QuickTalk Friday Interview Series
Talking to Sally Prag’s Alter Ego
On how we get paid on Medium
Sally Prag was banned from a supermarket.
I liked her personal essay about the ridiculous reason a supermarket chain in the UK lost her hard-earned cash for almost … twenty years.
Her alter ego, Meg, a ghostwriter, resolves false claims by other writers about what constitutes a “read” and if we’re paid if you read only one-third or maybe half of a story.
Sally is the managing editor of The Narrative Collective and an editor for The Memoirist, so I want to ask her the question everyone wants to know, but might be afraid to ask someone:
What is the difference between a personal essay and a memoir?
Scot: What’s the difference between a memoir piece and a personal essay?
Sally: It can be confusing because a personal essay and a memoir do overlap. They both allow the reader into the author’s intimate personal life. But, while a memoir focuses on a specific event from the past and relays the story of this event from the personal viewpoint of the author, a personal essay tends to use the author’s personal experience, whether current or from the past, to explore themes with a…
