ALL WRITE NOW, Episode #2
Be Prompted: Let's Talk Revelation
Welcome to this week’s episode of ALL WRITE NOW where I, along with featured guests, provide creative nonfiction prompts as well as “Words of Wisdom” designed to help you with the craft of writing. Today, I am thrilled to share the stage with my first guest, Noah Michelson, Director of HuffPost Personal. With all his experience reading and editing essays, Noah has his finger on the pulse of how to tell a good story. Scroll down to read his advice about crafting a personal essay with a universal message.
Recently, a student asked an incisive question about creative nonfiction writing, “Can you talk about the difference between revelation and evolution?” To my eye, revelation is what my mother used to call an aha!—something that comes to you as a sudden burst of insight. I observe the act of revelation in both myself and my students as we put words on the page, as if we are secret agents stumbling upon clues. Revelation sneaks up on us, often catching us off guard. I don’t know about you, but my ahas! often occur when I leave my desk to walk, dance, or just plain move. You can’t force an aha!, you need to let it find you. Evolution, on the other hand refers to the insights we gain over time through introspection and reflection. No matter how subtle the shifts in perception and understanding, something changes within us, we come face-face with a new interpretation.
Today’s prompt is about revelation. I will tackle evolution in a future episode.
This week’s prompt:
Write about an aha! moment — when you solved a problem by doing something differently; when you assembled a series of facts and realized someone was lying to you; when you realized something you said had been hurtful. How did this aha! arrive? Was there a triggering incident? Did the aha! change your future behavior toward yourself or others? What did you learn?
This week’s wisdom à la Noah Michelson:
I chatted with Noah through email about what makes a memorable personal essay and this is what he had to say:
“One thing to ask yourself when writing a personal essay is ‘how can I move this from the purely personal to the universal?’ That's what I believe truly separates a personal essay from a diary entry, or even a blog post, and it can give the reader the chance to question, process, and understand their own experiences. This is often best accomplished by zooming out at the end of the piece and asking yourself, ‘what did this experience teach me?’ or ‘how did this experience change me?’ and weaving that into the conclusion. Giving the reader some perspective or a takeaway that tethers what you went through to some shared human experience (whether it's grief, loss, betrayal, love, or anything else) can provide the kind of alchemy in an essay that lets your piece be more than a mere document or testimony. A moment like that — even if it's just a few lines or a paragraph or two — can push the reader to examine their own lives and offer the opportunity to find meaning that would otherwise not arise or exist.
--Noah Michelson, Director of HuffPost Personal and co-host of HuffPost's Am I Doing It Wrong? podcast
Now, go write!
With love,
Megan