The personal essay is one of the greatest literary forms and has the potential to have a rebirth on Substack. Substack is where writers get to write personal essays, attract subscribers, and get paid to do so!
Hey Sarah, this topic feels so salient for me right now. I really want to watch the workshop replay but the link doesn't seem to work any more. Is that part of another offering now? I was considering joining your year-long cohort but I'm not sure you're offering that anymore. In any case, I'd love to see that workshop, thanks!
OK, so as someone who experiences a resistance re Substack essays need to be different, I’m also very eager to learn. So, first, thank you.
Second, Leslie Jamison’s “The Empathy Exams”! Wowsers. So good! I especially appreciated reading with your guidance to take it in as a meditation, over its narrative elements. Such a graceful, arcing circling.
rayne fisher-quann’s “struggling mix” was a great read as well. It, too, a graceful circling. It’s differences, to me, included (a) the links to other media, (2) the direct address of readers (it struck me as akin to a breaking of the fourth wall in a way?), (3) what felt like an intentional ... both directness and informality (perhaps simply a style; rayne is new to me).
Thanks again, Sarah. I love this shared meditation on essay and always appreciate being pointed to essays to read and contemplate to that end (and others).
I have a couple of recordings to catch up on. And now out of town celebrating a big bday with my family. As for the dude in the picture-- how did the seamstress make that collar?
This workshop was finally the push I wanted to subscribe and today your lovely headliners helped me out for the first time and it was magical and helpful!! I’m excited to learn, be curious and GROW (my substack 😆 )
Definitely watching the replay, but it’s helpful here to get an overview — and I’m esp grateful for the curated examples! It’s so helpful to see how other people have done it
Julia yes, that's the one. I described to my academic husband and he called it an annotated bibliography - a term I hadn't heard since college but it struck true! No matter, there's always something to learn.
I haven't been in the academic world for a long time. I don't totally feel comfortable there but I have to admit, it's fun learning new ideas and ways of doing things. From my perspective, it feels fresh (which is ironic because often academics is very stodgy!) Thanks for sharing that term!
Is it appropriate to ask questions about your post here? If not, just clue me in. But in thinking about your post, I had two questions:
1. I'm not very familiar with Fine Arts writing; my world is more popular. To make sure I understand the genres you're talking about, do David Sedaris or Ann Lamott write in the personal essay genre?
2. Sometimes I see writers use personal stories to weave together their educational posts. A typical outline is:
--Personal story introduction (to capture attention), which leads to...
--Actual topic which is woven with...
--Continuation of personal story to illustrate the points
Is an example of what you're talking about? I don't to upstage your webinar so maybe you'll answer this question on Sunday. I've just been really considering what you talked about in your post. Am I understanding you correctly? Or is the format I described more "market-y" than you're talking about?
Love this conversation! We will talk about this but more about a writing process to achieve that. It's not as easy as it looks. This isn't a personal essay, but Sedaris and Lamott write them.
I'm going to jump in. I feel like Lisa's essay is good at getting the right balance of personal reflections but still writing for the reader. I (the reader) witness her emotions but I'm not forgotten. I don't feel embarrassed after reading how she feels.
I am loving this new workshop and series by Sarah. Anything to help guide and improve our writing on here is most welcome. I think there's many of us who have gravitated to Substack because we've always wanted to 'be' a writer, or thought we were writers, but didn't actually practise it (other than journaling.) I love being able to go back to learning and practising. Thanks Sarah for sharing your expertise and enthusiasm with us. Looking forward to the replay.
I'm looking forward to the live workshop Sunday. (I hope you won't rush to jam it all into an hour. The time limit became a distraction last time.) Everything you say here is spot on, as usual, but I'm lost with your example. Yes she uses links and subheads and speaks directly to the reader etc. but honestly, it still seemed too long and starts out pretty self-indulgent. Maybe it's because I don't know her...but honestly, after spending a half hour with her, I don't want to. I did enjoy reading Didion's piece, but it's Didion! I wasn't going to go down every rabbit hole link just because she said so. I look forward to learning from you what the strengths of this piece are. I've been posting my work to my own website I've had for years https://www.lastdraft.com and am still dancing with the idea of moving to Substack. Your guidance will help immensely!
Are you referring to the Rayne Fisher-Quann essay? I agree that I didn't get it. I think I'd need to know her to care about her recommendations. She didn't draw me in--she talked about how she was in pain and then gave some links. She describes the pain experience pretty well but it didn't go anywhere for me.
