<p>To be personal, write the way you speak. Don’t be unnatural. Don’t force it. Let the words come to you. I wrote a third of an essay today because I just started typing what my train of thought was at the time. The prompt was “Share a page or two from your autobiography.” I was thinking about my life while looking at my app and the cursor was in the text box and my fingers on the keyboard and without even realizing it, I ended up with two paragraphs worth of material. That’s how you write a personal essay. You don’t think. You just write.</p>