Readers Write

I subscribe to The Sun magazine. One of my favorite features of the magazine is Reader’s Write, in which readers submit brief personal essays on a topic that is announced two or three months in advance. For example, in the April issue, the announced topics were

• Too Much — May 1

• Returning — June 1

In each issue, the submissions to Readers Write are excellently crafted and usually very powerful. Here, have a look at March’s submissions.

See?

I use this section as a tool when I am coaching writers at Backstreet Arts, especially with those who are not sure what they want to write about or who are not confident in their ability to write at all. I have dozens of back issues to share, so I’ll pull one, turn to Readers Write, and after the writer has read enough to get the gist, I invited them to write something — 500 words or less — on the topic.

Or if they can’t think of anything, I offer them the whole stack and tell them to pick a topic that works for them.

And then I guide them through what a real writer does, which is to crap out an ABORTIVE ATTEMPT and then fix it.

I am never surprised when they (eventually) come up with something not just readable but stellar. Try it: If neither of the topics up top interest you, go check out The Sun’s back list of topics: thesunmagazine.org > Archives > Browse Sections > Readers Write.

Now write it. (Then subscribe to The Sun!)