Personal Essays

1. Whatever you strongly care about is a good thing to write about.

2. "Make (your) emotions real and immediate by noting specifics and details that draw the reader into the experience, rather than just setting them aside as observers."

3.

• In a personal essay you have the freedom to think what you like on a subject, but your reader should go away with a good idea of why you feel that way. 
• Think of your essay as a camera lens. You might start by describing a fine detail (your personal experience or perspective, a specific moment in the narrative), then open up the lens to take in the wide view (the general/global backdrop), then close the piece by narrowing back to the fine detail. Or go the other way. Start with the wide view, focus in, then open up to the wide view again. 
• Write as evocatively as possible. Employ all the senses. Using sight comes naturally to most writers; push harder to convey ideas and images through sound, taste, touch, and hearing.