Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character

"The proper alternative to self-dislike is not being pleased with oneself--a smugness equally distasteful to the reader--but being curious about oneself." --Philip Lopate, page 42 of Writing Creative Nonfiction

Something starts to get boring when you think you know everything there is to know about it. That's why relationships grow stale and TV shows get canceled--people don't like routine, whether or not they like to admit it. I view writing as a form of self-discovery, like most writers. The worst pieces I've ever read were by writers who had done the things that Lopate describes in this piece: they dismissed themselves as ordinary or thought they already knew who they were, and presented that as a character. You have to be willing to learn about yourself with the reader in a piece; that's they way to keep someone interested, and to get the most out of writing. To be a real person, not a person you particularly hate or love, just a real person, is fascinating. I don't think anyone ever really gets to know who they are, ever. Capturing that in writing will make for some great stories.