THE FULL CIRCLE: Icons of the Creative Journey

Prompts for creating narrative closure

In his book Writing with Pictures, Uri Shulevitz says, “The end remembers the beginning.” I picture the ancient symbol of the ouroboros, the snake or dragon eating its tail. I think of the circle of the liturgical year, beginning in Advent with the birth of the Christ child and turning our attentions toward the “third Advent” of his return. I think of the cycle of life through birth, death, resurrection and rebirth.

So today, our last letter in our Five Icons of the Creative Journey series, we turn our attentions toward the full circle effect, and the art of returning our readers to where they started, yet with fresh dimension and discovery they didn’t have before. Then we’ll consider some prompts for writing your own.