Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction [Paperback]

Dinty W. Moore (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1582977968 | ISBN-13: 978-1582977966 | Publication Date: September 8, 2010 | Edition: 1

Award winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders once compared the art of essay writing to "the pursuit of mental rabbits"—a rambling through thickets of thought in search of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth. While some people persist in the belief that essays are stuffy and antiquated, the truth is that the personal essay is an ever-changing creative medium that provides an ideal vehicle for satisfying the human urge to document truths as we experience them and share them with others—to capture a bit of life on paper.

Crafting the Personal Essay is designed to help you explore the flexibility and power of the personal essay in your own writing. This hands-on, creativity-expanding guide will help you infuse your nonfiction with honesty, personality, and energy. You'll discover:

An exploration of the basics of essay writing

Ways to step back and scrutinize your experiences in order to separate out what may be fresh, powerful, surprising or fascinating to a reader

How to move past private "journaling" and write for an audience

How to write eight different types of essays including memoir, travel, humor, and nature essays among others

Instruction for revision and strategies for getting published

Brimming with helpful examples, exercises, and sample essays, this indispensable guide will help your personal essays transcend the merely private to become powerfully universal.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dinty W. Moore earned a BA in writing from the University of Pittsburgh, worked briefly as a journalist, and also served short stints as a documentary filmmaker, modern dance performer, zookeeper, and Greenwich Village waiter. It was only after failing at each of these professions that he went on to earn an MFA in fiction writing from Louisiana State University. He has guest taught creative nonfiction seminars across the United States and in Europe. In addition to editing the internet journal, Brevity (www.brevitymag.com), he is on the editorial board of Creative Nonfiction and is coordinating editor for the annual anthology Best Creative Nonfiction (W.W. Norton). Moore teaches writing at Ohio University and serves on the Board of Directors of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; 1 edition (September 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582977968
• ISBN-13: 978-1582977966
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dinty W. Moore was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, and spent his formative years fishing for bluegill, riding a bike with a banana seat, and dodging the Sisters of St. Joseph. He earned a BA in writing from the University of Pittsburgh, worked briefly as a journalist, and also served short stints as a documentary filmmaker, modern dance performer, zookeeper, and Greenwich Village waiter. It was only after failing at each of these professions that he went on to earn an MFA in fiction writing from Louisiana State University.

A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient, Moore has guest taught creative nonfiction seminars across the United States and in Europe. In addition to editing the internet journal, Brevity, he is on the editorial board of Creative Nonfiction magazine.

Moore teaches writing at Ohio University and serves on the Board of Directors of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun guide to essaying across the genre, September 23, 2010

By 

Richard Gilbert (Westerville, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction (Paperback)

Crafting the Personal Essay will make a terrific textbook for writing students, but I'm a fiftysomething writer who has made his living in journalism, publishing, and teaching and I found it interesting and inspiring. It makes me want to try writing different types of essays than I've attempted and to develop new skills, to grow.

Dinty Moore discusses a wide range of essays, including: contemplative, memoir, nature, lyric, spiritual, gastronomical, humorous, and travel. To show how they work, he dissects some, inserting commentary in places; this includes some of his own work, and throughout the book he includes parts of an essay he's currently writing to show his thinking and decisions as he tries to practice what he's preaching. This is a great idea--it really makes the book lively and engaging.

The second part of Crafting the Personal Essay deals with practical writing issues, such as forging a regular routine, blogging, overcoming writers block, getting useful feedback from other writers, effective revising, and persevering through life's vagaries. I'll return to this section periodically, as I will to Moore's reading recommendations.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it in under 24 hours, November 7, 2010

By 

Chimica Robinson "Proud Mommy... and Writer" (WEST COVINA, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction (Paperback)

I've been wanting to spend national novel writing month doing something that wasn't a novel because I have never seen myself as a novelist. So I grabbed this book and I am super happy I did. It offers tons of great information and tons of tips. It explains what types of essays there are and just how to write them and how they help you write your essay. I couldn't put it down and hope to reread it all over again in another day or two and really get to work on writing some great personal essays.

PS. The cute rabbit is just the icing on the cake of this great book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crafting The Personal Essay, April 13, 2011

By 

James G. Elwood "Jimmy G" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction (Paperback)

Mr. Moore is undoubtedly an excellent teacher and writer, and this is a fine book on how to develop and write essays. It's meant to get you started. And that's how we all learn to write, by writing and rewriting. The only fault I can find with his book is, he tries to cover too much with too little. If you have the patience to work trough all the prompts and exercises, You'll have a good foundation.