When we write anything (unless we are writing in our journals), we must keep our readers in mind. We must remember, too, that they are not reading what we have written for the pure joy of it (unless we are James Patterson or Anne Tyler or Nora Roberts or Stephen King–or any of those who have been writing professionally for years).
And in today’s world, especially since more and more businesses are opening up after Covid’s crazed war against humanity, it is becoming easier and easier to visit friends and loved ones in their homes for planned nights of movie watching. On these nights, we sit glued to what’s taking place on wide-screen tv’s in the same way that we have done for years in movie theaters.
The point is, it has become easy to avoid printed work.
With all that said, it is critical that we grab the reader’s attention before he/she has time to turn to something else. The sentence,”It’s Sunday morning and I wake up as I usually do on Sundays–as excited as a kid ready to celebrate his birthday,” can capture attention because of the immediate questions it arises: Is the writer a child or an adult? Why does the writer compare herself to a kid? Why is this person excited? And this excitement happens every Sunday? Why?
In this opening sentence, the tone has been established. And before the end of the opening paragraph, the reader will have an idea of what will be discussed in the rest of the essay. Also, by the end of the opening paragraph, the reader should have a sense that his/her questions will be answered.
It is not a bad thing to write about one’s experiences. As a college instructor, I have read an endless flow of essays about personal experiences, and I have, in fact, encouraged them. My students have included recent high-school graduates, returning students who served in different branches of the military and who were getting ready to retire or were active duty personnel, police officers, and housewives who were returning to school to finish degrees they had started before they had left to raise children. The point here is everyone has a story to tell, and they should tell it.
When we write about our experiences, though, we have to remember that in some way our experiences must mean something to our readers. In other words, what can they take away from what they have just read and from what we have shared with them? If we are writing about family gatherings after church on a bright Sunday, we have to write in such a way that will show these gatherings are not only important to us, but they allow our readers to relate to them in some meaningful way.
wonders in writing 