Still, I'm glad to have the example. I'm realizing that in my writing, I've been making the same mistakes that drive me nuts with other writers. So by reading a wide variety of posts, I'm getting clearer about how to read/edit my own writing. So I find the example really helpful from that standpoint.
I looked again - I still think it reads like the internet version of an annotated bibliography. She references other writers, links to the source and then gives us a paragraph that summarizes them or explains why they're relevant. I can't see how that's in any way an essay...but that's OK! I'm not here to be right. I'm here to learn. That one doesn't work for me but the other one does, and your original post has me looking at my current essays with an eye to expanding them, to allowing myself to ponder a bit more on the bigger more universal questions...so thank you! You really do know how to condense thoughts and concepts incredibly well.
OK! This I can get behind - for the many reasons you raise like tapping into a universal theme, then tying it to current emotions of the day, the contradictions of life that a large group of people can relate to especially right now, good compelling writing that pays attention to craft like sentence structure and deliberately chosen details, raising big questions without pretending to have the answers and yet offering something soothing and insightful in the experience. This is someone not wasting my time, but instead, inviting me in to spend it well. Once she has earned my trust and respect with her photos and her writing, (and given me the option to just leave after the first graf after I see where she's going with it) she offers me some links at the end that I might go to, or may come back to later, but I don't have to trudge through them to get to the point for the day. That matters, that she's bothered to offer herself up first as someone I can relate to and then offered me more to read. That's my 2 cents as a reader.
Yes! It's also a style-thing. Rayne Fisher-Quann speaks to some and Lisa Olivera speaks to others, but they're both doing interesting things on Substack and making the personal essay work.
Yet another thought: I don't want you to adopt anything that doesn't work for you. This isn't about finding the "right" way because there isn't one. I want to give you options you pick and choose from to get your (beautiful) essays to everyone!
Another thought: I chose it because people pay for her essays. She's the writer I mentioned who has thousands of paid subscribers and only publishes once a month.
So the question is why do those work so well? We may not like the answer, but it can be useful.
Yes, it would probably be useful for me to read some of her other stuff, and maybe suss out what her readers are getting from her, or what her added value is (I refuse to use the word that is not a word - "value add!") If it's as a resource/aggregator of things on that particular topic, then it makes sense, but for her quality of writing alone? If that's the case, then I'm throwing up my hands and going back to farming! :)
Thank you for mentioning the time constraint! This workshop is packed! I won't rush it.
As I mentioned, it's not that I think those are necessarily the "best" essays, just the most useful in terms of guiding us--not in every respect, just in some. We'll look at it more deeply and at others.
Sarah, I want to stand on a mountain top and scream at the top of my lungs, "This is FANTASTIC!"
You have distilled so many observations I've had into clear elements.
This article helps me understand why I've been so triggered by some personal essaies and at the same time, why I still want to do them myself. You're pointing to the traits that make one essay enjoyable and another self-indulgent. With your insights, I have some hope that maybe, I'll learn to write in a way that's valuable to my readers (and ultimately, so valuable that they'll give me money!)
Thank you, Sarah. I can't wait for the webinar. I'm going to start by studying your examples tonight. I'm even considering brushing off an old technique of hand-writing the content of other writers in order to understand their writing style work more clearly. This isn't my favorite technique but I'm excited enough that this may be worth it. Thank you.
I'll look forward to this replay! (Live events are tough with three kids :) One thing that has made a difference for me in publishing personal essays has been locating some kind of dissonance in a memory and trying to resolve it: a question about my past, a feeling of estrangement, tension between my younger self and older self. If there's something mysterious to the writer about a memory, chances are good that a reader will participate in the suspense of exploring it. Hope it's OK to share a link here -- more examples in today's post: https://joshuadolezal.substack.com/p/how-to-break-writers-block-as-a-memoirist
Perfect timing! As a new publication publishing primarily personal essays at this point, I have started to realize that we might need to adapt the type of essays we have typically published into a form more suitable for Substack.
Hey Sarah, this topic feels so salient for me right now. I really want to watch the workshop replay but the link doesn't seem to work any more. Is that part of another offering now? I was considering joining your year-long cohort but I'm not sure you're offering that anymore. In any case, I'd love to see that workshop, thanks!
OK, so as someone who experiences a resistance re Substack essays need to be different, I’m also very eager to learn. So, first, thank you.
