The Writing Craft
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How to Begin a Personal Essay
No one wrote more provocative first lines of poems than Emily Dickinson. Who could read an opening line such as I felt a Funeral, in my Brain or I heard a Fly buzz—when I died and not feel compelled to read on? When we write introductions for personal essays, our impulse may be to rely… Continue reading
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This Is Only Partly True
Try this. Freewrite about a time when you faced a personal conflict. You might choose a time when you felt vulnerable or embarrassed, a time when you thought that you were treated unfairly, a time when you believed that you failed at something, or any other tension-filled time. Begin anywhere and write about the experience.… Continue reading
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Make Yourself a Metaphor
Metaphor is a mystery nestled somewhere near the heart of language. Why do we so often think this way, uniting unlike things with our words—the abstract with the concrete—and feeling satisfaction rather than dissonance as a result? Metaphor allows us to describe what would be otherwise indescribable—the minutiae of our emotions, the pinpricks of our… Continue reading
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How to Use Family Photos to Fuel Your Writing (Part 2)
In this post, I continue my exploration of using childhood photos as a catalyst to writing memoir by experimenting with analyzing some of my own childhood photos. The first task when faced with stacks of family photos that are largely alike in their presentation of a single person or people, most often facing the camera… Continue reading
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How to Use Family Photos to Fuel Your Writing (Part 1)
Memories provide a catalog of subjects for your writing. Especially if your genre is memoir, delving deeply into your past is a natural way to find your subject and focus. If you write about family, specifically about your relationships with your parents or siblings, tapping into your earliest memories can reap a storehouse of material. … Continue reading
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.
Person on the Page 