Up: [[Personal Essay and Memoir]] Created: 2024-04-03 Updated: 2025-04-13 ### Character The author of the essay, the narrator, the 'I' Look for ways to provide clues about myself. Instead of "I worked all the time", "I had great nightly chats with the security guard who came around at 3:00 in the morning to see why the school alarm hadn't been activated." ### Problem If there isn't a problem, there isn't conflict, there isn't tension, and there isn't a narrative essay. Watch for times when the problem is about getting something. It could any number of “gettings” from getting a promotion to getting pregnant. For me, getting shows up as ordering another stack of books from Amazon. Any time the problem is a surface concern, it’s a mask for something deeper. You won’t know this in advance. The real problem will emerge in the writing.