Essay Writing / 2 posts found
The Braided Essay: What It Is and Why I Used This Writing Structure for My Food Memoir
I’ve always been a passionate fan of the braided essay in creative nonfiction. In a braided essay, one can align three or more threads of focal ideas throughout the piece, each idea separated via space breaks, white space, or section breaks. I’ve usually used a memory-based/childhood or an event’s narration, or my own perspective of a personal incident and highlight a more universal topic or thread in the second braid. Sometimes a third braid is a researched topic that ties the above two together. Much like the mosaic essay, the threads appear disjointed, or out of place till a third […]
How to Write Compelling Personal Essays: 9 Ingredients for Spicing Up Your Writing
“What’s so special about you?” It sounds like a playground taunt. But if you want to write personal essays, it’s the most important question you can ask yourself. When you describe some special moment in your life, no matter how small, it should resonate with others, and in doing so, move them. That’s the writer’s payoff, and the reason most of us spend so many hours at our keyboards. (What Is a Personal Reportage Essay in Writing?) Every day, in person, we tell our stories to friends and co-workers in part to get a reaction from them. Like trying to […]