Stay a Little Bit Longer: The Art of Zooming In and Lingering

By Ethan Gilsdorf

“I’m not quite seeing this,” a student might say in one of my workshops, trying to grasp a vague or murky moment in a memoir. “That’s not entirely clear,” another might comment. “Is there more here?” I might suggest. “Dig deeper?”

These comments are addressing the reader’s desire to more fully enter into the experience a writer thinks they have created. In personal essay, memoir and creative nonfiction, we want to bring to our pages a sense of verisimilitude, of intrud...