Here Are Some Ideas For Essays You Could Write

Did you miss me? I missed me.

Hey y’all — I’ve been quiet for a while, too quiet actually, but I had a good reason. I’ve gotten started on a new book and I moved from Columbus to Cambridge, MA to be the artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School. Long story, maybe I’ll explain later. Probably won’t, I’m hella busy.

ANYWAY, the point is that I’m teaching a workshop on creative nonfiction to an incredible group of students here and this week, they asked me for some prompts or ideas for essays. I emailed them a kooky little list of ideas this morning and thought some of y’all might be interested as well.

It’s very likely that you’ll be getting more dispatches like this as I move forward. Teaching is such a joy; it lights up every other part of my life as well. It reminds me that we live in community and I want to honor the community here as well as best I can.

Stay safe, y’all. Failing that, stay fierce.

Saeed

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Here’s the list of ideas I emailed my students:

• Interview yourself. Use a Q & A format to have a conversation. Be both journalist and subject. If it helps, interview yourself about a memory or incident. "When you said, the other day, that BELOVED is one of the best novels you've ever read, it kind of sounded like you were just trying to show off for that guy. But maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, Saeed. Why is the best?" 

  • This format invites humor, introspection, and often leads to VERY unexpected places. 

• Write a failed essay. Take the phrasing, “In this essay, I will—” and try to run with it right into a brick wall. You keep trying, failing, and trying again. See how far you can take it. “In this essay, I will end grief.” Give yourself an impossible task and write your way into and through your failure.

• Since we mentioned footnotes in workshop this week, maybe experiment in an essay in which there's some kind of creative tension between the body text and the footnotes. Let the footnotes take on a life of their own.

• We will likely discuss this essay by Eula Biss later in the semester; it's a good example of a braided essay but also, since it's about the "pain scale," Eula uses the scale itself to format the essay. Maybe its structure could inspire an essay of your own. 

• Write a thoughtful in-depth review of a piece of pop culture. Sometimes it helps to take two albums or movies or plays or video games or fashion shows that come out at a similar time and to write about them in conversation with one another. 

• Read the poem "Ode to the Maggot" by Yusef Komunyakaa, then write a prose ode to humble subject that deserves more respect. 

• Write about a first. 

• Write about a worst. 

• Write about a best. 

• Write about a myth or fairy tale or piece of folklore. Apply it to modern life. Cassie, the singer who filed a lawsuit against Sean Combs in November of last year, is legally named Cassandra Ventura. In Greek mythos, Cassandra was a princess who turned down Apollo's sexual advances. He cursed her with the gift of prophecy and made sure no one would believe her. Feels relevant! 

• Write an essay about a color. Maggie Nelson famously wrote a whole book about the color blue. 

• Write an essay inspired by something one of your classmates has said or written; just give them credit. Writers are magpies. We observe, mimic, remix and remake. Being transparent about how our work exists in community is great.