whats a braided essay

Braided Essays and How to Write Them

Zining Mok  |  October 4, 2023  |  7 Comments

When I first started reading and writing creative nonfiction , I was particularly struck by the “braided essay”—its poeticism, its interlacing movements, its endless possibilities. The beauty of a braid lies in the way it weaves distinct strands into a coherent whole, the way individual strands intermittently appear and disappear.

If you’ve ever felt like your essay was missing something or needed more texture, or if you’re someone who loves miscellany, a braided essay might be right for you. But before I wax eloquent about the braided essay:

What is a braided essay?

A braid is a structure commonly used in the genre of creative nonfiction, though it can easily be adapted for use in other genres. Richard Powers’ The Overstory and Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 are great examples of novels that use braiding as a structure.

Simply put, a braided essay is one that weaves two or more distinct “threads” into a single essay. A thread can be a story with a plot or simply a string of thought about a specific topic.

A braided essay is one that weaves two or more distinct “threads” into a single essay. A thread can be a story with a plot or simply a string of thought about a specific topic.

If all of this sounds abstract and complicated, don’t fret: the good news is that a braided essay is much easier to understand in practice than in theory. Consider, for instance, Roxane Gay’s “ What We Hunger For ,” which consists of two threads. In thread A, Gay writes about The Hunger Games and the representation of female strength in pop culture. In thread B, she recounts memories of her childhood as a girl. Gay breaks up these two threads into smaller fragments, then alternates fragments from thread A with those from thread B.

This alternating movement draws out themes and ideas from each thread, such that the essay as a whole points to larger ideas and themes.

This alternating movement draws out themes and ideas from each thread, such that the essay as a whole points to larger ideas and themes. In the case of “What We Hunger For,” the result of braiding is an essay that combines The Hunger Games and the writer’s personal experiences to gesture to the themes of strength, trauma, storytelling, the power of reading, and hope for healing. This happens often in braided essay: the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

What counts as a “thread?”

For something to count as a “thread,” it has to be sufficiently distinct in terms of style and/ or content. To braid these threads together, break each into fragments, then alternate a fragment from one braid with a fragment from another braid. Check out the following diagram to see how this works:

How to braid threads in a braided essay

To help your reader distinguish one thread from another, writers often add a visual break between fragments from different threads. This usually means inserting either an additional section break or an asterisk between fragments.

In addition, while there are no maximum number of threads you can include in an essay, an essay with too many threads can get out of hand really quickly!

What makes a braided essay coherent?

Distinct threads often speak to one thing (or a few things) that unifies the essay. In Maggie Nelson’s Bluets , it is the narrator’s love of blue—established in the very beginning of the book-length essay—that provides coherence to the many threads in the essay, which range from philosophy to personal suffering, vision to pain. In other essays, what unifies the threads becomes apparent only as the essay develops; the pleasure of reading such essays comes from seeing how disparate threads gradually come together. A good example is “ Time and Distance Overcome ” by Eula Biss, which begins as an essay about the history of telephone poles and develops into a meditation on race. Another wonderful example by Biss is “Babylon,” which can be found in her book Notes from No Man’s Land .

The best braided essays, however, unfold associatively, even ambiguously.

The best braided essays, however, unfold associatively, even ambiguously. While coherence is important, making the links between the various threads too neat or too obvious can make an essay feel contrived and boring. When writing a braided essay, it’s always good to remember: your reader is often smarter than you think!

Before we explore how to write a braided essay, let’s look more closely at braided essay examples for inspiration.

Braided essay examples

• Rebecca Solnit’s “The Blue of Distance” is a classic braided essay that weaves the narrator’s meditations on the color blue in 15th century paintings and her personal reflections on distance, memory, and longing. This unlikely pairing plunges the reader into a poetic, blue-hued aura, inviting us to contemplate our own relationships with distance and longing. “The Blue of Distance” can be found in A Field Guide to Getting Lost alongside two more essays of the same name.
• In “ The Empathy Exams ,” Leslie Jamison draws on events in her personal life and her experiences working as a medical actor to craft a moving meditation on the concept of empathy. This essay also uses the form of a hermit crab essay (for more on hermit crabs, check out #9 in this article) with deftness and to great emotional effect. This essay can also be found in Jamison’s book, The Empathy Exams .
• Annie Dillard’s “An Expedition to the Pole” is a fascinating braided essay that interlaces the narrator’s religious experiences in church with reportage on famous polar expeditions. While this essay is rather long, the ending – in which the two separate threads fuse into one – makes it entirely worth it. “An Expedition to the Pole,” which opened up my ideas of what’s possible in a braided essay, can be found in Dillard’s essay collection, Teaching a Stone to Talk .
• In “Reality TV Me,” Jia Tolentino’s reflection on her time as a contestant on a reality tv show is intercut with short, ekphrastic descriptions of various scenes from the show. The result is a fun yet compelling meditation on the concepts of reality and performance. This essay can be found in Tolentino’s essay collection, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion .
• Braiding Sweetgrass offers, in the words of its author Robin Wall Kimmerer, “a braid of stories” about nature “woven from three stands: indigenous ways of knowing, scientific knowledge, and the story of an Anishinaabekwe scientist trying to bring them together in service to what matters most.” Expect to be delighted, jolted, and awed by this brilliant book.
• Rivka Galchen’s Little Labors is a miscellany of thoughts on motherhood, children’s literature, and great women writers. Enchanting and entirely unique, Little Labors is a great braided essay example in book form.
• In A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause , Shawn Wen paints a portrait of the mime Marcel Marceau with a varied collection of materials. At times cutting and moving, this innovative essay is a must-read.

Inspired yet? Follow this step-by-step guide on how to write a braided essay to write your own!

How to write a braided essay

The writing process, by definition, requires many rounds of drafting and revision. For a more general step-by-step guide to writing essays, check out the guides in these articles on writing lyric essays , narrative essays , and memoirs .

1. Get inspired and generate ideas

The best way to learn how to write a braided essay is to read one, and to get an idea of what’s possible. Next, begin making a list of ideas for your essay. If you’re in need of writing prompts, check out our Facebook group !

