Besides teaching “Writing the Personal Essay” for four days at the Writers Studio, I’m also finishing up a six week course I teach at UCLA Extension called “Courage & Craft”. So I’ve read a lot of student work in the past week. Here’s what stands out after teaching for thirty-five hours in five days and reading forty essays, first chapters, and various memoirs:

• You have a story to tell: Everybody who walks into a writing class has an amazing story to write. Some stories are dramatic (deaths, very unusual living arrangements, lost relationships, cancer), some are smaller moments (grandchildren, aging parents, going back to school, making things). All are worth writing about.
• Cut to the chase: Almost everybody needs to cut to the chase, take out words that don’t add anything and start where the action/emotion/conflict begins. Some essays are like mountain roads complete with switchbacks. You don’t have a clue where the author is going, or if it’s fiction, what the conflict in the story is about. My usual rule of thumb (for myself too) is cut out the first paragraph or page of an essay and the first chapter of a novel. I just cut out the first 50 pages of a the novel I’m working on at the recommendation of a writer friend. (It was painful, but thank you, Billy.) Readers have short attention spans and not much time or patience. As Antoine de Saint-Expurey said: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
• Just say it: Almost everybody thinks they need to tart up the simple, adequate word “said”. Therefore people don’t say things, they “manage”, “convey”, “suggest” , “chortle”, “giggle” etc.  Please, unless you’re writing about people in extremis, just have them say something.
• Give your readers a break: A lot of people write their stories in blocks of text with space between the blocks. (Like this site for instance.) If you want to send your work out, use real paragraphs and don’t double space between them – it slows down your story or essay when it’s read. (Go to Format on your tool bar, click on Paragraph and under Special click First Line and then under Spacing click 1.5) The need for proper manuscript form really becomes evident when you’re reading and editing a lot of papers – so think about the editors you will send your work to and give them a break.

To Do: If you have a story or essay you’ve written, take it out and read it. Does the first paragraph hook the reader? Does it set up expectations for what follows? Ask yourself where the action of your story or the point of your essay begins. If anybody in your story or essay chortles or conveys or manages a line of dialog, whip out the handy word “said”. And finally, write the piece out in proper manuscript form with real paragraphs.