The Makings of a Personal Essay, Really
by:
Jenna Glatzer
Sometimes I can be dense once
it comes to realizing the potential of my own life experiences as essays for magazines. I, of course, fully believe that everything in my life is newsworthy, but sometimes have trouble computation out which experiences wish hit home with different people.
I recently knowing the secret, and it can be summarized in one word: Really?
My friends cognize that I can talk. I mean, I can talk! Get me on the phone and Im likely to tell you all simply about my day, from my breakfast to my editors latest comments to my insomnia. I dont communicate my tendency toward expressive style on everyone, but at least a few trustworthy souls get to bear the forcefulness of my solitary fashion and my need to dish.
Their reactions tell me whether or not I have the material for a marketable personal essay.
My all-time best-selling essay is a simple story simply about a boy who won a stuffed animal for his little sister in a crane machine. Once
I saw it happen, I was so touched I all but cried. Once
I retold it to my mom, the tears welled up again. I got to the climactic momentAnd then he bent down and gave the stuffed animal to his little sister and kissed her on the foreheadand my mom asked, Really? Thats so sweet!
Bing. Really? translates to Thats a great story.
When I tell mom simply about the new toy I bought for my cat, she ne'er
asks, Really? She doesnt press me for details. She probably cant wait for me to shut up so she can hang up the phone and do thing
productive that doesnt involve listening to my escapades with my cat. But once
Ive hit on thing
that power actually warrant an article, her reaction wont be a simple Mmm-hmm, or Thats great. Itll be a question, or a plea to share more.
The reactions to listen for, in addition to Really? are:
Then what happened?
What did you do?
How did you (/he/she) react?
Tell me more!
Thats amazing!
Thats so cool!
A few weeks ago, I was talking to Jamie Blyth (Im serving to write his book, Fear Is No Longer My Reality) simply about how far Ive move in beating my anxiety disorder. One of the things I mentioned was that I used to have an obsessive-compulsive disorder related to food. He wanted to cognize more. I explained that I went through a two-year phase wherever
I ate nothing but canned foods and different food with actually long shelf lives.
Really? he asked.
Oh. I hadnt thought simply about that phase of mine in quite several time, and had forgotten that it power be intriguing to folk whove ne'er
fully fledged OCD. OCD as an overall topic has been done many a times, but this detailthe canned foods and my all but deadly diethasnt. It doesnt belong in a how-to article. It works because of the telling, because of the personal nature of the story. And as I sat down to write it, a attractively
marketable essay formed all but effortlessly.
Think simply about what details of your story set it apart from similar stories. Incalculable essays have been written simply about alcoholism, consumption disorders, miscarriage, drug abuse, abusive marriages, finding God, giving birth... that doesnt mean you cant tell your story. You simply have to find a unique angle, a new way of telling it, a lump
that folk wish remember.
The same effortless type of story formed once
I told folk how Anthony and I bought our house. We fell so in love with it that we unbroken
coming to visit and take pictureswe would-be sit on the different side of the lake, facing the owners backyard, and simply hug and dream of what it would-be be like to live there.
When it came time to do an offer, we were at once outbid by thousands of dollars and couldnt match the price. We went to say adios to the owners, and they told the Agent to take it off the marketwe were the folk they wanted to live in the home theyd adored for 40 years. They had seen us from their back window all the times we came to admire the home from afar, and they knew we would-be appreciate the gardens, the greenhouse, the lake. So they took a loss of thousands of dollars because they wanted us to live our dream.
Quick, what was your reaction to that story? I hope it was Thats amazing!, because thats the reaction I got from nearly everyone who detected
the story. Inside
a couple of weeks of moving in, I sold-out
the essay to A Cup of Comfort and sent the compendium
to the previous owners of the house.
If someones eyes light up once
you tell a story, chances are fantabulous that theres a market for it. If one person finds it interesting, inspiring, hilarious, or moving, others likely will, too.
Consider your friends and family your test audience. Test out your experiences on them. If they dont press you for much details, either the story isnt there, or you need a much compelling way to tell it.
You can as well test by e-mail; send a few friends a note simply about a recent experience of yours and see how many a of them react to it. Note, too, how quickly they react. If they respond right after reading it, their interest levels are probably high. If they respond a week later and mention, By the way, that was a good story, it likely didnt pass the test.
Personal experiences dont need to be earth-shattering to be worthy of print. They simply need to be interesting, insightful, and emotion-provoking in all but any sense of the word. Your story may do being happy, mad, upset, horrified, shocked... as long as you can elicit a strong emotion, you can draw readers. And editors like writers who can draw readers.
Go forth and share your experiences. Personal essays are extraordinary gifts to share with the world. Really!
About The Author
Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of Absolute Write (www.absolutewrite.com). She has written for hundreds of national and online magazines, and her latest book is Do A REAL LIVING AS A FREELANCE WRITER, which you can find at www.jennaglatzer.com. Find out how to get a FREE editors' cheat sheet with this book!
Copyright 2004 Jenna Glatzer. All rights reserved.
This article was denote
on Gregorian calendar month
31, 2004