2. Do a freewrite

Once you’ve chosen one idea, explore its possibilities by doing a freewrite. While freewriting, be sure to keep your pen moving – don’t even stop to correct any grammatical or spelling mistakes! The point of a freewrite is to keep the ideas flowing until you arrive at an idea that feels right. In the words of Peter Elbow, who developed the freewriting strategy, “The consequence [of writing] is that you must start by writing the wrong meanings in the wrong words; but keep writing until you get to the right meanings in the right words. Only in the end will you know what you are saying.” In my personal experience, it often takes at least 10-15 minutes for a freewrite to yield the ideas that feel right.

3. Read your freewrite

As you read what you’ve just written, highlight important themes, ideas, words, and/or motifs. Rely on your intuition in this process. Of these, identify the core of the essay you’d like to write. This is the primary thread of your essay.

4. Begin writing your primary thread

Rather than starting from “the beginning,” however, begin with the thing that resonates most with you. Doing so not only helps you to maintain momentum in the writing process, but also provides an anchor for your writing. Because braided essays are so associative, it can be easy to lose track of what feels right in the process of writing.

5. Start on your other thread(s)

It is often much easier to build a braided essay when you do it bit by bit, rather than thread by thread. The reason is that, with a braided essay, development in one braid often affects another. It’s much easier to develop one thread alongside another. This also makes the final produce much more organic.

6. Read what you have so far

Now that you have written the beginnings of several threads, read what you have and notice how your essay has already morphed. Doing these regular “check-ins” with your braided essay can help you to stay on top of how it is developing. If not, a braided essay can get unruly very quickly!

7. Continue writing

If you’re not sure how to continue, do research. This can be any form of research – from interviews to googling, immersive to archival. As you do research, keep an eye out for opportunities for expansion. Ask yourself: what new associations emerge?

8. Repeat steps 4-7 until satisfied.

Good writing is often built section by section, rather than produced in one burst. As you read what you have written so far, note places to expand and places to cut.

Once you’re satisfied with your braided essay, begin paying attention to the finer things: word choice, sentence structure, figurative words. Revising and editing are key to making your braided essay work. If you’re looking for a fresh pair of eyes to look at your writing, check out our schedule of nonfiction workshops !

Writing a braided essay for the first time can be challenging, but remember to have fun in the process. If you’d like to learn about other forms of creative nonfiction, check out this article !

Write the best braided essays at Writers.com

What will your braided essay be about? Perhaps you’ll combine the most seemingly unrelated topics: your marriage with the history of paleontology; your time in high school with musings on the color orange; the anatomy of an orca with your favorite jacket.

Whatever the braids, write the best braided essays at Writers.com, where you’ll receive expert feedback on the essays you write. Find inspiration in our upcoming creative nonfiction courses , and forge new relationships between seemingly-unalike things.

I have written a braided essay (although I did not know it by this name until reading this post) of approximately 11,000 words. Too long for a short-story; too short for standard creative nonfiction.

Where does one publish a braided essay of intermediate length?

Hi Kathleen,

Good question! I don’t know of any journals off the bat that accept essays of that length–generally, the upper limit will range between 3,000 and 7,500 words. Nonetheless, you might find a good home for your essay at this article: https://writers.com/best-places-submit-creative-nonfiction-online

Best of luck!

Hi Kathleen, This is such a great explanation of the Braided Essay and these examples are amazing. I just bought ‘A Twenty Minute Silence’– thank you for introducing me to this text.

Question: I teach Creative Writing and my students love these Lyric Essay forms, but one student noted, ‘It seems like most collage and braided essays are about serious subjects: loss, heartbreak, grief, abuse, etc. Are there any funny collage or braided essays?’

I thought surely there must be but scanning Brevity and other online journals I could not come across a single ‘funny’ collage or braided essay. There are numerous funny Hermit Crab Essays but do you know of any funny/humorous Braided or Collage Essays?

I can also be reached at [email protected] (should you want to respond or have a response).

Sorry for the long comment here. Really enjoyed reading this! Thanks again.

I’m working on a braided essay for my class at the moment and its about mud and magic. Not a funny story but a fun story about childhood and imagination.

Have you looked up David Sedaris (Santaland Diaries) or Dave Barry? Off the top of my head, I’m sure they’d have something!

[…] writing styles, and this one is called a braided or woven essay. A braided essay is where you take two seemingly dissimilar topics and weave them together into one. In this case, I describe the physical and psychological strength my adoptive mother required to […]

I’m writing my memoir and can see a few threads that I could use for the braided structure, Does braiding work just as well for a book (80,000 words) as for an essay?

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How to write a braided essay, saturday, january 13, 2018 • writing tips.

What is a Braided Essay?

A braided essay is an essay that uses 2-3 events or topics to create an essay surrounding an event or question. Writers “weave” the “strands” (events or topics) together to form a “braid.” Sometimes when you say that out loud to yourself, it makes no sense. Therefore, let’s look at Joann Beard’s “ The Fourth State of Matter. ” Beard’s main strand is her narrative about taking care of her sick collie that is dying. Her first strand is dealing with the squirrels in her spare bedroom and the breakdown of her marriage. The last strand is the Iowa University Physics department shooting. These events are woven together to create one essay about an author’s inability to control the events happening in her life. Braided essays can have more or less than three “strands.” Essays have been known to have just two strands or four to five. The most important thing to note about braided essays is repetition of the braid “strands.” The repetition of these elements are what makes an essay braided rather than just a collage. If you place multiple fragmented events and don’t repeat them, you are making a collage, not a braided essay. 

How to Construct a Braided Essay

The worksheet is pretty straightforward and basic. It by no means encompasses what your braided essay can be, but I thought it would be easier to go over a simple braid.

First you will chose the anchor of your essay, otherwise known as the main strand or core event. This can also be a theme if you’re exploring different facets of something. In Beard, her main core event is taking care of her collie. (You can also say it’s the shooting, I believe it’s open to interpretation, but either way this method works no matter what you choose as the core). With this core event, Beard weaves two other strands. The first other strand is the Beard’s failing marriage and the squirrels infesting her guest bedroom. This event ties in the collie because it is another thing Beard doesn’t have control over and can’t deal with on her own. You will need to choose another event that makes sense when related to your core event. Pick a longer scene or topic in order to continue the repetition pattern that has to happen. After choosing two events, you will need to pick one more to round out your essay and complete the braid. It doesn’t have to relate to the first other strand you chose, but needs to relate to the core event somehow. In “The Fourth State of Matter,” Beard talks about the Iowa University Physics Department shooting. This relates to the collie because Beard discusses the collie with her coworkers, but also later because of Beard not being able to save her coworkers and their own death she has to deal with. Again, the key here is the repetition. Beard is constantly weaving these events in her essay to create the braid. You must do this too, to create a proper braided essay.

