Emilia Clarke’s essay “A Battle For My Life” is a successful piece of online writing. One of the best elements of this essay is the style. Through her writing she is genuine and it is clear that she believes in her own identity – an identity that the readers come to love. She gives anecdotes about being an actor on one of the biggest shows of the decade and feeling utterly terrified. Clarke reveals that some of that fear is about a disease that could kill her at any moment and shares a vivid story of her first seizure and hospitalization.

Before she continues to talk about her recovery, she goes back in time to when she first started acting and the pressure she felt to remember her lines; a pressure that is re-visited when she describes a terrifying night in the hospital:

“One night, after I’d passed that crucial mark, a nurse woke me and, as part of a series of cognitive exercises, she said, “What’s your name?” My full name is Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke. But now I couldn’t remember it. Instead, nonsense words tumbled out of my mouth and I went into a blind panic. I’d never experienced fear like that—a sense of doom closing in. I could see my life ahead, and it wasn’t worth living. I am an actor; I need to remember my lines. Now I couldn’t recall my name.”

The way she intertwines her story is compelling and her attitude about her career and her struggles with the disease are easy to understand.

Clarke’s words flow perfectly. When I was reading this piece, I could hear her writing as if she were speaking in an interview about her story. Nothing she said sounded like it would be unnatural in speech. The flow of her writing was unnoticeable. There was not a single moment where I was pulled out of her story or questioning word choice or usage.

This piece was simply enjoyable to read. Even though she is one of the biggest actors today, Clarke clearly has a talent for sharing her story in a way that connects her to the audience. Her voice came to me clearly and my respect and admiration for her has grown after reading this piece.