Some Guidelines on Personal Essay Writing:
Focus on CONCRETE, SENSORY DETAILS
Resist the temptation to analyze yourself or the situation
Create the world and let the reader make her own judgments
Write that thing that’s too dangerous to talk about, that thing that cannot be said…
Run towards the shame: the path to truth runs through shame
When we say “beautiful,” we mean “true”
We become patient when someone is telling the truth
You can’t get reader invested without concrete physical detail
Write about things you can’t get rid of by other means
Second guess decisions but not ability