One of the best things you can do to learn how to write well is to read really good writing. Read it, be moved by it, and read it again, asking yourself, “How did she/he DO that?!” If you want to write poetry, read the kind of poetry you’d like to write. If you want to write a mystery, read the kind of mystery you want to write — a novel, an article, a personal essay –same thing: read and read and read.
With that advice in mind, I want to share with you some of the best personal essay writing I have ever read. This is a piece of a longer work posted on the online literary magazine Literary Mama. Gail Konop Baker writes about being diagnosed with breast cancer, and she just tells her story with honesty, simplicity, humor, and great details. Notice especially the details. She doesn’t have to tell us she’s scared, for example, because we feel it from the details in the first paragraph, and we relate to it. Baker takes a difficult subject — breast cancer — and makes it real without manipulating our emotions. That’s not easy. I read it and wish I had written it.
And here’s another thing about the way Baker writes: She makes me grateful that she took the time and energy to write something so honest and compelling that I feel my life is richer because of her writing. If you write or want to write and have trouble believing in yourself, picture me and a bunch of other readers out there just waiting for you to share your story, your experience, your observations. What you have to say matters. Gail Konop Baker, I’m sure, would agree.
Posted on Dec 8th 06 by Verna Wilder.
Verna's joy is helping people find and refine their writing voice, and she does that by coaching, editing, and leading writing workshops. She's a writer and a reader and a lover of good books, good music, good movies, good food. For the past 25 years, Verna has given her best energy to working in a cube; now she's taking that experience and giving her best energy to her clients. Life finally makes a little more sense. http://vernawilder.typepad.com/out_of_the_cube/
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