Up: [[Personal Essay and Memoir]] Created: 2024-04-13 Updated: 2024-09-09 It’s good to have action in an essay. But there's also a place for explanation, summarization, interpretation or context setting. If writing chronologically, don't withhold key information from the reader and then surprise them with it as you were surprised. That leads to the reader not trusting you as narrator. Instead, give the large facts at the beginning and then take the reader through the unraveling you made of those facts. If including sensory details of a character or an environment, make sure they're not commonplace. Saying that a character scratched his nose is commonplace. Go for the details that are specific to that character.