More Inspiration and Examples

If writing braided essays intrigues you, or you enjoy reading the format, I have a few sources of inspiration to share with you. Along with Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter,” other braided essays include Biondolillo’s “ How to Skin a Bird ” and Redsand’s “ A Good Stranger .” Biondolilo’s “How to Skin a Bird” is a more fragmented version of a braided essay and discusses the author’s relationship with her daughter while instructing on how to skin a bird properly. Redsand’s “A Good Stranger” discusses the author’s religious identity, braiding Christianity, Judaism, and Navajo tradition. “A Good Stranger” is an outstanding example if you are looking to write on a theme rather than focus on a certain event. You can also find more information and other works to read on this  website .

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12 comments:.

"How to Skin a Bird" is about the author's relationship with her father, not her daughter. But otherwise thank you for this. Beard's "Fourth State of Matter" is pretty unparalleled in my opinion, but I like the form and variety of braids I see in these essays and appreciate the thoughtful way you wrote this post.

Thank you for this information. Just want to let you know there are a few typos.

A lot of mistakes for a “writing addict.”

I appreciate the explanation and examples you gave. I was surprised to find several editing mistakes in your writing, though. For example, you wrote that squirrels were investing a bedroom when I think you mean infesting. I don’t want to be a curmudgeon, but there were enough errors to distract me from the reading. You may get consider editing your writing more thoroughly or hiring someone to do so.

Hi Kathy, I’m sorry you found the editing mistakes distracting, but I’m glad you enjoyed the content. This post is three years old and I like to believe my skills have improved since then. I will happily read over this post again and give it another editing look. By the way, “You may consider editing your writing more thoroughly or hiring someone to do so.” If you’re going to complain about someone’s editing/writing, I think I would review my comment more thoroughly. Have a great day and happy writing!

Some people are just sticklers, and sticklers are the reason so many writers are unnecessarily afraid of editors. Seriously, commenting on a stranger's blog about minor errors? Get over yourself! I thought this was the most useful and informative bit of writing about braided essays I've come across. Well done, Shelby.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the post :) They are one of my favorite essay types and probably what I write most often apart from collage essays.

This was so helpful! I'm in a college class right now, it's online, and the professor asked us to write a rough draft for a braided essay without telling us what it was. Her only link led to a cite we used last week for an entirely different subject. You have saved my grade and my blood pressure. Thank you so much!

I'm glad I could help! Good luck with your essay! :)

I Googled braided essay to find some examples, got to your blog, and then read "The Fourth State of Matter." Holy Hell, beautiful. It's going to sit with me forever.

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

How to Write a Braided Essay: Easy Steps & Example

22 December 2023

last updated

Importance of Writing a Braided Essay

As a literary form, a braided essay is unique for its distinctive ability to weave together multiple narrative strands or threads (from 2 to 4), creating a new and complex piece of ideas and themes. This structure is crucial in academic writing for its ability to explore topics from various angles. In a braided essay, each strand or thread, such as a personal anecdote, historical analysis, or theoretical exploration, maintains its distinctive role and perspective, and it is connected to other strands or threads, creating a harmonious and coherent whole work. This method is effective in illustrating how different elements can be connected to each other, indicating new layers of meaning and understanding. By following a linear narrative style dominant in traditional academic essays, a braided structure enables a more holistic and reflective exploration of subjects. This form of writing also engages readers actively, compels them to draw connections between various strands or threads, and promotes a more engaged and critical approach to reading and interpretation.

What Is a Braided Essay and Its Definition

According to its definition, a braided essay is a distinctive literary form of writing characterized by the interweaving of several narratives or threads of thought (from 2 to 4), much like strands in a braid. Each strand or thread in a braided essay stands as a self-contained narrative, claim , or argument. For writers, the purpose of using a braided narrative structure is to connect different themes from multiple perspectives, leading to a new understanding of topics under analysis. Moreover, a braided essay structure can follow not only a linear narrative writing format but also a more complex arrangement that reflects various connections to life experiences and ideas. A braiding technique also enables writers to use personal anecdotes with scholarly research or historical events. In turn, this form of the synthesis of personal and external elements results in writing new insights and perspectives about storytelling and creative nonfiction.

How to Start a Braided Essay in 5 Steps

Like any other types of papers , starting a braided essay requires a thoughtful approach to set the stage for a correct weaving of narratives. Begin by introducing your central theme or question, which is an anchor that ties your strands together. Then, focus on each narrative thread, writing about stories or ideas you plan to connect. A strong start in a braided essay is like separating your strands before weaving them into a cohesive and beautiful whole.

1. Identify Distinctive Strands (2-4 Threads)

Begin by identifying different strands or narratives that you will intertwine in your essay. These threads may include personal anecdotes, stories, historical events, research findings, or theoretical discussions. Each thread should be distinctive and relevant to the theme of your essay.

2. Develop Each Strand Individually

Before intertwining strands, develop each thread separately to ensure it is coherent and complete in itself. This aspect involves fleshing out the details, arguments, or stories within each thread, ensuring they are engaging and well-articulated in your braided essay.

3. Interweave Strands

Start braiding all chosen strands together. It involves making connections between different narratives at critical points. The transition between threads should be smooth and logical, allowing readers to follow the flow of a braided essay without confusion.

4. Highlight Connections and Contrasts

As you weave all chosen strands, highlight their connections and contrasts. This stage is crucial in writing a braided essay, as it improves the writer’s understanding of the topic by providing multiple perspectives and layers of meaning.

5. Conclude With Synthesis

In the end of writing, synthesize all the insights gained from interwoven narratives. It does not necessarily mean providing a resolution but offering a reflective overview of how intertwined threads contribute to a deeper understanding of a braided essay’s central theme.

