Writing the Personal Essay to Perfection (Advice from Tim Bascom)
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Most of the essays that involve creative writing are, despite their wide range, are ordinary. They always tend to have the same structure and the same style. Most of the narrative essays are personal essays, that come out of experiences and memories.
Writing services usually get lots of ‘’, ‘make my essay stand out,’ or ‘change the essay style’ requests regarding narrative essays. They cater to these needs by providing the students with structured and styled essays. Along with various tips and advice.
Here are some of the styles used and how to make them stand out:
This style of has been around and is the most common. It tells the story as it happened--chronologically. Every event placed on a single unwavering line of time (the timeline) can be monotonous.
To get out of this dullness the writer tends to either hop back and forth in time, through projections, reveries, flashbacks.
The most fruitful technique is to introduce a timeline with a rising action just like a fast-paced plot. Hurry your readers towards the climax and slide down after teasing your audience with answers to the questions you have been asking.
A digression from the rising plot, onto a flat line, will alienate your reader in an instant. Keep the crescendo.
Unlike academic essays, the reflective essay doesn’t charge with the thesis lance raised at the defined target. Think of it as a whirlpool that doesn’t go linearly for the center but rather circles around the target, exploring many aspects and themes, such as::
Interpreting things from different points of view.
Our holistic approach to seeing things as a whole
Driving the narration through the power of unique perspectives
These are non-narrative essays that are topical and themed. These essays focus on joining many segments through a theme of one’s choosing.
Take the essay as a writer’s collage art. Where the writer brings various memories and instances onto one plane to tell a story.
A thematic essay not only helps us move on the horizontal to the vertical timeline but also adds the dimension of depth. With each dip, we can express a topic more thoroughly.
This can be in the form of a tangent connected to the main storyline or can be doing in-depth of a part of the original storyline. This essay is layered with complementary tangents and subject exploration.
This essay is a playful combination of many storylines and experiences. Each braid unique and full of life--like a poem or a verse. It layers images in the readers’ mind, one snapshot after another, and uses it to produce a fast-paced and compressed punch, free of formal verbosity.
Like the previous essay, this essay combines many storylines into a single stream. This essay works with its content like the routine of a standup comedian, where the act ends with a reference to a preceding joke at the start of the stand-up routine.
It takes the reader on a journey only to leave them at the start, but with a better understanding of things.
Related Questions:
Most often than not a personal essay will come about by not brainstorming but by cutting the clutter. A is rich in memory, ideas, and sprouting thoughts mind himself/herself having lots of experiences to write about. Instead, they tailor the memory to their needs.
The essay carries and uses a storyline that was discussed before and refers to it at the end. It pokes at the possibility of a end or a wide opening.