Seven Secrets to the Perfect Personal Essay: Crafting the Story Only You Can Write

by Nancy Slonim Aronie

A beloved writing teacher and essayist lays out the rules for crafting a remarkable personal essay, the kind that tells a story, moves readers, and reveals insights into the human condition — the kind that AI can’t write Everyone has a story, and for Nancy Slonim Aronie, helping people tell their story has been a life mission. In Seven Secrets to the Perfect Personal Essay, she reveals the secrets every aspiring writer needs to tell their own story as a personal narrative that moves, connects, and resonates with readers. Building on the insights and guidance from her acclaimed Memoir as Medicine, this new guide tackles the short personal essay, providing prompts, direction, and wisdom as well as remarkable examples of her own and others’ writing to inspire and spur potential essayists to get their story down. With warmth, humor, and brutal honesty, she gives readers the inspiration and wisdom they need to write a story that readers won’t forget. Writers will learn how • begin with a compelling hook (“kill ’em with the first line”) • build structure into a personal narrative • use the words and insights of other writers to illustrate their own story • show honesty and vulnerability in their storytelling In a culture inundated with auto-generated junk text, a well-crafted personal narrative is more important than ever, a declaration of humanity, meaning, and personal connection.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Writing

240 pages, Paperback

Published October 22, 2024

Reviews

[Roberta Miceli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is filled with lots of examples of outstanding essays! This was by far the best part of the book for me. I LOVE Nancy's approach to giving feedback after some of the essays. She models the best way to guide people to be better writers. My only suggestion is that I would have liked Nancy's feedback to be formatted in a way that was easier to digest - subheadings, bullet points, bolded key info.

[Ivy Digest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always said the personal essay is the way to beat Chat GPT produced essays. Aside from the tools every writer needs to craft a gripping personal story, Ms. Aronie gives remarkable samples from her students' essays, some unforgettable and haunting. I'm a fan of Ms. Aronie and I love this and kept referring to it after I finished it. Definitely a solid reference to buy for every serious writer's shelf.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of short essays with a noticeable emphasis on Jewish-American life. The reading guide part takes perhaps 30 pages of the whole. The advice is sensible enough, but the book left me feeling a bit cheated. I bought a writing guide and got this. I know you learn from reading the actual thing and not just what you're told to do, but still. Ah well...

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful well written guide to writing a particular kind of story. The examples vary widely but all pieces have carefully chosen words and most are touching in their raw emotion.
I am a fervid admirer of the author who is both wise and funny and lives a life informed by kindness and purpose.
Brava!! Encore!!

[Heather Kauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book hoping to learn some techniques for writing good essays. What I got, however, was a collection of personal essays and writing prompts. Good personal essays, worth reading, but not necessarily any real insight into the craft of writing.

[Naomi Ayala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer for the very, very beginner.