Chasing Narrative Arc—One Writer’s Path to Totality

By Andrea A. Firth

As we drive to the airport to catch an early flight, I see a sliver of moon, the waning crescent, in the morning sky. I look at the weather app on my phone and report the five-day forecast for our destination: “Hot and sunny for two days, clouds over the weekend, and on Monday a 45% chance of rain starting at noon.”

“Doesn’t sound like eclipse watching weather,” says my husband.

The classic, chronological construction of a story has five elements: exposition, risin...