Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements of Essay

An essay can speak to its writer through eight essential elements which, used as a checklist, can provide insights about the parts that need more work. Or not.

For the big picture, there’s storyline, structure, voice and theme.

On the sentence level, there’s detail, scene, language and pacing.

If you want to learn more about how these elements work, download “Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements of Essay” — a free, five-page guideline, best used at the end of your first draft.

This guide is great for writers in the early stages of their writing journey.

Writing Your Marker Story

What was the moment in your life in which everything changed? A moment that tested you? A moment that asked you to show up in a different way?

You may have heard this described as a defining moment.

I call it a marker moment.

I like this term because it suggests that there is a mark and a marker; there’s a mark maker and a mark made. Human beings are like Magic Markers in that we want to leave our stories behind permanently. So that people know we were here. That we had a life. That we had some responses to that life that we’d like to share.

My “Writing Your Marker Story” guide is filled with writing prompts and links to essay collections and memoirs that beautifully illustrate this idea.

This guide is great for writers who are working on long-form personal narrative.