Did your author do any unique things you've never known another author to do? (Like Faulkner's multiple narrators.) Even if you don't know the term for it, you can describe it to someone and find out if a term exists. Maybe you've discovered something completely new.
What are your initial thoughts on the author's style? (wordy, terse, eccentric. . . )
What feature does the author spend the most time on? Action? Characterization? Setting? Describe that.
What is the most important idea or message you gained from this work?
What image remains most clearly in your mind after completing the text?
When did your author write this text? What was going on in his or her life, in the country, in the world?
