Don’t Bury Yourself in Paragraph Three
Many writers are hesitant to talk about themselves. Some are too humble to put themselves or their experience up front. Others are uneasy about the vulnerability of opening up to an audience. So when they do talk about themselves, they feel the need to create some larger pretense before finally taking the stage. But that’s a mistake. Good writing is honest writing, and a reader is never going to connect with anything as much as they will with you, the person on the other end.
When I work with writers, even ones drafting a personal statement, I see this hesitancy constantly. In many cases, it’s literally paragraph three or four before a first-person pronoun enters their text. They begin by talking about some broader idea, then expand on it, and then finally decide to mention “oh, yes, and here’s my personal, direct experience with this.” They feel the need to create a pretext before they can mention themselves — even when the writing is about them!
The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever gotten came from my father, who was an old-school newspaper reporter.
What people really care about is ‘people.’
A human connection makes any subject more interesting. We empathize with people. We…
