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When in Rome: A (Somewhat) Lyrical Tribute to the Lyric Essay
It defies strict definition. It encompasses a variety of forms. It demands more from the reader than other types of essays. It affords writers a measure of freedom that some find daunting. The lyric essay: the most artistic, the most poetic, the least informative, the least reliant on narrative conventions of all the styles of Read more
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Should We Write about Family Secrets?
At a writing workshop I attended a few years ago, the facilitator gave us this prompt: Write about something that your family would object to you writing about. Some workshop participants expressed discomfort with this assignment. Most hesitated before beginning to write. Their reluctance was understandable because we were being asked to open a long-locked Read more
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How to Restore an Abandoned Garden (An Experiment in Second-Person Point of View)
My thanks to Bear River Review, in which an earlier version of this essay was published. How to Restore an Abandoned Garden at a House You Bought in Ypsi First: Realize that you have moved into someone else’s house. Wander through the leavings of another person’s life. When you are a firmly established mid-lifer, get Read more
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Why Sometimes It Takes a Hermit Crab to Get the Person on the Page
Voice is that hard-to-define, easy-to-recognize element that contributes to creative nonfiction’s wide-ranging appeal with readers. Memoirists and personal essay writers in particular are tasked with providing readers with the sense that the written words convey a genuine personality—that a real person speaks the message. They have to get the person on the page. When we Read more
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Is Writing Good for Us and, if so, Should We Care?
For most of my writing life, I have resisted the idea that writing is therapeutic. Maybe it is, but so what? That’s not why I wanted to write. I wanted to create literary art. I wanted to write for an audience, not for my mental health. I used to think that those who use writing Read more
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Point of View, Times Two
You’ve probably been warned not to do it. Astute and well-intentioned English instructors have routinely cautioned students against using second-person address of the reader as you in academic and scholarly writing. Doing so is too informal, they have said; it creates an inappropriate familiarity between writer and reader. Among fiction writers, the use of second-person Read more
Do you write about yourself and your experiences? Do you write about traumatic events in your life? Or, do you struggle to find time and motivation to write?
If so, this blog is for you.
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Person on the Page 