What is the point?

I think the main idea in a lot of the "I" essays I have read in this book, and even on my own have been for the writer to express something about themselves, or find something out about themselves by writing something. Maybe a writer will write a story about their personal experience to re-live it, if it was something good, or to work through it, if it was something they haven't come to terms with yet. The "point" of a lot of "I" essays to me is to convey something to the reader about themselves or the writer that they did not already know.

Authors develop their ideas in many different ways. Everyone has their own style of developing ideas or themes in a story, essay, novel, etc. I think some authors develop their ideas by developing a character, or maybe making an outline of a plot. Maybe some authors embellish their stories to make them more interesting, or maybe they talk it out with colleauges. When I write, I like to develop my ideas by writing out everything that comes to my mind about that said idea, no matter how ridiculous. I also like to look at my story from different perspectives, especially if it is about me. If I am writing a story about myself, it is hard to look at the story from the perspective of someone outside my body. However when I do this, it helps me to find out what parts of the story are most interesting to the reader, not just what I think is the most interesting.

Structures that authors may use to make their stories more dramatic would be to seperate the stories into chapter or vignettes, with each one ending in cliff hanger. This would lead the reader to keep reading because they want to know what happens to the characters.