Tips on Writing a Personal Essay *
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There is very little mystery to writing the personal
narrative essay. There is no
proper topic for such an essay. An essay can be about a
variety of personal experiences. You, the writer, have
the right to say what you want about your personal
experience. You can write about anything -- Aunt Sally,
the funky necklace you bought at a garage sale, the
harrowing experience of being stuck in an elevator, the
best Christmas you ever had, the worst day of your life.
No topic or subject is off-limits; therefore there are
endless opportunities to write an essay about your
personal, point-of-view of what happened. Often the
reason behind wanting to write a personal essay is
unclear. Once the writing
begins and the events are recorded and recounted it
becomes clear that the writer is searching to find the
meaning, the universal truth, the lesson learned from
the experience. When writing, rewriting and good editing
coalesce, a personal narrative essay becomes a beautiful
thing. It shows how the past or a memory’s significance
affects the present or even the future.
We all have stories to tell. But facing a blank page
is intimidating. Knowing where to begin becomes a real
dilemma. A good place to start is with the word I. Write
I was, I saw, I did, I went, I cried, I screamed, I took
for granted. I is an empowering word. Once you write it
on the page it empowers you to tell your story. That’s
exactly what you are going to do next. Tell the story.
Get it all out. Don’t worry about how many times I
appears in the text. Don’t worry how scattered and
unfocused thoughts are. Write however your mind tells
you to write. This style is often called freewheeling
writing or stream of consciousness. Once the story is
all down on paper you will go back and begin to shape
the essay into a form that says exactly what you want it
to say about your experience. If you’re discouraged over
what you’ve written, back away from it. Let it rest.
Take a walk. Do something that distracts your mind from
writing the essay. Many writers find that even while
doing something other than writing, their writing mind
continues to work out what needs to be said and
continues to uncover the multi-layered associations and
voices of what they’re writing about.
Personal narrative essays are essentially non-fiction
stories, ones that are neatly arranged like a road map
that take the reader from point A to point B to point C.
In life, and in our own personal experience, things
aren’t so straightforward as A-B-C. Characters, facts,
places, conversations and reporting what happened, where
you went, what you saw and what you did isn’t always so
neatly pulled together. That is
your
job, as the writer, to pull together all
the elements so they bring the reader to the universal
truth, the lesson learned or insight gained in your
experience. How do you do this? Through re-writing and
re-writing.
Each time you redo the story more will be revealed to
you. You will get “in touch” with the universal truth.
Every rewrite of the story will lead you to the aha!
Once you get the aha! the next rewrite will show
dramatic improvement. You will be able to arrange events
into a chronological sequence that best suits the aha!.
When you know the aha! create events, think up examples
to better illustrate the theme of your essay. Use the
senses when describing anything. Example, …It was a
stellar day. The air had a salty tang to it as it blew
off the ocean. Little white caps broke not more than
twenty feet out then rushed to meet the shore. Above me
sea gulls screeched and circled in a cloudless blue sky.
The sun was in its Spring zenith…. The more descriptive
language you use, the more you will place the reader
right there in the experience with you. Colorful or
hard-driving language are the tools of the essayist.
Essay writing forces you to shape your experience
until it can be fully understood by others. Use every
tool available in the writing craft. Construct dialogue,
use metaphors but most importantly, use language with a
wide breadth of sensory detail. If you find yourself
getting lost, stop writing. Start
reading other essays. Every issue of
Reader’s Digest always has at least two. Read eight back
issues of a magazine with personal narrative essays in
their content. By osmosis, you’ll get the feel of how
essays are constructed. Go back and do the rework on
yours. Include dialogue, include examples that best
support or illustrate the aha! of the experience you’re
writing about. Beef up the description of a character.
Give them succinct, meaningful dialogue that pushes the
reader closer and closer to the aha! of your essay.
The next step is to get feedback on what you have
written. If someone close to you or someone really
intimate with the experience you’ve written about says,
“Hey, that’s not the way it happened,” don’t worry.
Little white lies are serving to drive the aha! of the
experience into the mind of the reader. Your truth is
embedded in your writing. To enable the reader to
visualize or grasp the concept, little white lies are a
necessity. Listen to the responses of readers, then go
back a rewrite the portions that were unclear to the
reader.
