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The Narrative Arc

Medium’s best creative nonfiction — memoirs and personal essays. Eclectic, nuanced, entertaining. Follow us, or join our writers’ collective.

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THE NARRATIVE ARC

Ten Tips for Aspiring Writers at The Narrative Arc

Sharing our secrets with you!

5 min readJun 19, 2025

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Orange sun with waves in front.
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At The Narrative Arc, we’re working hard every day to help writers improve their essays. Here’s the catch! First you’ve got to get in the door. A few warnings:

  • We never publish anything that reads like AI. Nothing boring. Nothing commonplace. No trauma. No ‘not enough’. No imposter syndrome. No boring, already-written work.
  • If you don’t understand the word ‘genre,’ you’re going to have a hard time getting accepted at many publications. Here are the genres you should understand before considering The Narrative Arc: personal essays and memoirs. Both are written in first-person point-of-view. For strong examples, see the list of boosted stories at the end of this article.

Personal essays and memoirs are unique explorations or memories of a specific time and place (from your life).

Personal essays aren’t about other people: write about yourself.

In my time editing your essays, I’ve noticed recurring issues.

Here are some tips and pointers, before you submit your essay to us through our email system.

Here are ten tips to help guide you

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The Narrative Arc
The Narrative Arc

Published in The Narrative Arc

Medium’s best creative nonfiction — memoirs and personal essays. Eclectic, nuanced, entertaining. Follow us, or join our writers’ collective.

Debra G. Harman
Debra G. Harman

Written by Debra G. Harman

Publisher | Writer | Editor --Contact for editing projects and coaching: parasolpubs@gmail.com | The Narrative Arc | The Wind Phone | Boost Nominator

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