Personal Essay Subject – Amy Lou Jenkins

Find the subject for your personal essay

Find Your Perfect Personal Essay Subject

Part of the First-Person Writing Series on Writing the Personal Essay

Writing a personal essay can be an incredibly rewarding experience. You share your unique perspective and connect with readers about human issues. But where do you start? Choosing the right subject is crucial. Let’s dive into the first step of crafting a publishable personal essay: finding a suitable subject.

Exploring Your Experiences and Passions

The first source of inspiration for your personal essay is your own life. Reflect on your experiences, memories, and passions. Is there a moment that left a lasting impact on you? Are there moments that haunt you? Have you experienced a challenge you’ve overcome or learned to live with, a life lesson with enough complexity to make it interesting? These personal moments can form the foundation of a compelling essay.

Moonrise, the book, was expanded from the essay first published in the Atlantic. — Click to explore the book on Amazon

Over 20 years ago, Penny Wolfson published her essay “Moonrise” in the Atlantic (later expanded into a memoir). I don’t recall where I was going when I first read this essay. I do recall sitting at an airport food court during a layover, reading and wiping tears. How can this mother live in the moment and enjoy the evening of her son’s school dance while holding the knowledge of his unrelenting muscular disease? She can’t resolve the larger issue. She can have and give the reader the melancholy beauty of an experience. If you have all the answers and write an essay with a hunky-dory ending because you have the one right way of thinking, your essay is not likely to be transcendent. Wolfson’s essay has a universal theme about the ephemeral nature of all lives. Life and truth are complex.

Logic

Oversimplification is a logical fallacy. Your doubts and your ability to think against yourself enrich your essay and make it true. You may believe two things that are the opposite—if so that may be great essay fodder. A nurse I worked with wouldn’t pull a feeding tube on a dying patient, but she believed in the death penalty. I am concerned about climate change, yet I cut down a tree to put in a patio. Sometimes I miss the idea of a person more than the actual person. All these complex ideas may become an essay—or not.

I thought about “Moonrise” again at my son’s recent wedding. I understood the blessing of beginnings. Personal essays add meaning to our lives.

Scouring Publications and Websites

Beyond your personal experiences, you can also find subject ideas from publications and websites that pay for personal essays. Many online platforms and literary magazines seek submissions from writers like you. An online search for “personal essay submission guidelines” will lead you to an abundance of sources.

For instance, sites like The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, BuzzFeed’s “Personal Essays” section, and literary magazines like Tin House often publish personal essays and provide submission guidelines on their websites. These guidelines usually outline the theme, word count, and submission process, giving you a clear idea of what they’re looking for.

Drawing from Current Events and Trends

Another approach is to tie your personal essay to current events or trends. Is there a social issue you’re passionate about? Consider how your own experiences relate to broader conversations. This gives your essay relevance and showcases your ability to connect personal stories to larger themes. In our divisive times, your ability to transcend the right and wrong point of view might nudge the world to more compassion and critical thinking. Consider the complexity of the NYT Essay “’Freedom’ is a Word I No Longer Trust.” Here a woman from Afghanistan explores the word in the context of her life changes in her home country and the USA.

Brainstorming and Narrowing Down Your Personal Essay Subject

Once you have a list of potential subjects, brainstorm and pay close attention to the subjects that surprise you. Consider the emotional impact, the lessons you can convey, and the potential resonance with readers. Narrow down your options to the subjects that resonate the most with you and align with the publication’s submission guidelines. Do have one or more publications in mind as you write. Print out their guidelines. Use samples of work that inspire you. Annotate them. What is wonderful? What made you feel something? How did the writer do that? Unpack those essays as a part of your inspiration activity. Be sure you have read many of the personal essays that they publish. This is tactically and inspirationally useful.

Find your Personal Essay Subject: The Ten-Minute Free Write Test

As a part of your narrowing down, I suggest setting a timer for ten minutes. Write about your topic. You’ll get a feel of if you are interested in the topic enough to write about it. If not, choose something else and do the ten-minute free-write test. You are not writing the essay, perhaps you are making a mind map. Jotting research questions. Writing about what you don’t feel comfortable divulging. Write anything vaguely related to your subject.

At some point in crafting a personal essay, you may get slogged down and have to overcome resistance to find your narrative thread or complete your work. Yet, in my experience, if you are bored with your topic in the first ten minutes, consider a topic that offers you more personal momentum.

In the next on our personal essay series, we’ll discuss the art of crafting a captivating opening for your personal essay. Choose your topic and broaden your thinking on your topic by researching and reading others on the same subject.