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WOW! Women on Writing’s very own Jodi Webb recently read her essay, “If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?” on public radio. We chatted with her briefly about her experience submitting and recording her piece.

Check out her essay and recording here, then get the inside scoop from Jodi about creating an essay that gets broadcast on the airwaves.

WOW: Jodi, congratulations for having your essay featured on public radio! What inspired you to submit a “This I Believe” essay?

Jodi: I had always been aware of the This I Believe segment because I'm a big fan of Edward R. Murrow. Murrow was the one who first started the program. You can submit essays for consideration online and over the years I've submitted an essay or two. After all, the title says it all "This I Believe". It's a natural writing prompt and brings so many ideas to mind. What do we believe in? I could think of a different answer every day of my life.

But I was always nervous about the recording aspect of This I Believe. So when I heard that they were looking for submissions for a This I Believe book I was very enthusiastic. No recording! So I pulled out all the stops and submitted an essay about my mom and volunteering.

WOW: What was the submission process like, and how long did it take to hear that your essay was accepted?

Jodi: It was one of those "dropping a pebble in a wishing well" submissions. I submitted it and, aside from the automated "We've received your submission" email, nothing--for months! I actually forgot about it when I got an email from John Gregory telling me it had been selected for the book. I was so excited. Of course then more waiting until the book was finally published and ended up in my mailbox. About a year from submission to actual book.

Of course then I learned that they intended to have everyone included in the book record their essays. What?! I was very nervous and actually tried to stall them for a while but John was persistent.

WOW: How did the recording take place? Did you practice your reading of the piece?

Jodi: Normally NPR schedules time for you to visit a local radio station that broadcasts NPR programs and record it in their studio. But the nearest NPR station was an hour from my house. I had to cancel once for snow but finally made it the station in Harrisburg, PA. It was a HUGE building. There was a great guy there named Joe who was my man on the spot. Then I had John from NPR on the phone giving me direction. So I had earphones on, a mike in front of me, Joe sitting across from me working the technical aspects(playing sections back for me, etc.) and both of them talking to me through the earphones in this tiny little room. It was so weird.

First, John asked me all these questions about my writing and my family. I suppose to get me accustomed to the microphone. Then I read the entire thing three times (the first time at super speed!), but I also read just sections and a few sentences what seemed like a million times. They can take a bit from here and a bit from there and splice it all together. Which was a relief because at least I didn't have to read the entire thing perfectly in one shot! John would say thin

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Artfully Editing Your Personal Essays

by Melanie Faith

Ah, the spark of inspiration—the keys clacking, the ideas flowing, the wind at your back! Shortly, however, the initial draft is finished, and it’s time to begin the more arduous editing journey. Take heart…and these tips to sculpt your personal essay:

1. Division decision— A bit of creative structuring may take a piece to an exciting new level. In Crafting The Personal Essay, Dinty W. Moore notes: “While most of my nonfiction writing follows a pretty traditional path, I have also composed essays that mimic the form of a coroner’s report, a made-for-television movie script, and a Zen koan. One of my favorite experiments, ‘Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay of Fatherhood, Alphabetically Arranged’ borrows a form known as abecedarium from the world of poetry.” Consider unique subject headings or organizational methods. Poem titles, favorite thematic quotations, place names, even times of the day may all structure an essay into an intriguing mosaic.

2. Time, time, time— Although writing nonfiction, that doesn’t mean that a writer must adhere strictly to chronological order. Consider flashbacks and flash forwards, mixing chronological time with the more sophisticated timing of personal epiphanies and hard lessons well-learned.

3. Spotlight self—A writer may include many other “characters” within the piece—siblings, neighbors, exes and friends—but the central moments of change must occur for the speaker. Readers want to discover the aha! moment via the first-person narrator; she is the one readers root for and identify with most strongly. Edit or omit sections where discovery takes place through or for another person. An essay will be stronger for narrowing the focus.

4. “You don’t say!”— Dialogue can be a great tool for compression. Are there whole rambling sections describing setting, clothing, or personality that could be expressed more succinctly in a tart remark or an aside? In Naked, Drunk, and Writing, Adair Lara advises, “Dialogue is very readable, makes writing move fast, and is the fastest way to reveal character…Keep dialogue short and punchy. We’re not allowed to say much before we’re interrupted by others or something else is going on.” Characterizations are strengthened by lopping off background fluff. A short interchange between speaker and friend can easily demonstrate more complex conflict. Lara further advises, “Dialogue gets interesting when there’s subtext: what characters are saying between the lines.” Trust that your readers will intuit much from less.

5. Edit details that don’t showcase theme(s). While interesting, does this portion contribute to the whole piece? Ask yourself: would a reader who had not experienced this person/event find a meaningful connection with the rest of the essay?

6. Set it aside. Then trust your gut. When writing truth, a writer’s emotional connection to the material can cloud editorial judgment. Take breaks of days or even weeks to let the material cool. With the passage of time, an essayist often finds the courage and perspective to hit the backspace key.

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I recently taught a personal essay writing class for the local community college. The introductory exercise was simple: tell a two- to three-minute story about yourself and make sure your spiel has a defined beginning, middle and end.

