Fleeting moments and emotion are key to great essays

The most fleeting of moments can sometimes turn into the most powerful of essays.

Here’s an essay I wrote after driving by an unusual scene on a back road in Billerica. It came from a glimpse that so moved me I had to write about it.

Emotion is the key to an essay’s success. If you are moved by something you see, something someone said, a memory, a dream, a passage in a book, don’t let go of it. Turn it into a short essay and share it. You will find tremendous gratification in the process.