I’ve really enjoyed the process of diving into different forms of articles lately (full disclosure: this interest was sparked by the recent author highlighting Hasanthika Sirisena). As someone who loves to play with forms of writing of all kinds (just check out my list of poetic forms), I’m fascinated by the different possibilities with Endless Personal Essays (which I’ve found so far anyway).
(What is a Personal Essay to Write?)
In this post, we’ll look at what a hermit crab essay is, including what makes it different from other types of essays and when writers might prefer this approach.
What is a hermit crab essay to write?
The essay on hermit crab is somewhat similar to the actual hermit crab in that it is an essay that takes the current form (as if by chance) of another type of writing. For example, an article that resembles a set of guidelines or social media posts (or letters, poems, postcards, outlines, obituaries, text, footnotes, or prompts). From what I can tell, the format appears to have originated with Brenda Miller and Susan Paula in their book Tell It Slant: Create, Refine, and Publish Creative Stories.
(How to create a narrative arc for personal essays.)
While not a requirement, hermit crab essays can gain strength if the format in which you live somehow manipulates the actual topic of the essay. For example, a personal essay about a person’s struggle with procrastination might benefit from being a set of motivational triggers that reveal more about the underlying issues. Or the chef might find recipes to be a great form of writing about the dangers of running a food truck (or dealing with anxiety).
This model actually reminds me of a favorite novel by Vladimir Nabokov called pale fire that covered the narrative in the guise of literary criticism of a 999-line poem (St. A great place to find actual examples of hermit crab essays would be at Shell game: writers play with borrowed shapes, edited by Kim Adrian.
*****
This course guides beginner and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify the values expressed in their stories and drawing readers into the experiences described. The book learns how to avoid frightening responses to “So what?” and “I thought you had to be there” by making use of sensory details, learning to trust their written intuition, and developing a skilled in-house editor to help with revision.
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