Open Letter Style of Writing

I've seen those 'open letter' type articles on Wizzley before and wanted to give it a try.  My chance came when my original Emily Wilding Davison Wizzle became so long that I chopped it in two.

The first half is a straight history, lodged in Edwardian History.  The second I reworked as a kind of open letter in Feminism. It's this latter that I'd like feedback on please:

Emily and Me: Empathy Across the Centenary

Normally I've got sections with headings etc.  This is one long narrative, with some very personal elements in there, as it pinged against my own life.  Did it work?

Thanks in advance.

(PS I'm not venturing into a Suffragette niche. Two in a row about Emily is solely because it was originally a single article.)

Fantastic article, Jo!

Re: Open Letters

We just ran a contest, over at Pagewizz, asking for "Open Letters" (articles). I think it's a great way to create interesting articles that elicit discussions.

Titles like "Open Letter To President Obama, Bishop So-And-So, Chase Bank, Runaway Teens, Bullies, High School Drop-Outs, My Mother, My Daughter (etc.), Time Warner Customer Service ..." - you get my drift - have a built-in attraction for readers, when seen on social media sites. People love personal or even controversial opinions.

I'd encourage you to write lots of "Open Letter" articles. One of my first Squidoo lenses from 2008 was about the general topic of open letters (with famous examples). It's still going strong. 

Thank you Catana and Achim.

Catana - It made for a refreshing, and very insightful, experience to contrast an historical person's life with my own.  I doubt I could do that too often, else it might get very boring for those reading.  But it certainly brought Emily's mindset home for me.  I'm glad that it translated into a good read too.

Achim - That's where I got the idea!  You remember me sending you to see what the hole was in the picture?  You responded that the article was an open letter.  I'd been half musing on exploring the genre since then.   I didn't know it was a big initiative over on PageWizz though.

You could run one here too. :D 

Did I get the style right though?  New writing territory for me here!   Though I'd be up for trying some more.

Very good article Jo and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I was rather expecting a "learning points" as in what have I discovered about myself as a result of this exercise and perhaps that's what your final paragraphs could become.  Although your ".....I really don't know" is heading in that direction.

With "Open Letter" I mean a real letter, starting with "Dear CEO of Monsanto", and then addressing the person directly.

One could describe a certain situation in the intro, perhaps giving more background info in a first module, possibly showing a video, and the start with the letter.

pkmcr: 06/06/2013 - 02:03 PM

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Very good article Jo and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I was rather expecting a "learning points" as in what have I discovered about myself as a result of this exercise and perhaps that's what your final paragraphs could become.  Although your ".....I really don't know" is heading in that direction.

 

Then that's a failure in my writing clarity, which I need to address when I'm not covered in dust.  (Epic housework session currently paused for a fag break.)  The last section was supposed to be a 'learning points' round up. When I waffled on about support and choices - being the difference between our circumstances - it was intended to be the great insight learned.

Then the 'would I have jumped in front of the horse' part was me saying, 'there but for the Grace of God and one hundred years.'

I've actually got a third article half-written, which addresses whether her martyrdom was worth it. As in, did it have any bearing at all on women finally getting the vote. As an historian and a woman, that was actually the most eye-opening discovery of last night's research.

It'll appear eventually.  I don't want to put it out right now, else I'd end up flooding the front page with Suffragette articles. I learned my lesson with the vampires!

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Achim - Ah!  I can see the possibilities there.  I've certainly got some political leaders and corporation CEOs to rant at; and some activists et al to praise.  This style might work with historical figures too.

*several hours later*   Like this? 

An Open Letter to Emily Wilding Davison

That started off in here, but it got so long, I made an actual blog post.  If it's any good, I could do stuff like that for Wizzley too.

Yes, like this.    

Ok, they're easy to do.  I'll think about who else I could do open letters to.  :D