Examples of Braided Essay Topics

• Climate Change: Personal Impact and Global Policies
• Cultural Identity: Exploring Heritage and Modern Influences
• The Intersection of Art and Science in Historical Contexts
• Mental Health: Personal Experiences vs. Societal Perceptions
• The Influence of Technology on Human Relationships
• Journeys in Nature: Personal Adventures and Environmental Conservation
• Food Culture: Family Traditions and Global Cuisines
• The Role of Music in Personal Development and Cultural Expression
• Education Systems: Personal Learning Experiences and Theoretical Frameworks
• Migration Stories: Personal Narratives and Political Contexts
• Urban vs. Rural Living: A Personal and Sociological Perspective
• Fitness and Wellness: Personal Goals and Healthcare Systems
• The Evolution of Communication: From Letters to Digital Media
• Fashion Trends: Personal Style and Historical Influences
• Language and Identity: Personal Linguistic Journey and Sociolinguistics
• Travel and Discovery: Personal Expeditions and Historical Explorers
• Parenting Styles: Personal Experiences and Psychological Theories
• Social Media: Personal Use and Its Impact on Society
• Work-Life Balance: Personal Strategies and Corporate Policies
• Volunteering: Personal Motivations and Community Benefits
• The Changing Landscape of News Consumption: From Print to Digital
• Gender Roles: Personal Experiences and Societal Expectations
• Space Exploration: Personal Fascination and Scientific Endeavors
• Reading Habits: Personal Literary Journeys and Evolving Publishing Trends
• Sustainable Living: Personal Practices and Global Environmental Policies
• The Evolution of Gaming: Personal Experiences and Technological Advances
• Historical Events: Personal Family Stories and Their Place in World History
• The Influence of Cinema: Personal Impressions and Film Industry Changes
• Entrepreneurship: Personal Business Ventures and Economic Theories
• Spirituality and Religion: Personal Beliefs and Cultural Practices

Simple Outline Template for Writing a 5-Paragraph Braided Essay (Structure of 3 Threads)

I. Introduction

• Introduce a central theme or question of a braided essay.
• Briefly present the three threads (narratives or ideas) that will be braided for writing your paper.
• Thesis statement : Summarize the main point or insight that emerges from intertwining these threads.

II. Body Paragraph 1: Introduction of Thread A

• Introduce the first narrative or idea (Thread A).
• Provide background information or context.
• Explain how Thread A relates to a central theme.

III. Body Paragraph 2: Introduction and Weaving of Thread B

• Introduce the second narrative or idea (Thread B).
• Weave Thread B with aspects of Thread A introduced previously.
• Highlight connections or contrasts between Threads A and B.

IV. Body Paragraph 3: Introduction and Weaving of Thread C

• Introduce the third narrative or idea (Thread C).
• Weave Thread C with aspects of Threads A and B.
• Emphasize how Thread C adds meaning and depth or a new perspective to a braided narrative.

V. Conclusion

• Provide a summary of how the three strands are interwoven and what this new perspective reveals about a central theme.
• Reiterate the thesis in the light of the three braided narratives.
• Offer final reflections or implications of the insights gained from the essay.

Note: You can add or remove body paragraphs depending on the number of strands. However, the logic of a braided essay must be followed for 2 or more threads. The structure will depend on the number of critical points between 2 or more threads. Hence, there can be more than 2 paragraphs in each body section of a braided essay.

Braided Essay Example

Topic: The Evolution of Communication (Critical Point): Traditional Letters, Telephony, and Digital Media (3 Threads)

I. Sample Introduction of a Braided Essay

The evolution and development of communication is a historical reflection of human intelligence and societal progress. In this case, it is fantastic to see how far people have come from the simple act of writing handwritten letters to the introduction of the Internet. With each mode of communication, they see how different changes happen in all aspects of their lives. In particular, traditional letters, telephony, and digital media reflect speed, style, and societal changes, which is evidence of human progress.

II. Body Paragraph Example 1: The Era of Letters

In the era of letters, communication was a deliberate, reflective process. Handwritten letters, crafted with care, were imbued with personal touch and emotional depth. This mode of communication shaped a sense of intimacy and patience between a sender and a recipient, as people wrote their thoughts and feelings in physical papers, often waiting days or weeks for a response. As a result, the physical features of letters, with individualized handwriting and paper, created a personal connection between many people who could not meet together due to long distances but wanted to share their feelings and thoughts.

III. Body Paragraph Example 2: Emergence and Impact of Telephony

The invention and mass introduction of telephony as a communicational technology marked a significant shift in the human world. With the telephone, conversations that once took weeks for letters could occur in real-time, bridging distances with the sound of a human voice. Basically, this revolution in communication changed not just how people communicated but also social dynamics. Telephone conversations offered a new form of connection, one that was more direct and personal than letters, but it lacked their intimacy and patience nature. In turn, this era of telephones saw the beginning of the transformation of communication from writing letters to private conversations.

IV. Body Paragraph Example 3: The Digital Media Age

Nowadays, with the help of the Internet, digital media has taken a dominant position in all human societies, and it is characterized by its speed, diversity, and popularity. For example, emails, social media, and instant messaging via smartphones have changed people’s interactions, allowing global connectivity in one second. Moreover, digital communication has a universal format because it supports text, audio, and video channels, improving the ways in which people connect. In this case, digital media has become a modern form of communication among its users, and it has replaced traditional letters and telephones in full. Hence, even if people are far away from each other, they can write letters or call their family members, friends, colleagues, or anyone they want.

V. Sample Conclusion of a Braided Essay

The historical evolution from letters to digital media is real evidence of a dramatic shift in communication styles and human interactions that people have today. While letters suggested depth and emotional connection between senders and recipients, telephony allowed them to hear each other irrespective of distance. Furthermore, digital media helps people connect with each other anywhere in the world. In turn, each stage in the evolution of communication reflects changes in trends, values, and technologies. As a result, a better understanding of this evolution can provide new ideas into not just how people communicate but also the changing nature of social interactions and human relationships.

20 Tips for Writing a Braided Essay

When writing a braided essay, it is essential to intertwine different narratives harmoniously. In this case, selecting correct strands that are distinctive and share a thematic connection at the same time allows writers to connect and contrast each other meaningfully. Hence, you should think about these 10 dos and 10 don’ts when writing your braided essay.