Next, have someone read the essay aloud to you or you
read it aloud into a tape recorder.
Listen to the flow of words. Listen to where the
reader stumbles. Listen where pauses fall. Listen to
where the reader runs out of breath. These are all clues
as to where more refining or tweaking need to be done.
Go back and do it! You are close to sitting back in the
chair and saying, “Yes! This is exactly what I wanted to
say about what I experienced.” It is a beautiful
feeling. Work to achieve it.
To recap how to write a personal narrative essay
follow these points:
·Write I on a blank page.
·Tell the story as it flows from your mind.
·Let the story rest in its scattered, unfocused form.
·Begin rewriting. Shaping events in a way to best
suit what you want to say.
·Rejoice when the aha! of your experience is
revealed.
·Re-write, re-write, and re-write. Little white lies
are okay.
·Use language that is full of words that tap into the
senses.
·Get feedback from a reader.
·Re-write.
·Have the essay read aloud. Listen.
·Fine tune and tweak.
·Grin from ear-to-ear when everything on the page
reveals the aha! in the experience perfectly.
·And – Kudos on a jobwell done!
Journalists fear the
"I" word, maybe even
more than a libel
suit. Writing about
yourself is often
difficult for
reporters and
editors whose work
lives focus on
others. But writing
about yourself,
honestly, even
painfully, will make
you a better
reporter and editor:
more empathetic,
more skilled, better
able to spot the
universal truth in
the individual
story. Personal
writing also
generates enormous
reader response.
(And who knows, you
might even be able
to make some money!)
I. Finding
Your Subject - How
do I decide what to
write about?
Writers in search
of a subject might
ask themselves these
questions suggested
by Boston Globe
columnist and
writing coach Don
Murray:
- What are
you thinking
about when
you're not
thinking?
- What
makes you mad?
- What
makes you happy?
- What past
events were
turning points
in your life
that you'd like
to understand?
- What do
you know you
should write
about but have
been afraid to?
II.
Discovering Your
Story: How do I get
started?
As you think
about topics and
begin to write,
consider these
comments from two
deft personal
essayists:
"You can't
write a personal
column without
going to some
very deep place
inside yourself,
even if it's
only for four
hours. It's
almost like
psychotherapy,
except you're
doing it on your
own. You have to
pull something
out of yourself
and give away
some important
part of
yourself...It's
a gift you have
to give to the
reader, even if
it's the most
light-hearted
piece in the
world."
Jennifer Allen,
The New York
Times
"Feeling is
at the basis of
everything. When
I was asked to
consider
becoming a
full-time
columnist, part
of my hesitation
was that I knew
I could not
pretend to be
this
dispassionate,
all-knowing,
authoritarian
voice on high. I
couldn't do
that. That would
be a lie....For
me, it's like
The Godfather.
Everything is
personal."
Donna Britt,
The Washington
Post
- Write
every day.
Writing is a
process of
discovery. You
will discover
what you want to
say and how to
say it in just
one way: by
writing. "You
don't know the
story until
you've written
it," Murray
says.
Begin, as Cynthia Gorney described the beginnings of her powerful
pieces for
The Washington
Post, with
babble. Surprise
yourself, as she
does, by
discovering the
story you want
to write halfway
down the page.
- Lower
your standards.
Ignore the voice
that says "This
stinks" - The
first step to
producing copy
on deadline in
time for
revision that
storytelling
demands.
The first draft
contains the
promise of the
final one.
III. Learning to
self-edit
- Rewrite.
"You write to
discover what
you want to
say," Murray
says. "You
rewrite to
discover what
you have said
and then rewrite
to make it clear
to other
people."
The Last Word
The personal
essay assignment
demands the critical
thinking,
communication, and
collaborative skills
required of today's
journalist. This is
not about therapy;
it's about craft.
Memoir, the writer
Patricia Hampl says,
is about
exploration, not
revelation. Like all
good journalism,
that requires solid
reporting, critical
thinking, careful
editing, the skills
we all hope to
improve.
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* This passage is selected from
http://ncnc.essortment.com/
**The article is selected from http://www.poynter.org/ |