“Plotting Your Life”: Parts of the Personal Essay Adapted from chapter four of Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions

What is a personal essay? A personal essay is a nonfiction essay that tells a true story and reflects on its significance in the narrator’s life. A personal essay uses constructs (or methods of writing) of fiction and poetry—such as character, plot, dialogue, lyricism (poetic language), sensory description, action, reflection, etc.—in order to creatively tell and reflect on true life events. The author of a personal essay and the essay’s narrator are usually the same person, but they refer to different roles. When we use the term “author,” we mean the person who actually sat down and wrote the essay. When we use the term “narrator,” we are referring to the voice within the essay that develops the story.

Plot Plot is the basic outline of any story. It makes up the structure of events and actions that occur in a given order to create a narrative. In nonfiction, instead of making up the plot, authors carefully choose plot points from actions or events they have experienced or observed. In order to do so, they must decide on a series of events that develop a single topic. Rather than including every single action that occurred during a given time period, authors select those that are most relevant and leave out the rest. As Silverman explains: “In fiction, plot is invented; in nonfiction, it is discovered” (35).

Parts of the Personal Essay, Or How to Develop the “Arc of Your Story” An introduction that begins in an action and immediately reveals some kind of tension or conflict. Silverman calls this type of introduction a “thunderous plot.” A horizontal plot line that develops the actions and main events. A vertical plot line that develops the “emotions, thoughts, and insights” (37). A strong sense of motivation, or the reasoning behind the narrator’s actions and choices. The motivation for the plot is developed through both the horizontal and vertical plot lines. A structure for developing the story. The structure could be chronological (telling the events in the order that they happened), for example, or it could use flashbacks. Structure can also be organized by image, such as in the lyric essay. A conclusion that “crosses the finish line,” which Silverman describes as providing some kind of resolution to the conflict that was developed throughout the essay.

Introduction: The “It-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-effect” Conflict and tension reveal what is at stake for you, the author, and should be developed immediately. “Set the plot in motion in the first paragraph with a scene that establishes both the theme and what is at stake, emotionally and/or physically. Don’t start the memoir a few pages—or even a paragraph—before the real action starts” (41). The best way to develop tension, then, is to begin your essay in an action that shows readers what is at stake and, thus, makes them want to keep reading. Silverman notes: So as you begin to write, ask yourself: what is my “dark and stormy night”? What event in my life best jump-starts my memoir? Where does my real story start? . . . Why am I beginning my memoir now? . . . Readers want to watch the heroine or hero—you—struggle, to cheer you on to victory, to mourn your defeats, to stick by you as you overcome one obstacle after the next. The possibilities for conflict are endless. . . . In short, something must be at stake for you , your persona, in the memoir. That you are emotionally, spiritually, and/or physically at risk, to whatever degree, must be conveyed immediately. Who or what are your real-life antagonists? (40-41)

Horizontal Plot Line The horizontal plot line develops “external events” through actions. In other words, it’s primarily developed through scene. The actions of the horizontal plot “must unfold causally. . . . Each event is dependent upon what happened before” (36). Consider the relevance of each detail/action you choose to include in the horizontal plot. Where does it fit within the chain of causal events? If it is insignificant, leave it out.

Vertical Plot Line Silverman explains: This line focuses more on the internal journey, plunging the plot into the heart of emotions, thoughts, and insights. This is the thinking and feeling part of the narrative. How do thoughts and emotions evolve over the course of your story? It’s a more complex line that enhances the surface plot. The idea of progression, of cause and effect, is as important in the vertical plot line as in the horizontal. One thought or feeling causes the next, and the next, propelling the memoir deeper into your psyche. (37) The vertical plot is primarily developed through exposition (“questions, thoughts, feelings”) The vertical plot often connects to the horizontal plot/scene through imagery and metaphor.

Motivating the Plot “While the two plotlines impart what happens both in terms of external and internal action, motivation explores why something happens” (38). Both plotlines must intersect throughout the essay to develop motivation. You don’t want a series of actions in the beginning and then several pages of exposition telling the reader what they mean. Scene and exposition must be interwoven in the essay in order to fully explore the implications of each plot line. “We read and write memoir to understand the story behind that which appears on the surface. . . . As Vivian Gornick says, ‘What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the larger sense that the writer is able to make of what happened’” (39).

Conclusion: “Crossing the Finish Line” “Crossing the Finish Line” means providing some type of resolution to the conflict the essay explores, but resolution does not necessarily mean tying up loose ends. Resolution can come in the form of acknowledgement, reflection, growth, realization, etc. The resolution/ending depends both “on the beginning” and “on the specific journey you decide to explore” (44). Return to the journey you started and end the essay at an appropriate time/length. “The end doesn’t need to bring the reader up to your present moment.”

Final Note: “Turning Real Life into Art” Silverman notes: I tend to see my real life in a continuous line. I don’t separate it in segments whereby each event has a clear, artfully designed beginning, middle, and end. In real life, I don’t usually understand the connections between events as they happen. Nor do I daily consider my motivation for behaving in any given way. Rather, I stumble from moment to moment without seeing exactly what I’ve learned, when I learned it, or where I’m headed. . . . It is through writing that we make connections and understand our motivations. This is the process we all undergo while writing memoir: to learn about ourselves. Art, unlike life, offers the possibility of a clearly delineated plot. What we ultimately reveal through this arc is that we are different at the end of our memoirs from who we are at the beginning – more knowledgeable, insightful, wiser. (44-45)

Works Cited Silverman, Sue William. Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir. Athens: U of Georgia P, 2009. Print.