10 Dos for Writing a Braided Essay to Consider:

• Choose Complementary Strands
• Maintain Clarity in Each Strand
• Use Smooth Transitions Between Threads
• Balance Strands in a braided essay
• Highlight Connections and Contrasts
• Write About Varied Critical Points
• Keep Your Audience in Mind
• Reflect on a Bigger Picture
• Revise for Cohesion
• Experiment With Structure
• Overcomplicating Strands
• Neglecting Transitions
• Losing a Focus on a Central Theme
• Using Unrelated Strands
• Disregarding the Purpose of Each Strand
• Missing a Balance Between Strands
• Providing Non-Connected Critical Points
• Repeating the Information in a braided essay
• Forgetting to Proofread
• Ignoring a Braided Narrative Structure

Summing Up on How to Write a Good Braided Essay

• Select Interconnected Strands: Choose narrative threads that are distinct yet thematically linked, allowing for writing a rich and meaningful braided essay.
• Develop Each Strand Fully: Focus on each narrative with enough detail and depth, ensuring that each thread stands strong on its own while contributing to the overall theme of a paper.
• Provide Smooth Transitions: Seamlessly intertwine your narratives, using thoughtful transitions to maintain the logical order of ideas and coherence of the overall essay.
• Maintain a Balanced Approach: Give equal weight to each narrative strand, avoiding the dominance of one strand over others.
• Highlight Connections and Contrasts: Use connections of different narratives to draw out and emphasize both the similarities and the differences, enriching the reader’s understanding.
• Engage Readers Emotionally and Intellectually: Strive to connect with your readers on both an emotional and intellectual level, making your braided essay writing both thought-provoking and relatable.
• Keep a Central Theme in Your Focus: Ensure that all narrative strands correspond to each other and explore a central theme of your paper.
• Revise for Cohesion and Clarity: Use your time to revise your essay, focusing on improving its coherence, unity, and clarity.
• Incorporate Personal and Analytical Elements: Blend personal narratives with analytical insights or research, suggesting a well-detailed argument or story.
• End With a Reflective Conclusion: Conclude by connecting together various strands, offering a final synthesis that covers a central theme and leaves a lasting impact on readers.

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Finding Your Footing: Sub-genres in Creative Nonfiction

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This resource provides an introduction to creative nonfiction, including an overview of the genre and an explanation of major sub-genres.

Memoir is perhaps the “flagship” of creative nonfiction, the sub-genre most familiar to those outside of literary and academic circles. Most human beings lead interesting lives filled with struggle, conflict, drama, decisions, turning points, etc.; but not all of these stories translate into successful memoir. The success of the memoir depends on the writer’s ability to sequence events, to tell a story, and to describe characters in believable ways, among other things. Writer Carol Spindel reminds us that in the mid-2000s a scandal surrounding writer James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces erupted after he was forced to admit that large sections of his “memoir” were “fictionalized:” he’d embellished, made things up. A memoir that strays from the truth is not far removed from lying, because regardless of the writer’s intention, the story deceives the reader. Spindel writes that, unlike in novels, “The knowledge expressed in the memoir has the legitimacy acquired through first-hand experience.” Good memoir also provides reflection on the events that have happened to the writer, so it “can give readers insights into society, and even into the larger meaning of life itself” (Spindel).

The Braided Essay

The braided essay is a good tool for introducing writers—especially student writers—to the CNF genre. In a braided essay, the writer has multiple “threads” or “through-lines” of material, each on a different subject. The essay is broken into sections using medial white space, lines of white space on a page where there are no words (much like stanzas in poetry), and each time there is a section break, the writer moves from one “thread” to another. Braided essays take their name from this alternating of storylines, as well as from the threads the story contains; there are usually three, though to have four or two is also possible. Though there is not a strict formula for success, the form usually contains at least one thread that is very personal and based on memory, and at least one thread that is heavily researched. Often, the threads seem very disparate at first, but by the climax of the essay, the threads being to blend together; connections are revealed.

Topical Writing

Perhaps the genre closest to an essay or a blog post, topical writing is an author’s take on a given topic of specific interest to the reader. For example, nature writing and travel writing have been popular for centuries, while food writing is gathering steam via cooking blogs. Nature writing involves exploring the writer’s experience in a beautiful and thoroughly rendered natural setting, such as a cabin on a mountaintop. Travel Writing, as the name implies, details the writer’s experiences while traveling, whether by choice on a vacation or out of necessity due to business or serving in the military. Finally, contemporary food writing explores the writer’s connection to cooking and enjoying food of any variety. All three will occasionally step into the writer’s personal experiences via memories, but these episodes are always related to the topic driving the essay.

Whatever form a creative nonfiction piece takes, it must remain based in the author’s actual lived experiences and perceptions. Like academic writing, the piece must be accurately researched and the sources must be documented. Finally, the author must also always leave room to reflect on how their experiences have shaped them into the person they are now. It’s the reflection that makes the reader feel satisfied: it offers something to the reader that they can carry with them, a way of seeing the world.

Works Cited

Cokinos, Christopher. “Organized Curiosity: Creative Writers and the Research Life.” Writer’s Chronicle 42.7: April/May 2015. 92-104. Print.

Ironman, Sean. “Writing the Z-Axis: Reflection in the Nonfiction Workshop.” Writer’s

Chronicle 47.1: September 2014. 42-49. Print.

Spindel, Carol. "When Ambiguity Becomes Deception: The Ethics of Memoir." Writer's

Chronicle (2007): n. pag. AWP . Association of Writing Programs, 1 Dec. 2007. Web. 13

Sept. 2015.

Terrill, Richard. "Creative Nonfiction and Poetry." Writer's Chronicle (2004): n. pag. AWP .

Association of Writing Programs, Oct.-Nov. 2004. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

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Braiding: Using and Understanding Complexity in Creative Nonfiction

This critical thesis examines the structure of braiding and how two authors use it to depict complex topics: BK Loren in her essay “The Evolution of Hunger” and Rebecca Solnit in her book The Faraway Nearby. The structure for a braided essay includes three types of strands: the research line, the narrative through line, and the past-tense strand. This thesis probes techniques to braid themes, such as direct statements, using related scenes and terms, theme variations, and other types of intertwining. Techniques for guiding the reader through complexity are analyzed, such as how Loren connects strand types and how they both use clear first sentences. Finally, it also shows how the authors use braiding to explore complex feelings about family members.

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This article explores the genre of creative nonfiction, highlighting the largely hidden processes that influence our appraisals of it. Using a framework that builds from genre theory, this work argues that by exposing and confronting the complexity of the mechanisms by which we judge writing to be factual, we can productively intervene in debates about writing’s veracity, and more broadly, we can better understand why we tend to discount divergent views on facts.

