The Powerful Personal Essay Pivot

The consumer personal essay market is thriving today. In this session, In this session, writers will learn how to craft their stories so they can get an editor’s attention and get published. Instead of simply writing about an episode or a humiliating moment in their life, writers need to go deeper, to reveal the truth and universal takeaway behind a moment in time. But few know how to do it. That’s where craft comes in. I will show you how to create powerful openings and endings to essays, and build in a transformative narrative arc, using examples from my writing and my students' published essays. The first part will include specific tools and tactics, such as the first five test, the best way to make words work for you, how to write using your senses, finding the flow, and a writing exercise to recover memories. The second part will allow people to workshop their ideas, as I help them build their essay.

Difficulty level: beginner

Speaker(s)

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