Easy, right?

For class members, speaking about themselves was easy. They intertwined humor and insight into the quick look at one moment in their lives. But when I asked them to write the same story on a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 ruled notebook paper, something was lost in translation. The tidbits of humor disappeared. The glaring insight suddenly lost its significance.

What changed? Somewhere between the oral tradition and the written word, these students forgot to add essential elements that formulate the basis of strong storytelling. Personal essay enthusiasts will agree that stories that engage readers contain a twist of the common elements. The stories that stand out mold an individual experience and create empathy.

Personal essays rely on strong word choices, imagery, setting, and tension that make a point. To build audience intimacy, try these strategies:

• Build conflict. Consider movies, TV shows and books that capture your attention. What recurring element piques your interest? Conflict and tension. Even a personal essay will fail if tense undertones don't keep rumbling through the piece. Who wants to read a piece about perfect love? I want to hear about the tearful breakup from your high school sweetheart and how that moment changed your impression of Cupid's arrow.
• Establish time. Since most personal essays must conform to a word limit, grabbing the reader's attention is mandatory. Link your theme to a current event or pop culture phenomenon. You'll be amazed at the interesting comparisons you'll be able to develop.
• Kick up the intensity. Avoid voicing the safe opinion. It's overdone. Instead, look at other angles about your topic. Bend the rules. Your story will be stronger.
• Obsess much? Choose a topic you find interesting. Select a subject you have experience with. If you haven't lived it, how can you write about it?
• Slam dunk the ending. Don't settle for a rehash of events. Challenge your memory and grill your brain about the realities of the situation. Question your motives. Then, you'll hold the reader in the palm of your hand, offering them a piece of your world and the lessons you discovered.

A personal essay is just that: it's personal. It's a probe of the human psyche that examines questions and situations that we all want answered.

The personal essayist is brave enough to report her findings.

by LuAnn Schindler. Visit LuAnn's website for her weekly column of personal essays about her home state - Nebraska.

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Some days I don't know what comes over me. Basically, a friend threw down the challenge for me to enter a writing contest. Convinced to do so, I became so happy to oblige that I managed to write two entries.
Since I don't have a writing group I belong to (because of time constraints), I decided to send out a draft of the essays to friends and family--I wanted to know which essay worked better, based on the contest guidelines.
That's it.
Like most writers, I appreciate constructive criticism when a reader stays on topic. However, I wasn't interested in line edits, digs at a friend's own spouse, my "poor" selections of reading material or contests, my faulty memory or negative comments about my choice of friends and their challenges.
I think the responses shed many lights on the joys of writing: the subjectivity of one's readers and the inevitability of leaving one open to criticism, no matter the subject.
But when I run into someone who has read my blogs or one of my newspaper articles, I hear how wonderful the piece is...and then, why won't the newspaper do a better delivery job in their neighborhood. Interestingly, I never hear the negatives and just glowing accolades (which seem slightly unrealistic, but who am I to fight that battle?).
But, ask someone by e-mail and you learn a lot more about your friends and family than about your writing or the topic of your essay. It was certainly an eye-opening experience, probably one I'll hesitate before trying again, especially since voting is running neck-and-neck between the essays. It will be tough to decide which essay to submit. I'll have to rely on my own faulty subjectivity. Yikes.
So, next time a friend convinces me to enter a contest and I decide to send out the essay, I'll just leave my more vocal family members off the e-mail list. They can just read about it on my blog...and comment, nicely, in person.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach, who wishes she could use her delete button a lot more than she does. Besides contributing to AOL's ParentDish, she blogs at The Write Elizabeth, delving into creativity in everyday places.

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If it's not already obvious, I changed the blog template! Yay! I was tired of the black, blue and other colors the day after I put it up. Really. I love this one. Thanks to Suck My Lolly for providing cool templates.

Soo...I haven't posted about actual writing in a while. Funny, you'd think it would be all I posted about. But no. Posts have been book-oriented instead of craft related. That's changing for today.

Right now, I'm NOT working on book stuff. Gasp! Instead, I'm writing an essay and am lining up interviews for an assignment. The essay is making me angry/confused/angsty/think I need to go back to school. I've been attempting to write it since...(checks date on Word doc) August 11. 8-11! How sad.

I've started it multiple times and scrapped the entire thing at least twice. It has to be under 1000 words, which isn't the problem. What IS my/the essay's prob?

Past and current problems include:

* A wide scope (C'mon. I *know* to focus on one issue in such a short piece. But no! I ran off in 3 directions within two paragraphs. Madness.)

* Too much time passes (Again, I got lost in my jumbled timeline and skipped back and forth through too many years of my life. It gave ME a headache.)

* Writing what I think the mag wants (Dangerous. I thought I'd stopped doing that years ago. Apparently not.)

* Not writing what I want (Related to note above.)

* Having a jumbled essay where I try to say what I really feel without hurting anyone's feelings (No need to be mean, and I'm not, but I want the essay to be honest.)

* Worrying about putting something too personal "out there" and not being able to take it back later (What's "too personal" anymore, anyway?)

* Making too many general statements (I need to be specific and make the essay mine.)

At least I know what some of the problems are, right? :)

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