Just Show Me the Good Parts: Deconstructing Situation and Story

By Brooke Champagne

Which sounds the most engaging: Situation or Story? Don’t overthink it. First thought, best thought.

If you’re a writer, you’ve likely been inculcated with the notion that story, with its inherent drama, character, and action, hews more closely to your ultimate writerly goal. Because how compelling can situation—that brief interlude, that mere place—really be?

But if you’re familiar with Vivian Gornick’s 2001 primer on personal narrative, The Situation and the Sto...