Second, Leslie Jamison’s “The Empathy Exams”! Wowsers. So good! I especially appreciated reading with your guidance to take it in as a meditation, over its narrative elements. Such a graceful, arcing circling.
rayne fisher-quann’s “struggling mix” was a great read as well. It, too, a graceful circling. It’s differences, to me, included (a) the links to other media, (2) the direct address of readers (it struck me as akin to a breaking of the fourth wall in a way?), (3) what felt like an intentional ... both directness and informality (perhaps simply a style; rayne is new to me).
Thanks again, Sarah. I love this shared meditation on essay and always appreciate being pointed to essays to read and contemplate to that end (and others).
Great reading of these! Yes, and then make it all your own. That’s the beauty.
I have a couple of recordings to catch up on. And now out of town celebrating a big bday with my family. As for the dude in the picture-- how did the seamstress make that collar?
This workshop was finally the push I wanted to subscribe and today your lovely headliners helped me out for the first time and it was magical and helpful!! I’m excited to learn, be curious and GROW (my substack 😆 )
Definitely watching the replay, but it’s helpful here to get an overview — and I’m esp grateful for the curated examples! It’s so helpful to see how other people have done it
I'm so glad!
Great post!
Thank you!
Julia yes, that's the one. I described to my academic husband and he called it an annotated bibliography - a term I hadn't heard since college but it struck true! No matter, there's always something to learn.
I may have the wrong link. That's not an annotated bibliography either. I think that's the wrong link.
I haven't been in the academic world for a long time. I don't totally feel comfortable there but I have to admit, it's fun learning new ideas and ways of doing things. From my perspective, it feels fresh (which is ironic because often academics is very stodgy!) Thanks for sharing that term!
Is it appropriate to ask questions about your post here? If not, just clue me in. But in thinking about your post, I had two questions:
1. I'm not very familiar with Fine Arts writing; my world is more popular. To make sure I understand the genres you're talking about, do David Sedaris or Ann Lamott write in the personal essay genre?
2. Sometimes I see writers use personal stories to weave together their educational posts. A typical outline is:
--Personal story introduction (to capture attention), which leads to...
--Actual topic which is woven with...
--Continuation of personal story to illustrate the points
--Closing with a personal story
You used a variation of this outline in: https://www.writersatwork.net/p/the-dangers-of-the-six-figure-book I also see Ann Handley do this a lot (example: https://archive.aweber.com/newsletter/totalannarchy/MTk5MzYxNTc=/ta-143-telling-a-truer-story.htm )
Is an example of what you're talking about? I don't to upstage your webinar so maybe you'll answer this question on Sunday. I've just been really considering what you talked about in your post. Am I understanding you correctly? Or is the format I described more "market-y" than you're talking about?
Love this conversation! We will talk about this but more about a writing process to achieve that. It's not as easy as it looks. This isn't a personal essay, but Sedaris and Lamott write them.
https://archive.aweber.com/newsletter/totalannarchy/MTk5MzYxNTc=/ta-143-telling-a-truer-story.htm
Just putting in another essay for your thoughts: https://lisaolivera.substack.com/p/the-heft-of-it-all
I'm going to jump in. I feel like Lisa's essay is good at getting the right balance of personal reflections but still writing for the reader. I (the reader) witness her emotions but I'm not forgotten. I don't feel embarrassed after reading how she feels.
...my 2 cents.
I am loving this new workshop and series by Sarah. Anything to help guide and improve our writing on here is most welcome. I think there's many of us who have gravitated to Substack because we've always wanted to 'be' a writer, or thought we were writers, but didn't actually practise it (other than journaling.) I love being able to go back to learning and practising. Thanks Sarah for sharing your expertise and enthusiasm with us. Looking forward to the replay.
Yay! That's why I'm doing these!
I'm looking forward to the live workshop Sunday. (I hope you won't rush to jam it all into an hour. The time limit became a distraction last time.) Everything you say here is spot on, as usual, but I'm lost with your example. Yes she uses links and subheads and speaks directly to the reader etc. but honestly, it still seemed too long and starts out pretty self-indulgent. Maybe it's because I don't know her...but honestly, after spending a half hour with her, I don't want to. I did enjoy reading Didion's piece, but it's Didion! I wasn't going to go down every rabbit hole link just because she said so. I look forward to learning from you what the strengths of this piece are. I've been posting my work to my own website I've had for years https://www.lastdraft.com and am still dancing with the idea of moving to Substack. Your guidance will help immensely!
Are you referring to the Rayne Fisher-Quann essay? I agree that I didn't get it. I think I'd need to know her to care about her recommendations. She didn't draw me in--she talked about how she was in pain and then gave some links. She describes the pain experience pretty well but it didn't go anywhere for me.
