Why Write What You Know?
by Erika Hoffman
Over ten years ago my elderly dad, suffering from dementia, moved in with us, which changed all my everyday routines. It took away my independence and my discretionary time for shoe shopping or gossipy, prolonged brunches with pals. I stayed home. Dad watched countless DVDs of Gunsmoke or other shows he’d loved once-upon-a-time while I pondered: “What’s next?”
A light bulb went off. I’ll write. Ergo, I started the great American novel, and somewhere in the muddle middle of it, I decided I needed to attend a writing conference. Because we regularly visited my widowed mother-in-law in Georgia, I decided on a side trip to the Harriett Austin Writers Conference at UGA.
Every tidbit I heard the speakers say inspired me, but what changed my writing trajectory and my life in general was sitting next to an affable preacher’s wife at lunch. This friendly lady struck up a conversation. After we had shared a little about ourselves, she imparted some advice: “Start small. Pen a personal essay. Your chances for getting published with a personal essay are better than with anything else. Write about your old dad living with you or your last child leaving for college.”
I followed her advice. I researched a few anthologies looking for personal essays and chose A Cup of Comfort for Families Touched by Alzheimer’s for my first foray. My daughter was sending off applications to college, so I composed another personal essay for Chicken Soup for the Soul/Getting into College. In creating them, I followed the guidelines set forth on the webpage for Chicken Soup for the Soul. They bought both stories! I went from being anonymous to “Erika Hoffman, contributor.”
Since then, I’ve sold more than 350 pieces. Most are non-fiction narratives or personal essays. Besides being published in 15 Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies and six A Cup of Comfort books, my true stories have been featured several times in Patchwork Path, Not Your Mother’s Book, Thin Threads, Whispering Angels, and other collections like Seniorhood Isn’t for Sissies, So Glad They Told Me, THEMA, TAF Stays Home, What It Is to Be a Woman, and Imagining Heaven. Over 30 times, my stories have been featured in Sasee Magazine of Myrtle Beach and over 40 times in the ezine Page & Spine. Not only have I made money in the process, but in following the suggestions put forth by the publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul, I’ve learned how to pen an engaging tale appropriate for religious as well as secular publications.
Let me share the most salient element needed to compose a story that will reverberate with many folks on many levels. No matter whether your piece is hilariously funny a la Dave Barry or poignantly sad like a JoJo Moyes tale, you must also impart a universal message, like acknowledging the kindness of a stranger, a topic I wrote about in a true story for You and Me Medical Magazine. The reader may tear up while she envisions the details described in your mini memoir, but the story must also connect with her own life experiences. In Saved by a Skirt, picked up by Living Magazine, I detailed what drowning is like. It’s not frantic but instead fatiguing and sad. If not for my husband holding on to a bit of material on my bathing suit, I’d have drifted out to sea, wearily resigned to my fate.
No matter how curious you make your reader – using thriller techniques, such as those in my essay Not Out of the Water Yet ( You & Me Medical Magazine) where I describe crawling up the bank of sand, the pounding headache that followed, the loss of balance, the trip to the hospital ER, and my diagnosis – your personal vignette must also provide a take-away message. In other words, the anecdote you relate must resonate. It should provide an “Aha” moment and not sound like a journal entry or a news report.
Because your personal essay will move others, it may contain themes akin to those in scripture. Your composition may resemble Biblical parables or elucidate a verse in a religious text. Therefore, this genre of writing may open the doors of religious markets. Besides selling personal essays about caring for my aged dad to venues like Today’s Caregiver, I also sold stories about my new purpose in life to Celebrate Life, Evangel, Mature Years, Mature Living, Grand Magazine, Come to the Window, and Australian Catholics.
Remember that my writerly adventures and byline successes occurred because I was willing to tell an authentic personal story (writing what I know) while keeping in mind the paramount question: What’s in it for the reader? George Eliot wrote: “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” Putting down in words your experiences, emotions, and ideas will help others too. So, share.
Erika has compiled her published stories and essays into several collections: My Sassy Life; More Sassy Stories; Erika’s Take on Writing; Erika’s Take on Writing, Take 2; Erika’s Take on Travel. All are sold on Amazon. Her mystery, Why Mama, published by Library Partners Press is also available through Amazon.
Erika is a graduate of Duke University, a former high school teacher; married to her college sweetheart; a mother of four; a mother-in-law to three; a grandma to eight – all under the age of five; and a longtime resident of North Carolina who grew up in New Jersey.