Everyone Has a Story to Tell: Writing the First-Person Essay or Opinion Piece
Week of February 20, 2021
Stories help us understand life and create meaning in our lives—and everyone has a story to tell. Would you like to tell yours? This program will guide you through the process of writing a compelling essay or opinion piece, using language and narrative structure to evoke emotion and create stories that matter.
Writing the First Person Essay
This 45-minute presentation will be about why telling our story is important and how we can create moving first-person essays or opinion pieces.
Crafting a Compelling Idea
This workshop will explore what kinds of ideas make for the best personal essays and help participants hone their ideas.
Structuring and Writing the Essay
We’ll write drafts of essays, with an eye towards narrative structure and elegant, clean writing.
Writing the Opinion Piece
This will build on the previous workshops, but with an added discussion about how to write an opinion piece.
Laura Hilgers is a Bay Area writer whose articles have been published in The New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, LitHub, and Southwest Airlines Magazine, among other publications.