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This is the project description of a 2 years (2016-17) postdoctoral research project. This website will contain all the information about my current research and publications: http://narrativeresearch.federicopianzola.me/

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The concept of “rewilding” has made its way into popular culture in recent years, describing a network of supporting the health of the environment and humanity itself through the cultivation of un-cultivated spaces within existing structures. This paper looks at recent cutting-edge works in literary criticism and theory to see how they handle this growing contemporary impulse to defer to wildness, ie. Complexity, as the “natural” form of cultural and biological processes.

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In an effort to write responsively to young adult literature in a collaborative, reflective, and purposeful way, I explore here a classroom experience encouraged by Miller and Paola’s (2004) Tell It Slant, Kajder’s (2010) Adolescents and Digital literacies: Learning Alongside our Students (2010), and NWP’s (2010) Because Digital Writing Matters. The braided essay, derived from the lyric essay (Fischer, 1976), offers students a unique way to collaborate and respond to young adult literature. The braided essay involves the repetition of an idea. For example, two students’ collaborative braided essay involved pulling out meaningful quotations from literature, and they braided their essay around those quotations. No matter how the repeated idea is handled, the repetition is “braided” into the essay- and at the same time set apart. The two different parts, the essay and the repeated idea, are woven together so that they flow. The braided essay offers an interesting way to collaborate and respond to young adult literature. Since this essay form is based off the lyric essay, the option of the musical addition through a multimedia product is natural segue. Students can learn to be reflective in transactional ways as they develop their emerging voice in writing. This braided, collaborative essay, written in response to young adult literature, and followed by the multimedia composition serves to share the readers’ experience and elicit voice, an important component in the production of both written and digital composition and reader response.

Theory Matters: The Place of Theory in Literary and Cultural Studies Today, Ed. M. Middeke & C. Reinfandt, pp. 265-279.

Richard Walsh

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How do creative writers transform the complexity of life into literature? Remix Perspectives presents a bricolage synthesis of transdisciplinary insights for workshop leaders and creative writers, appropriated from selected artistic and literary voices from more or less the last hundred years. Seminal concepts from arts such as painting, poetry, dance, music, and photography are gathered here as they inform the arts of literary fiction and creative nonfiction. Thinkers from philosophy, psychology, literary theory, complexity, and metaphysics address the inner and outer realms where the work of the writer is generated and goes forth.

Dr. Israa Burhanuddin

Applying a stylistic analysis on certain texts refers to the identification of patterns of usage in writing. However, such an analysis is not restricted just to the description of the formal characteristics of texts, but it also tries to elucidate their functional importance for the interpretation of the text. This paper highlights complexity as a hallmark of a stylistic analysis in "A Rose for Emily", a short story by William Faulkner (1897-1962). The analysis is done by adopting Halliday's (1985) approach to analyzing complexity in sentence structure; and Lauer, et al. (2008) approach to analyzing narrative from a macro perspective in relation to the story acts. The analysis rests upon the assumption that since form conveys meaning, Faulkner's multilayer usage of complexity is extremely functional. This paper tries also to detect and prove that stylistic complexity is manipulated to convey the main themes, events, and successfully lead to identify the distinctive structure of this story.

How do creative writers transform the complexity of life into literature? Remix Perspectives presents a bricolage synthesis of transdisciplinary insights for workshop leaders and creative writers, appropriated from selected artistic and literary voices from more or less the last hundred years. Seminal concepts from arts such as painting, poetry, dance, music, and photography are gathered here as they inform the arts of literary fiction and creative nonfiction. Thinkers from philosophy, psychology, literary theory, complexity, and metaphysics address the inner and outer realms where the work of the writer is generated and goes forth

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Course Syllabus

Play with Pattern: Crafting the Braided and Collage Essays

Often, experimenting with a new form is the best way to get unstuck and gain a fresh perspective on your writing. Perhaps you’re wondering how to become more experimental or looser in your writing, or you may be at an impasse with material you’ve been working with. In this generative course, we will examine the creative potential of juxtaposing themes through collage or a braided technique. Using writing prompts, readings, and discussion questions, you will explore how to breathe life into a subject through weaving of material and use of space. This class will provide tips and practice in using these forms as a way to make your writing fresh and engaging, both for your reader and for yourself.

Week 1 – Space and Juxtaposition

In this first week, you will examine models of collage essays, thinking about how they ask the reader to participate in the construction of meaning. What does this look like from the writer’s side?  Through directed prompts, you will investigate how collage can be a tool of creative investigation.

Week 2 – Creating Resonance in Collage Pieces

You will further explore collage, pacing, and revision. How can collaged pieces draw a reader along?  What is that engine?  You will look for repetitions (of motifs/images/language) in pieces by others and analyze how that is working in your own responses to writing exercises.

Week 3 – Braided Pieces and How the Weaving Works

This week will address models of braided pieces and how they work. You’ll look at your own interests and begin mining your life for threads of language or subject matter, unlocking their creative potential.

Week 4 – Following the Threads

You will build on your thinking about collage and braiding, investigating how these techniques can enliven old drafts or help you find your way into new work. Whether or not the final piece is strictly in the form of collage or braided essay, how can you bring these techniques into your writing practice? End the course with a better understanding of how loose connections,  juxtapositions, and the joining of disparate ideas are central to the creative life.

“Play with Pattern,” was developed by Joanna Cooper. Joanna Penn Cooper writes and teaches flash memoir, lyric essays, and poetry, and she is the author of  The Itinerant Girl’s Guide to Self-Hypnosis   (Brooklyn Arts Press) and   What Is a Domicile  (Noctuary Press). Her work has appeared in  The Academy of American Poets  Poem-a-Day feature, as well as  South Dakota Review, Vinyl, On the Seawall, Poetry International , and other journals. Joanna holds a Ph.D. in English from Temple University and an MFA from New England College, and in her teaching career, she has held full-time visiting positions at Marquette University and Fordham University.  Joanna is a frequent contributor to  Good Letters , the online component of  Image Journal . She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

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About Laura J. Oliver

Laura J. Oliver, MFA, is a story development editor, newspaper columnist, NPR contributor, and writing mentor who has taught at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. The author of The Story Within (Penguin Random House), Oliver teaches others to write successful short stories, novels, memoirs, and personal essays. Oliver’s work appears in national publications such as The Washington Post, Country Living Magazine, The Writer Magazine, The Sun Magazine. Her editing clients have landed book contracts with publishers such as Simon and Schuster. Oliver won a Maryland Arts Council Award in Fiction, is an Anne Arundel County Literary Arts Award winner, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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The Braided Approach to Memoir

Our lives are made up of many strands—some of experience, some of memory, some of meditation and reflection, some of ongoing action. Those who write memoir must find the appropriate forms for ensuring that the textures of life will have their full expression.

