What Is The Narrative Core
My name is Bernard Corwin. I’ve been a full-time writer since 2010 and an independent publisher since 2014. The Narrative Core is where I write about books, film, narrative play, creativity, and the process of building a life around stories. This publication is for people who still believe stories are worth spending time with, whether that means reading a novel carefully, watching a film attentively, exploring a fictional world, or creating something of their own.
The publication took its current form after a major turning point in my life. In March 2026, I experienced a significant cognitive collapse that affected my memory, focus, continuity, and ability to manage complex projects. Many of the systems and habits that had supported my work for years stopped functioning reliably. Since then, much of my work has involved finding new ways to continue reading, learning, creating, and publishing under very different conditions. The Narrative Core isn’t a publication about executive dysfunction, but the experience of rebuilding after cognitive collapse influences nearly everything I do.
One of the central projects documented here is my work with personal curricula. They began as a way to compensate for memory and continuity problems and gradually became the primary way I approach long-term learning projects. Current curricula include Shakespeare’s plays, Jane Austen’s novels, and the films of Werner Herzog. The reading, viewing, research, and note-taking don’t exist as isolated activities. They become essays, reviews, reflections, and conversations that continue long after I’ve finished the material itself.
The Narrative Core is also home to Story at the Table, a narrative play method that I developed and released for free. My goal is to introduce more readers, writers, and humanities-minded people to narrative play by treating it as a creative and literary activity rather than exclusively as a gaming hobby. Reading lets us encounter stories. Writing lets us create them. Narrative play offers another way to engage with character, conflict, interpretation, and narrative structure through collaborative storytelling.
Alongside those projects are two ongoing setting journals. Harbor Street is a fictional New England setting built around family drama, romance, mystery, local history, and the tensions that emerge within a tightly connected community. Seven Valleys is a fantasy setting that draws on cozy fantasy, intrigue, romantasy, and folk horror. Both are published as zines and provide a home for long-form worldbuilding and character-driven storytelling.
I also publish occasional Work Notes. These entries document project progress, publishing decisions, creative discoveries, setbacks, experiments, and lessons learned during the course of a working day. They offer a more direct look at the realities of rebuilding a creative life when memory, focus, and continuity can’t always be taken for granted.
The personal curricula, Story at the Table, Harbor Street, Seven Valleys, and the Work Notes aren’t unrelated projects gathered under a single banner. They’re different parts of the same effort to keep reading, learning, creating, and publishing after the systems I once relied upon stopped working the way they once had. Whether the subject is Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Werner Herzog, narrative play, worldbuilding, or the practical realities of creative work, the goal remains the same: to stay engaged with the stories that shape the way we think, create, and live.
