Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction

Author Dinty W. Moore discusses the differences between writing an essay & private writing in this excerpt from Crafting the Personal Essay.

Award winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders once compared the art of essay writing to “the pursuit of mental rabbits”—a rambling through thickets of thought in search of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth. While some people persist in the belief that essays are stuffy & antiquated, the truth is that the personal essay is an ever-changing creative medium that provides an ideal vehicle for satisfying the human urge to document truths as we experience them & share them with others—to capture a bit of life on paper.

Crafting the Personal Essay is designed to help you explore the flexibility & power of the personal essay in your own writing. This hands-on, creativity-expanding guide will help you infuse your nonfiction with honesty, personality, & energy. You’ll discover:

• An exploration of the basics of essay writing
• Ways to step back and scrutinize your experiences in order to separate out what may be fresh, powerful, surprising or fascinating to a reader
• How to move past private “journaling” & write for an audience
• How to write eight different types of essays including memoir, travel, humor, & nature essays, among others
• Instruction for revision & strategies for getting published

Brimming with helpful examples, exercises, & sample essays, this indispensable guide will help your personal essays transcend the merely private to become powerfully universal.

About the Author

Dinty W. Moore’s essays & stories have appeared in numerous publications including The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, & Utne Reader. His books include Between Panic & Desire, The Accidental Buddhist, Toothpick Men, The Emperor’s Virtual Clothes, & The Truth of the Matter: Art & Craft in Creative Nonfiction.