As Necessary as a Heartbeat: In Defense of the Narrative Arc

By Nancy McCabe

“I don’t write stories with arcs,” a participant in one of my workshops recently said. “I just write about walking in the woods.”

“Why do you walk in the woods?” I asked her.          

Nature is soothing, she said. It takes her away from the tensions of her day.

“So that’s a conflict?” I asked. “You’re feeling tense.”

“But I don’t resolve anything,” she said. “I just observe things. I like to write about looking at wild mushrooms. I go home and I do more researc...