What pleases you about the way your essay turned out? Are there any ways in which you feel it fell short of your original goal?

I was pleased to nail down at last some thoughts about the unique possibilities that the personal essay offers, though I feel a little uneasy about the fact that I had to draw such sharp lines between the essay and other genres in order to make my points.

How did your essay develop, both in your initial thinking about it and in the revision process? What happened in the writing of it that you didn't expect would happen?

As usual the essay developed willy -nilly, disorganized jottings here and there eventually coalescing into larger sections. I work very slowly and each discovery - each insight into the special form of the essay - was a surprise.

How does your experience writing in creative nonfiction depend upon or depart from your work in other genres (poetry, fiction, playwriting, literary criticism)?

I do not write fiction and have not written poetry in years, but I do in this essay indicate at length the differences and similarities among these genres.

Speculate about creative nonfiction as an emerging genre in American literature. Where do you see it going in the next several years, or even farther down the line?

Because the essayist drops fictional disguises and speaks to us as a friend, the essay offers the possibility of making us less lonely during a very lonely time in our cultural history. I'm very excited about what the form can do.

What are the specific literary techniques you attempt to use as a creative nonfiction writer? Scenes? Dialogue? Specific detail, etc.?

As I suggest in the essay, I steal freely from the houses of poetry and prose, using all the techniques except one - the unreliable narrator.

What advice do you offer young people interested in writing?

Many beginners turn to writing not because they want to tell stories, but because they want to explore questions that bother them. Such neophytes would do well to give the personal essay a try.