Still, I'm glad to have the example. I'm realizing that in my writing, I've been making the same mistakes that drive me nuts with other writers. So by reading a wide variety of posts, I'm getting clearer about how to read/edit my own writing. So I find the example really helpful from that standpoint.
Her links are actually references to other literary writers who've written on pain.
I looked again - I still think it reads like the internet version of an annotated bibliography. She references other writers, links to the source and then gives us a paragraph that summarizes them or explains why they're relevant. I can't see how that's in any way an essay...but that's OK! I'm not here to be right. I'm here to learn. That one doesn't work for me but the other one does, and your original post has me looking at my current essays with an eye to expanding them, to allowing myself to ponder a bit more on the bigger more universal questions...so thank you! You really do know how to condense thoughts and concepts incredibly well.
Curious about your thoughts on this: https://lisaolivera.substack.com/p/the-heft-of-it-all
OK! This I can get behind - for the many reasons you raise like tapping into a universal theme, then tying it to current emotions of the day, the contradictions of life that a large group of people can relate to especially right now, good compelling writing that pays attention to craft like sentence structure and deliberately chosen details, raising big questions without pretending to have the answers and yet offering something soothing and insightful in the experience. This is someone not wasting my time, but instead, inviting me in to spend it well. Once she has earned my trust and respect with her photos and her writing, (and given me the option to just leave after the first graf after I see where she's going with it) she offers me some links at the end that I might go to, or may come back to later, but I don't have to trudge through them to get to the point for the day. That matters, that she's bothered to offer herself up first as someone I can relate to and then offered me more to read. That's my 2 cents as a reader.
Yes! It's also a style-thing. Rayne Fisher-Quann speaks to some and Lisa Olivera speaks to others, but they're both doing interesting things on Substack and making the personal essay work.
Yet another thought: I don't want you to adopt anything that doesn't work for you. This isn't about finding the "right" way because there isn't one. I want to give you options you pick and choose from to get your (beautiful) essays to everyone!
Another thought: I chose it because people pay for her essays. She's the writer I mentioned who has thousands of paid subscribers and only publishes once a month.
So the question is why do those work so well? We may not like the answer, but it can be useful.
Yes, it would probably be useful for me to read some of her other stuff, and maybe suss out what her readers are getting from her, or what her added value is (I refuse to use the word that is not a word - "value add!") If it's as a resource/aggregator of things on that particular topic, then it makes sense, but for her quality of writing alone? If that's the case, then I'm throwing up my hands and going back to farming! :)
Quick question: Could you see a timer on screen during the last workshop? Asking because I'm not sure about my Zoom settings.
I don't remember seeing one...but I wasn't looking for it so it could be my faulty memory.
Thank you for mentioning the time constraint! This workshop is packed! I won't rush it.
As I mentioned, it's not that I think those are necessarily the "best" essays, just the most useful in terms of guiding us--not in every respect, just in some. We'll look at it more deeply and at others.
Sarah, I want to stand on a mountain top and scream at the top of my lungs, "This is FANTASTIC!"
You have distilled so many observations I've had into clear elements.
This article helps me understand why I've been so triggered by some personal essaies and at the same time, why I still want to do them myself. You're pointing to the traits that make one essay enjoyable and another self-indulgent. With your insights, I have some hope that maybe, I'll learn to write in a way that's valuable to my readers (and ultimately, so valuable that they'll give me money!)
Thank you, Sarah. I can't wait for the webinar. I'm going to start by studying your examples tonight. I'm even considering brushing off an old technique of hand-writing the content of other writers in order to understand their writing style work more clearly. This isn't my favorite technique but I'm excited enough that this may be worth it. Thank you.
You're so welcome! You touch my heart. (Smiling big again.)
I'll look forward to this replay! (Live events are tough with three kids :) One thing that has made a difference for me in publishing personal essays has been locating some kind of dissonance in a memory and trying to resolve it: a question about my past, a feeling of estrangement, tension between my younger self and older self. If there's something mysterious to the writer about a memory, chances are good that a reader will participate in the suspense of exploring it. Hope it's OK to share a link here -- more examples in today's post: https://joshuadolezal.substack.com/p/how-to-break-writers-block-as-a-memoirist
Thank you!
Perfect timing! As a new publication publishing primarily personal essays at this point, I have started to realize that we might need to adapt the type of essays we have typically published into a form more suitable for Substack.
Wonderful! Do share your approach!