Narrative structure is not my strength. I tend towards pastiche, but after awhile, that seems gimmicky. Yet, in revising this one essay, I sensed that the traditional, chronological narrative ain’t-a-workin’. I took a risk, saved a new file, and stared at it, moving highlighted paragraphs around on the screen. Too confusing. So I printed it out, busted out Post-It notes for the section headers, and began chopping away.
where the magic happens
with a little help from my friend
re-configured with headers
what happened when i left the room for a few minutes. (luckily i had already numbered everything.)
What can I say? I’m a visual learner/thinker. At least the essay is only 15 pages long. If I ever write a book, I’ll need a bigger floor.
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Scrivener, my friend. It’s word processing software…except for writers. There’s even a module that allows you to do just this, on the computer.
I would need a HUGE laptop screen to do that though — maybe two screens, like graphic designers use. Maybe for a book, though.
I do the same. Needs plenty of floor space.
I blame Andrew Holleran. And Nick Tryling.
This is how I wrote my favorite-all-time-paper on Riders to the Sea in college because I had a two-page works cited section for a 20 page paper and could not keep track of everything. But yes. Andrew, that dearheart.
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