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What You See Is What You Get: The Optical Illusions That Shape Fiction—and Ourselves

What You See Is What You Get: The Optical Illusions That Shape Fiction—and Ourselves

T.J. Martinson Explores the Narrative Role of Sight on the Page and in the Real World

By T.J. Martinson | May 23, 2025

Unweaving the Web: On Creating Your Own Narrative of Illness and Health

Unweaving the Web: On Creating Your Own Narrative of Illness and Health

Sophie Strand Explores the Limitations of Traditional Ideas About Disease, Trauma and Healing

By Sophie Strand | March 6, 2025

What We Lost In the Fire: On the Stories We Tell To Fill Life’s Empty Spaces

What We Lost In the Fire: On the Stories We Tell To Fill Life’s Empty Spaces

For Lea Carpenter, “There is a third story, the one told in the second person. This is the story you tell yourself.”

By Lea Carpenter | January 30, 2025

A Marionette in the Milky Way: On Finding Your Way Into the Story You Want to Tell

A Marionette in the Milky Way: On Finding Your Way Into the Story You Want to Tell

Lindsey Drager Considers Impermanence, Finality and the Forces of the Universe in Fictional Narratives

By Lindsey Drager | August 16, 2024

A Monstrous Spiral: How Narrative Form Can Bring a Story to Life

A Monstrous Spiral: How Narrative Form Can Bring a Story to Life

Jane Alison on Fictionalizing the Tumultuous and Toxic Relationship Between Architects Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier

By Jane Alison | August 6, 2024

The Hard Art of Seeing Your Own Writing Through Rose-Colored Glasses

The Hard Art of Seeing Your Own Writing Through Rose-Colored Glasses

Mira Ptacin on Transforming One’s Inner Critic

By Mira Ptacin | July 22, 2024

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On the Joys of Following Literary Instinct Wherever It Leads

By Leah Hager Cohen | May 22, 2024

How a Train is Like a Novel: On the Phenomenon of Illusory Self-Motion

By John Holten | March 25, 2024

"Whatever!": In Defense of Anachronism in Ancient Rome

By James Hynes | August 9, 2023

When Cause Doesn't Follow Effect: How to Structure the Strange

When Cause Doesn't Follow Effect: How to Structure the Strange

Rebekah Bergman Recommends Innovative Ways to Build Your Next Story

By Rebekah Bergman | August 2, 2023

Letting the Story Go: Field Notes from a Brutal Time

Letting the Story Go: Field Notes from a Brutal Time

Janet Steen on Navigating the Loss of Her Brother

By Janet Steen | May 5, 2023

How Stories Create Individual and Collective Pasts, Presents, and Futures

How Stories Create Individual and Collective Pasts, Presents, and Futures

Mary-Alice Daniel on the Role of Narrative in Shaping History and Myth

By Mary-Alice Daniel | November 29, 2022

From the Abstract to the Everyday: How Stories Dominate Every Facet of Our Lives

From the Abstract to the Everyday: How Stories Dominate Every Facet of Our Lives

Peter Brooks on the Narrative Takeover of Society

By Peter Brooks | October 28, 2022

TaraShea Nesbit on Reckoning With Ghosts, and Returning to the Same Story, Again and Again

TaraShea Nesbit on Reckoning With Ghosts, and Returning to the Same Story, Again and Again

“There is a backward-looking thing in all good stories and essays: a haunting.”

By TaraShea Nesbit | October 21, 2021

The Best Sex I Ever Had Was (Also) a Narrative Structure

The Best Sex I Ever Had Was (Also) a Narrative Structure

Helen Betya Rubinstein on Expectation, Eagerness, and Enjoyment

By Helen Betya Rubinstein | February 17, 2021

and His Verbs"> In Praise of Bob Dylan’s Narrative Strategies…<br

In Praise of Bob Dylan’s Narrative Strategies…<br

and His Verbs">

and His Verbs">In Praise of Bob Dylan’s Narrative Strategies…
and His Verbs

Tony Conniff Goes Deep on "Tangled Up in Blue"

By Tony Conniff | November 6, 2020

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