How to Write a Personal Essay

Bundle this class with How To Write a Full-Length Memoir and save!

How many times have you read the Modern Love column in The New York Times and thought, “Wow, I wish I could write an essay like that!” If you feel you’ve got an incredible story to tell but don’t know how to transform it into a powerful piece that can win a prized spot in the Times or another major publication, this is the class for you.

Celebrated essayist and memoirist Joyce Maynard will take you on a guided journey through the process of writing a kick-ass personal essay that will get you noticed and published.

Maynard will go through the steps of figuring out your big theme, creating a strong outline, identifying the beats of your narrative and writing a compelling column. By the end of this course, you’ll not only have an amazing essay, you’ll have a whole new skill set that will make your writing the best it’s ever been.

In this class, you’ll learn how to:

• Identify a single big idea and weave it through your narrative.
• Focus on a small event or moment to make your abstract theme concrete.
• Build an outline so you can structure your story and identify the beats.
• Figure out the stakes, conflict, discovery, transformation and redemption.
• Create interesting characters and understand their motives.
• Wander off course but not too far—and only for a good reason.
• Add cinematic elements to your story, including a climactic turning point.
• Write a concluding scene that emphasizes your final discovery.

• Class Introduction
• A Short Story About a Big Idea
• What Do You Want to Write About?
• Look What You Can Do with 806 Words
• Stories of Change
• Big Ideas to Small Stories
• When You Have Too Many Stories
• Writing About Loss & Exploring Secrets
• 1 Story 5 Ways
• Deconstructing an Example Essay
• The Importance of Language
• My Favorite Writing Tool
• Choose Your Words Carefully
• What's Wrong With Being Shameless?
• Handling Two Stories At One Time
• The Opening and Landing Place
• Finding the Through Story
• Picking the Story You Should Tell
• How I Write a Personal Essay
• 'Letting It Fly' - Workshopping Joyce's Personal Essay
• The Privacy Question