Writing the Personal Essay 101: Fundamentals

ESTELLE ERASMUS

Writing the Personal Essay 101: Fundamentals

ESTELLE ERASMUS

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This course guides beginning and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify values expressed in their stories and bring readers into the experiences described. Writers learn how to avoid the dreaded responses of “so what?" and “I guess you had to be there" by utilizing sensory details, learning to trust their writing intuitions, and developing a skilled internal editor to help with revision.

There will still be knowledge and ideas, but they will rise not from reason, a product of the mind, but from the experiencing of the writer's life. The course also helps the writer investigate the origins of the personal desire to write and to identify goals for the writing itself and for publication.

$329.99


11/14/2024 - 12/26/2024

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This course guides beginning and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify values expressed in their stories and bring readers into the experiences described. Writers learn how to avoid the dreaded responses of “so what?" and “I guess you had to be there" by utilizing sensory details, learning to trust their writing intuitions, and developing a skilled internal editor to help with revision.

There will still be knowledge and ideas, but they will rise not from reason, a product of the mind, but from the experiencing of the writer's life. The course also helps the writer investigate the origins of the personal desire to write and to identify goals for the writing itself and for publication.

Join the Waitlist

Subscribe to be notified when this course opens for registration.

Course outline

Course outline

Each session includes reading assignments, a written lecture, creative exercises to further your learning, and a writing assignment to turn in for personalized feedback from your instructor. Please note: this course has a limit of 10 students per session.


Meet the instructor

Estelle Erasmus

Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, writing coach, and longtime ASJA member and an adjunct instructor at New York University and for Writer's Digest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Independent, WIRED, Huffington Post Personal, AARP the Magazine, Vox, Insider, Next Avenue, GH, Marie Claire and more. Estelle's articles for the New York Times and Washington Post have gone globally viral (with more than 500 comments on her NYT piece). She has appeared on Good Morning America, Fox News with Ernie Anastos and has had her articles mentioned on "The View". She is co-host of the Freelance Writing Direct Podcast (found on iTunes and Spotify).

Her book WRITING THAT GETS NOTICED: How to Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, and Get Published from New World Library is available online and wherever books are sold.

Find her on Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus, Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus, TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus  and on her website at http://estelleserasmus.com/ and on Substack https://estelleserasmus.substack.com

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