The personal in personal essay
on how to incorporate the personal in a personal essay
I learned about the personal essay in our Creative Writing classes, during which we discussed the personal essay including the autoethnography and the memoir. Most of what I say in this blog comes from my memory, except for the section on ‘emotions’, which I quote from Wikipedia.
The personal essay
The personal essay is just that: it is an essay about you and your life. It is about giving glimpses into that which is private to you. We don’t need to share everything with our Readers, but at the same time we could talk about things that mean something to us on a personal level, and more often than not, they are private in nature. We focus on a specific idea or topic that we explore more in depth. If the writing is not focused on any one idea, then it stands to be more of a memoir.
When I first started writing personal essays, I was not sure how much to exclude. I had a lot to say, but I needed to draw a line between what to share and what not to. You can read one of my personal essays here. I wrote this about a year ago. Here I talk about my relationship with the city, Bengaluru (Bangalore) where I have been living for the past decade or so.
Draw the line between what to say and what not to say
This is about how I decide on what to keep private and what to show to the public. It is helpful to your reader if you talk about things that people can relate to on a personal level. We all have faced life events that we would like to read about or talk about. I am sure you have such experiences that you would like to share with others.
For example, I wrote about how the city I lived in underwent a steady fast-paced change from the moment I started to live there till the time I wrote the essay. A lot had happened in my own life that I could draw parallels with the changes that the city itself underwent. Old buildings that I used to frequent went out of existence, also some of my good friends left the city for good, and in a way, their existence became hollow for me because I was left back in the city.
When it came to things I did not wish to disclose in the public domain, I had to be careful. It is a nuanced decision on how much of an event to let out, and how much to keep a secret. For example, I talked about the interactions with my ex-boyfriend, but I carefully left out the sections that were truly hurtful — both to him and me. I still do not wish the public to know what such a thing could be… however, I am open to writing about it someday if I find an appropriate way to talk about it. Until then, they are private to me.
Possibilities of the personal
Subjective elements such as one’s sensations are personal, among others. Sensory elements like touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight, help to add the personal dimension in writing. These elements help the Reader to feel what the author felt while he or she perceived the environment.
To be able to recreate the environment for the Reader is a skill that takes practice and perseverance. It also requires that the author be sensitive to his or her environment. This also happens to be a great exercise in improving one’s memory, because when you try to recollect your senses from the past, you are putting your brain to exercise in recalling past events. It aids in improving your memory.
In my personal essays, I like to incorporate the memories of sensory elements. For example, the smell of a certain food comes to my mind, when I think about the person who cooked it or whom I shared it with. Or a certain kind of light brings up memories — the glaring afternoon sun reminds me of the one time I had to visit the doctor, and he had prescribed I take a bioscopy because he feared I might have cancer of the skin. Luckily, the test came out negative, but it was a frightful encounter. Now, whenever the sun shines in that way, I am reminded of that doctor and that test.
Write from emotions
Another aspect of the personal is emotions. They are indispensable if you are going to write fiction, poetry, or even creative non-fiction. Certain blogs also fall under this category — those that make an appeal to us on a personal level. There are many blogs about selling products that make a direct appeal to our emotions. If the Reader does not connect with the blog and the product emotionally, then the advertisement for the product has failed.
Wikipedia says that “Emotions¹ are mental states… variously associated with… and a degree of pleasure or displeasure.” The basic emotions are happy, sad, excited, tender, scared, and angry.
‘Happy,’ ‘Excited,’ and ‘Tender’ are pleasurable emotions to feel, whereas, ‘Sad,’ ‘Scared,’ and ‘Angry’ are unpleasant emotions. So, what would you like your readers to feel as they read your story or poem? That would depend on what you wish to say, and the context that you are writing from.
If your story or poem is about some negative event, then you would probably want your reader to feel negative emotions such as sad, scared, or angry. On the other hand, if what you want to talk about is positive events, then you would like your reader to feel positive emotions such as happy, excited, and tenderness.
One of the best ways to express emotions is by using appropriate adjectives. For example, if I wanted to say “I had a healthy breakfast today,” an emotionally charged sentence to say this would be: “There were soft boiled eggs, just boiled enough, well-buttered whole wheat toast, freshly-made orange juice, an organic apple, and black coffee at breakfast today.” On the other hand, an unemotional sentence would be something like this: There were eggs, toast with butter, orange juice, and coffee for breakfast today.
I depend on the usage of adjectives to make/unmake emotional writing. When I want to simply report on a subject, I fall back on not using that many adjectives, because it keeps the writing clear, and concise, and the subject matter easier and faster to grasp.
References:
¹ Emotion, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion)
