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  • 1 Or 2 Day Seminar
  • Online: Zoom
  • Adult (18+)

How to Write and Sell the Narrative Personal Essay

No Longer Enrolling

  • $130.00 Non-Member
  • $110.00 Member

Class Description

What makes a good topic for a narrative personal essay? How do you focus your ideas, memories, and experiences into a coherent form and make sure your personal essay tells a story? In this six-hour seminar, we'll look at narrative personal essays by David Sedaris, Cheryl Strayed, Barry Lopez, and others, and use them both as exemplary models and to find inspiration. Then we'll examine typical structures for how to build your personal essay around key scenes and passages of reflection and backstory. We'll look at how to create a narrative arc or "plot" for your essay, and how to develop yourself and others as characters. We'll discuss how time travel, pacing, and narrative order can control how readers experience your story and how you can hook them from the first paragraph. In-class writing exercises will allow us to immediately put these concepts into practice. The final segment of the seminar will be focused on identifying publications to submit your essays, how to communicate with editors, and what a cover letter looks like. You'll leave with an outline for an essay and several passages towards a first draft.

Scholarships Format/Location

Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.

For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.

This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!

Zoom Participation:

Students are not required to turn their camera on, but are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable through functions such as the live chat, emoji reactions, and unmuting the microphone. Learn more about using Zoom here.

Zoom Accessibility:

We ask that instructors enable closed captioning and send a transcript of the session after class. You can also enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting. If your instructor forgets to send the transcript, just send ’em an email!