What we know about the braided essay offers us a plan for making sure that we put a fully lived life on the page. Taking our cues from this form can invite us to dramatize important moments from our lives, blend the past with the present and the future, and find a place from which we can reflect, meditate, think, and make meaning.

So here’s a writing activity designed to allow you to wrap past and present through the lens of action and memory, to move from the role of participant to spectator, to project the course of our lives through the present and on into the future.

First, identify a line of action from your past, something that has stayed with you long beyond its resolution in real time. I might, for example, choose the night I stole my father’s car when I was a teenager. Write the first scene of this narrative thread.

Second, find another story line from the present that in some way connects to the one from your past. You don’t need to know how it connects at this point. Trust your instinct. Say to yourself, “When I think of that story from my past, I also think of this story from the present.” Write the first scene of that present-day narrative.

Third, slip into a more reflective mode. Maybe begin with the line, “If I could tell my younger self what I know now, I’d say. . . .” Speak from a wiser perspective. Allow yourself to make meaning from the past experience.

Fourth, attach what you’ve written in the third step to the present-day story line. Maybe begin with the line, “And what would my younger self tell me now? Maybe he or she would tell me to. . . .”

Fifth, continue to wrap steps two and three around the first one until you arrive at a place where you can make some sort of statement about the future. Maybe begin with the line, “I know that tomorrow. . . .”

Once you have a draft, you can decide whether to take liberties with the form of the braid. The purpose of the exercise is to invite past, present, and future onto the page through the discourses of dramatization and reflection. Now that you’ve gathered your material, you can relax the form if you wish or make it even more stringent, depending on how well it serves what you’ve come to the page to think more about.

The strands of our lives are multiple and complex. Our memoirs should formally allow those strands to converse, and by so doing, to make them resonate with us and our readers.

15 Comments

You have no idea how much your post helps me this morning. If only I could get some discipline and WRITE. I have a book inside of me dying to get out. I find some reason to ñot sit and my desk and WRITE. Time’s awasting. I’m not getting any younger. But meantime, I enjoy what others write. Especially your latest book: “Late One Night.” It kept me interested until the very end. Thanks!

I’m so glad to hear that his was helpful to you this morning, Eileen! And thank you so much for the kind words about “Late One Night.”

Brilliance, as usual, without pridefulness–not to overlook the part-the-waters miracle clarity. Wow.

Thanks, Lee.

Thanks, Roy. You have me wondering whether this braided approach works for writing poems–maybe through different images, etc?

Lee, you’re a godsend. I have spent three years on writing scenes for my memoir, only to hit a brick wall when I tried to find the right structure. After being suggested to write a braided narrative, i first tried a frame narrative, couldn’t get it to work for me. When I decided to write a braided narrative, I searched different articles online, and thankfully came across your piece.

Thank you so much for your wealth of knowledge on this subject! Don

You’re very welcome, Don. I’m glad I could be of help. I put a new post up every Monday. You might also be interested in my craft book, Telling Stories: The Craft of Narrative and the Writing Life , which will be out October 1, although friends tell me their pre-ordered copies from Amazon.com have already started to arrive. At any rate, thanks so much for visiting my blog and for taking the time to leave this comment. I wish you all the best for your work.

I am glad there is a name for what I have written. Critiques say I should be more chronological. Others like it, but they know me. I don’t know if I CAN rearrange it.

Thanks. I enjoy this and others of your posts.

Thanks for reading my blog and for taking the time to leave a comment. The thing I love about creative nonfiction is the fact that there are so many different approaches–and all of them are valid!

I am stuck on deciding on the right structure. I’m leaning toward braided narratives. Could you possibly shoot some advice? I’ll give you some info on my memoir if you email me. Thank you!

[email protected]

Josh, if you’re interested in braided approaches, find a book called “Writing Creative Nonfiction,” edited by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard, and read the piece on braided essays by Brenda Miller. Good luck!

A friend forwarded this to me. Your exercise just produced ideas and an essay outline ready for development. Appreciate the template. I have struggled with how to add complexity to linear pieces: braiding is the answer. Thank you!

Heidi, I’m so glad that my exercise worked for you, and I thank you for taking the time to leave this comment.

This was a very helpful post. I am struggling with structure on a rough draft of my memoir which I feel could benefit from being rearranged into a more present/past/present/past braid. This post gave me an idea of how to go back and examine what I have and rework. Structure is my biggest challenge. Thank you very much.

I’m so glad you found my post helpful. Thank you for reading and for taking the time to leave a comment.

I hadn’t heard of braided memoire writing before this – thanks for explaining, Lee.

btw, I love anything to do with books & would be thrilled if you’d write a guest blog post for my site, which is for anyone who enjoys writing, or books, and all the arts. If you think it might be fun or helpful to have my followers (who total about 10k across my various social media) meet you, here’s the link for general guidelines: https://wp.me/p6OZAy-1eQ

best – da-AL

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Nicole Walker

Braided Essays

I turned the talk I gave last year in Melbourne into an essay for Creative Nonfiction magazine . Now, I’m kind of obsessed with braided essays and am looking forward to working with my colleague, Gretchen Younghans, who teaches at Flag High. As part of the Alpine program, she and I and a few grad students are taking her Alpine students out to Clear Creek Reservoir to kayak and write.

I suggested we do a braided essay exercise where the students make observations about the tiny things, the mosquito hawks on the surface of the water, the kinds of graffiti on the rocks, the spinning leaves, the wind broken trees. Then, when we take a break for lunch, the students will use their observations as one thread of their essay. Then, they’ll switch to writing a personal narrative that uses scene and dialogue to really root us in their experience–they could write about their emotional experience being on the lake, they could write about a past memory of another lake, they could write about their childhood kitchen or the time they dropped their school lunch on the lunchroom floor and everyone laughed. After five minutes of personal narrative, we’ll ask them to return to their “research,” again dispassionately describing what they saw. Then, after five minutes, we’ll ask them to return to their personal story finishing, for now, this process.

