To Improve Your Personal Essays: Use Objects Not Just Ideas
Pay attention to the things you can drop on your foot
What do cats, washing machines, and sandwiches have in common?
They are all things you could drop on your foot and, according to Writer and teacher John Maguire, the key to good writing.
But what does that mean exactly?
Every week I talk with new writers who want to tell their story — about something that happened in their childhood, about a trauma they faced, about a struggle they’ve had…but they don’t know where to start.
The whole event in their mind, the whole idea, feels too huge to fit into a 1000-word personal essay. Do they write a full-length memoir instead? That’s even more overwhelming for a new writer!
I often encourage them to start with one scene. One real moment with dialogue, movement, people. But sometimes it’s hard to remember an exact scene. Traumatic memories are especially problematic.
- What did people say?
- What happened first?
- What are the important parts?
- How do I fit weeks or years of action into a small essay?
Could there be another, easier way if a scene is too hard?
No ideas except through things
You probably have an idea of what you want to write about already. It might be how something made you feel or an idea like “losing a loved one”. The problem is when you write only about abstract ideas or emotions, with no examples or concrete objects, you lose your reader. Over-abstraction makes an essay almost impossible to read.
That’s why I encourage writers to find a scene as a starting point for their essays, but another way to start is with an object.
“Write physically. Write with physical objects. Put physical objects in your essay.” says John Maguire in The Atlantic.
When he’s teaching, Maguire starts by getting his students to write about objects rather than ideas:
“If you are writing about markets, recognize that market is an abstract idea, and find a bunch of objects that relate to it,” John tells his students. “Give me concrete nouns. Show me a wooden roadside stand with corn and green peppers on it, if you want. Show me a supermarket displaying six kinds of oranges under halogen lights. Show me a stock exchange floor where bids are shouted and answered.”
Such a simple suggestion, but a powerfully effective one!
Let’s look at more examples:
- Write about anxiety in childhood starting with a favorite toy you owned.
- Write about loneliness using the empty-half of your bed as your central object.
- Write about love using the daffodils your partner bought on your first date.
I recently wrote about divorce with a washing machine and kitchen appliances.
If you’ve got a story to tell but aren’t sure where to start, try writing one paragraph about “some things you can drop on your foot” and see where it leads you.
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