I just completed teaching an online course for Story Circle Network entitled, “Writing the Personal Essay.” The course was five weeks long and each week the students were assigned reading material on a different type of essay, then required to write that type of essay by the end of the week. Just so that we all didn’t move into writing/reading overload, I limited the word count on the essays to 1200 words maximum. (This is also a common word count limitation for submissions.) We used Dinty W. Moore’s book, Crafting The Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction, and over five weeks, my students wrote a personal narrative essay, a nature or travel essay, a spiritual/contemplative essay, a humor essay, and a memoir essay. Wow, was I pleased with the results of this class. I felt as if my students were really stretching and growing in their writing skills, and since I never ask my students to write anything I’m not willing to write myself, I felt challenged, too. I would highly recommend Dinty’s book. It’s readable, offers lots of solid advice and provides a large number of thought-provoking writing prompts. He also supplies excerpts of essays from well-known authors, which help to illustrate the differences between the various types of essays. In addition, Dinty provides examples of his own work to demonstrate the how-to’s. Essay writing is slightly trickier than one might imagine since you are covering a particular topic while keeping the “I” in the writing. It’s not just coverage of an issue, thought, word, piece of art, spiritual truth, or favorite trip, but rather it is YOUR experience while you’re writing about a unique aspect/angle of that topic. So, if you’re inclined to write an essay or two, Dinty’s book is a helpful guide. If you get the essay written and need some advice on editing, contact me in the Comments section. I’m happy to help. My rates are based on standard editing fees. It’ll be fun, I promise.
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Len Leatherwood, M.S.
Writing Coach
Writing Rules!
Private youth and adult writing Teacher
I specialize in short stories, poetry, personal essays, memoir, and college essays. With my guidance, many of my students have won writing contests and/or published their pieces in literary journals, anthologies, magazines, or e-zines.
Many of my high school and college students
have been admitted to their first choice undergraduate and graduate schools due in
large part to their superlative personal statements and college essays.
Sessions are conducted either in person in
Los Angeles or on the phone/Internet.
For Rates & Availability,
use the Contact Form above.
Local & International Writing Workshops
Click here for info on past and future
workshops. All levels of writing welcome!
To be the first to learn about our next adventure, join my mailing list!
online group
writing classes
Year-round, I teach classes through Story Circle Network, an organization dedicated to helping women share the stories of their lives and to raising public awareness of the importance of women's personal histories.
To see our current class offerings and learn more about the organization, click here!
Writing Workshop
Amalfi Coast, Italy
"There is no one I trust more with my essays, Len turns average writing into extraordinary works of art. The 1,500 mile gap between us
had no effect on how efficiently we were able to prepare my college application essays. I couldn't be more pleased with them and I'm excited to see what doors they have opened for me. She is truly fantastic."
Julianne N. from TX
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