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.
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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.
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.
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