In "A Lot of Things Have Happened," your story in this week's issue, the narrator remembers an old girlfriend through a series of events and coincidences--her fear of palmetto bugs is recalled by way of the narrator's new house in Florida; her congratulations to him and his new wife are recalled by way of parallel stories about rodents; her sister's death is recalled by way of an apology the narrator once extorted from a student. In a story without a linear, driving narrative, how do you go about parsing out the inciting events? The shortest, most honest answer here is: accidentally. The slightly fancier-sounding version of that answer is: through a process of trial and error. For whatever reason, I've been drawn to ellipsis and anecdote lately and become more impatient with artful transition.