The Braided Essay

A “braided essay” takes a specific topic, question, or perhaps even a relationship to create a series of short or “micro” memoirs, weaving them together to create a single longer work. This memoir style is very form based, almost poetic in nature as it draws together ideas that seem disparate at first but come together through reflection and resolution, (Remember that a memoirist’s job is to give shape to a life story. There should be a sense of organization that sets it apart from mere brainstorming or journaling.)

The Purdue Online Writing Lab offers this explanation:

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.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/creative_nonfiction/sub_genres_of_creative_nonfiction.html

This also brings together a word of advice from another writer, William Zinsser, “Start small.”

Here are two “braided” series of micro-memoirs to start with:

Michael Komatsu’s “When We Played”

Brenda Miller’s “Swerve”

 

 

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