In revision, what the students might discover is how certain word choices, images, or motifs appear in all four sections. To make those synchronicities stronger, the students can emphasize them by writing a little more, and a little more slowly, around those repeated moments. They can change some words so more words do repeat. And, they can see how, by putting these two seemingly random stories together, they learned more about themselves and the place they visited by pressing the two so closely together.

In order to give the students a sense of what these essays might finally look like, here are some examples.

Brenda Miller’s Swerve

Lee Ann Roripaugh’s The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed

Nicole Walker’s Superfluidity

Matthew Komatsu’s When We Played

The above essays show how moving from topic to topic between paragraphs can provide multiple perspectives on the same topic like a prism. The following essays, though longer, provide that true braid where the back and forth phenomenon leads to a new and integrated understanding of the subject.

Chelsea Biondolillo’s   How to Skin a Bird

Nicole Walker’s Abundance and Scarcity

Joann Beard’s The Fourth State of Matter

Eula Biss’s  Time and Distance Overcome

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Lesson No. 2: The Braided Essay

• “Picturing the Personal Essay” by Tim Bascom
• “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard
• “Prelude: The Box” by Eula Biss  

In his visual craft Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay “Picturing the Personal Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >Essay ,” Tim Bascom shows the various way a piece of writing can be organized in order to create a structure that heightens the overall narrative . He describes how writing can veer off into directions different from the writer’s initial intentions. Neat, huh? Because here we are with this perfectly structured and well-organized Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay stewing in our heads, and then when we go to write it down it looks like a sprawling maze that doesn’t lead anywhere—at least not where we thought it would lead. This experience can lead to confusing thoughts of what, exactly, we’re trying to say. But it can also lead to something greater and more complex than our original idea. 

Key thing to remember: we might not know what we’re trying to say. 

And that’s okay. Go with the sprawling and see where it goes. One way to bring the endless maze into focus is to look at the main themes and/or narratives you have started to discuss in this Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay zygote. Though something you will most likely start to see as you look at all of these disorganized elements is that there are some main strands of ideas running through the mess. What to do next? Enter: the braid. 

The structure of a braided Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay is pretty basic: take at least three different narratives , break them up into different segments, and then organizing them by mixing them together. While basic, this type of Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay isn’t necessarily an easy one to write. How can you get seemingly unrelated narratives to speak to one another? 

The key points to a braided Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay are an overarching theme and juxtaposition. The success of the braided Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay is dependent on how you use these elements in order to make three different narratives speak to one another. So get ready for some free-association. Think of it this way: you might not know what you want to say, but you can look at what you have already written or the different experiences you have/want to write about and see if there are any connecting images, words, phrases, ideas or even loosely-related events that can get these segments to speak to one another. You might have to tinker with the segments to get them into a dialogue . You might have to leave some segments out. Regardless of what you do or do not include, look at each segment as a separate entity, but also as part of a whole. Because this is what a braided Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay is: disjointed thoughts juxtaposed in such a way as to create a connected narrative , a larger meaning. 

• What are the three strands of Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter”? In what ways do they carry equal weight? In what ways do they not? And what do you think is the theme that connects these three topics together?
• The execution scene in Beard’s Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay brings a type of disruption not just to the narrative , but to how that narrative is told through braiding together three Plot A story is a series of events recorded in their chronological order. A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance. A story gives us only "what happened next," whereas plot's concern is "what, how, and why," with scenes ordered to highlight the workings of cause and effect... E. M. Forster distinguishes between plot and story by describing story as: <br/>the chopped off length of the tape worm of time... a narrative of(...) Term details " >story lines. In what ways does Beard begin to braid again, and how is this different from how she braided the strands before the execution scene ?
• In “Prelude: The Box,” Eula Biss brings small segments from three different types of narratives into conversation with each other: quotes from family members, Biss’s own thoughts /reflections, an airplane’s black box. What theme(s) do you think bring these strands together? How do the narratives build on one another in order to fully examine the theme(s)?
• What are some of the moments in Biss’s Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay in which you think the segments most affectively speak to one another?

Writing Exercises

• Blindly flip through the dictionary and  put your finger down three different times. Take the three words your finger landed on and write about what color has to do with each of them.
• Make a list of 5 objects you can see from where you are sitting right now. Cover that up and make a list of 5 different physical actions you have done so far today (walking, sitting, writing, etc.). Look at the lists, and write about each noun using at least one of the verbs you wrote down. Once you have a few sentences per noun, write a paragraph or sentence in between each segment that helps to connect them thematically or visually.
• Print out THIS  document of Opening The opening of any work should immediately immerse the reader into the narrative. An opening might focus primarily on character(s) and/or setting. Regardless of focus, there is a general rule of thumb when writing effective openings—in medias res—or to put it another way, just throw us right into the middle of things and give us strategic, concrete details. <br/>Below are two narrative structures. The first more applicable to longer forms, the second from Burroway's <em>Writing Fiction: A Guide to(...)</em> Term details " >opening paragraphs of famous novels and cut it up so that each paragraph is on its own slip of paper. Now take the paragraph bits and organize them in a way that makes sense to you.

Weekly Deadlines

• All readings are to be completed
• At least one discussion response is to be  posted to the FORUM below .
• Weekly draft of Essay A moderately brief prose discussion of a restricted topic. A basic and very useful division can, however, be made: formal and informal. <strong>Informal Essay: </strong>Includes aphoristic essays such as Bacon's <em>Periodical Essays.... </em>Qualities that make an essay informal include: the personal element, humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty, freedom from stiffness and affectation, incomplete or tentative treatment of topic. <strong>Formal Essay: </strong>Qualities include serious purpose,(...) Term details " >essay (s) (no more than 1000 words total) is to be  posted to the FORUM below .
• Chelsey will respond with feedback

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Creative Writing

The braided essay.

Braided essays contain multiple strands, seemingly separate stories that, through repetition, juxtaposition, and thoughtful curation, combine to become one cohesive braided narrative. In this class, we will read and discuss examples of compelling braided essays to understand the form and structure. We will also produce our own short braided essays for group workshop.

All students must be 18 years of age or older.

Sorry, but there are no available courses being offered this semester.