Better Bookmarks: Writer’s Digest – How to Create a Narrative Arc for Personal Essays
Sometimes the best bookmark is not a site, but a specific article within a site. No other such single bookmark has ever generated as much help and reference to our clients as this one from Writer’s Digest:
Writer’s Digest – How to Create a Narrative Arc for Personal Essays
WD itself is a wonderful resource, but it is enormous and covers so many different topics that depending on where you are in your writing and your interests, just bookmarking the homepage may not be as helpful as bookmarking the link above.
One of our favorite tips in the article is this gem:
“Remember that the (essay or novel or short story) structure isn’t necessarily the sequence of events as they happened in real life, but the sequence that makes sense for the narrative, that sets up the objective for the character in that moment, reveals (and sometimes revels in) the complications and conflicts facing her, and resolves these conflicts in some meaningful way.”
This is at its heart the issue of storytelling. Your story may be fiction, autobiography, history or some other form of nonfiction, but no matter what, your storytelling skills are crucial to the success of your work. Five, fifty, or five-hundred pages — they all require a strong and logical narrative arc.
Bookmark this terrific article today, even if you are not sure when or how you will use it. Somewhere downstream we think you’ll be glad you did.
Longridge Editors LLC meets our clients’ needs for editing services in a comprehensive way. This includes selecting and preparing written material through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications. The result is a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete product. Be it a novel manuscript or an annual report, we can help!
Contact us any time at edg@longridgeeditors.com to discuss your project.
Managing Partner
