Writing Personal Essays

I was reading an essay recently when one phrase made me stop and ponder. Do you ever do that? Stop right in the middle of reading a book or an essay if something the author wrote stands out for you? When it happens to me, I usually read the sentence or phrase two or three more times. Sometimes I write it down so I won't forget it.

The woman in the essay I read was writing about writing as a way to help heal when we're bowed down with grief. The phrase that stopped me was '...not a story but an experience.' 

That's exactly what we're writing about when we put hundreds of words together to form a personal essay. We write this form to relate an experience, but it must be one that teaches us something or changes us in some respect. We want the reader to take away a universal truth from what we experienced or to see what the writer learned or how he/she has changed. 

Those changes need not be of gigantic proportion. Small changes are still important. They move us a step further in this journey we call life. 

Let's move back to the idea of a personal essay detailing an experience rather than a 'story.' You might look at it as the 'story' is a part of the 'experience' you're relating. The moment I see the word 'experience,' I think of emotions added to the story itself. What happened could have made you sad, or angry, or devastated with grief, or filled with joy. So, emotions play a big part in writing the personal essay. 

Maybe keeping the word 'experience' in mind along with making sure you show a universal truth or something you learned or a way in which you were changed will make writing the personal essay a lot easier. Give it a try soon.