Write Your Slice of Life: 6 Quick and Easy Steps to Writing a Personal Essay

Do you know why the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series is so popular? Aside from terrific marketing and unequaled publicity, readers love the stories and personal essays. They are short, personal and teach a lesson or moral. If you would like to be a better writer of the personal essay, opinion pieces, reports and letters to the editor just follow the suggestions listed below:

1. Be brief. Many written reports or stories are 500 words or less. However, there is a general rule that an essay is between two and twenty typed, double-spaced pages. The most important criteria to remember is that a good piece needs to be an unbroken reading experience. The reader will lose interest if it is too long or wordy.

2. Tell a story. A personal essay is a story that has happened to you or that you know about firsthand. The reader assumes that it is nonfiction and that it will contain details and descriptions with which we are familiar. Structure your story around examples, using a pencil as your paintbrush to evoke images and paint a picture in the reader's mind.

3. Make a point. You will want to illustrate your point, teach a lesson, explain a specific topic, or even support or criticize an idea. Your goal is to win sympathy or agreement. Do not turn it into a sermon or a soapbox to present the superiority of your ideas by including "shoulds" or "musts" aimed at the reader.

4. Use your senses. Enliven your essay with sensuous detail like how it smelled, tasted, sounded or felt. Make the reader feel like they are seeing and experiencing it through your body.

5. Tell about the ordinary. Personal essays are often best when they describe a common but freely shared experience. It doesn't have to be about being a survivor of the Twin Towers. Talk about your reaction to 911. Or tell us about watching a sunset or baking bread. When you talk about walking your dog, take us along.

6. Make it engaging. An essay should arouse curiosity about life. Instead of preaching, invite us to consider your point of view by sharing the particular experience that brought you there, describe what happened, how you reacted, and why you interpret your experiences the way you do.

Think about your own interests and areas of special knowledge, activities, skills, attitudes, problems as well as typical obstacles faced in life. Teach us what you gained or lost in your life lesson. It is much easier to be convincing when you can draw from personal and firsthand information. Write it today. Submit it to Chicken Soup for the Soul or your local newspaper and become a published author. There are readers out there who want to share your slice of life.

? 2005 Judy H. Wright

This article has been prepared for your use by Judy H. Wright, author and life educator. You have permission to reprint it in your ezine or newsletter as long as the author and her web address is included http://www.artichokepress.com; 406-549-9813. Check out the website for upcoming workshops, tele-classes and books. You will also find FREE articles and be able to subscribe to the ezine The Artichoke-finding the heart of the story in the journey of life.

cleaning help near Mundelein ..
In The News:

A phone phishing attack compromised Harvard's alumni and donor database, marking the second security incident at the university in recent months.
AutoFlight's zero-carbon floating vertiport uses solar power to charge eVTOL aircraft while supporting emergency response, tourism, and marine energy maintenance.
A new phone return scam targets recent buyers with fake carrier calls. Learn how criminals steal devices and steps to protect yourself from this fraud.
New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.
The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.
Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.
Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.
Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.
Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.
Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.
Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.
Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.
iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.
Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.
FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.
Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.
Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.
Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.
Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.
Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.
The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.
Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.
New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.
FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.
New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

In Search Of Ideas For Articles

Finding something to write about can be frustrating for all... Read More

10 Tips For Getting More Traffic From Your Articles

Here's a depressing fact if you sell anything on the... Read More

Energize Your Mind With Inspirational Writing Exercises

Feeling uninspired? Like you're stuck in a rut with your... Read More

How to Write Inspirational Articles for Newsletters

Inspirational articles were once limited to self-help and religious publications,... Read More

Writing Articles - Two Aspects Of The Surge

Writing articles for publication on the Internet is, at the... Read More

Your Resourcebox Giving You Profits?

Rule number one - You must write ezine articles and... Read More

Publish Article

If you've spent any time online trying to promote your... Read More

Writing Articles to Improve Link Popularity

There are many different ways to improve link popularity for... Read More

Need a Great Idea? Feed Your Brain

A lot of great ideas happen when two or more... Read More

Need to Write an Article? Three is a Magic Number!

Writing articles for magazines, the Internet or the local community... Read More

Writing Articles - Six Mistakes To Avoid

Not writing articles yet? You really should try it, if... Read More

Five Reasons You Should Write to Help Your Business

Most business owners are overwhelmed with the day to day... Read More

How to Use Articles to Generate Free Traffic to Your Website

Writing articles that are available for reprint is an excellent... Read More

A Simple Suggestion to Improve Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is becoming more and more popular, especially as... Read More

Free Reprint Articles That Will Interest Publishers - 4 Tips

Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articles... Read More

How to Use Articles to Increase Web Site Traffic!

A simple technique to increase web site traffic is using... Read More

10 Tips For Promoting Through Ezine Articles

What's the most powerful marketing technique on the Web? Search... Read More

An Easy Way to Write An Article: Get Someone Elses!

Every successful website needs to be, what the experts consider,... Read More

How Article Marketing Will Make You a Fortune

Article marketing-the simple act of writing one 400 word article... Read More

How to Get Started on Writing Killer Articles

I once wrote an article in which I offered the... Read More

8 Sources To Research Awesome Article Topics

Writing articles is by far the most effective online promotion... Read More

Marketing Articles: Promoting Your Site Twice!

I recently became aware that promoting your web site in... Read More

Web Design Information And Resources

People who have an idea for a website sometimes require... Read More

7 Steps To Writing Articles That People Just Have To Read

This may come as a surprise... to you, but writing... Read More

An Article about Articles

Everyone that publishes a newsletter or ezine knows that the... Read More

reliable maid service Wilmette ..