NARRATIVE WRITING

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NARRATIVE WRITING

• Writing Workshop 1

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Narrative Writing

• Tells a story
• Captures an experience for the reader
• Can be imaginary or real
• Fictional narrative
• Nonfiction narrative

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Elements of Narrative Writing

• A narrator
• A consistent point of view
• A well-defined conflict
• Plot
• Setting
• One or more characters

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Types of Narrative Writing

• Autobiographies
• Biographies
• Myths
• Narrative poems
• Short stories
• Novels

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Using Narrative Writing

• A personal experience
• An event you observed or heard about
• A story youve imagined

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Personal Narrative

• Share an especially interesting, sad, funny, or
  meaningful personal experience
• Share a surprising discovery
• Try to make sense of something that happened to
  you

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At a Glance

• Beginning
• Introduces the incident
• Includes the people and place involved
• Middle
• Describes the event
• Makes the significance of the event clear
• End
• Tells the outcome or result of the event
• Presents the writers feelings

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Standards for Writing

• Focus on a clear, well-defined incident
• Make significance of the event clear
• Show clearly the order in which events occurred
• Use descriptive details
• Use dialogue to develop characters
• Maintain a consistent tone

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See How It's Done
"Mind Games" "The First Trip"
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Writing Prompt
Write a personal narrative about your own
experience or something that happened to someone
you know.
Purpose To entertain or inform Audience Your
classmates, friends, or family
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Prewriting

• Pick a story
• Why is the event meaningful?
• What is your purpose and who is your audience?
• How will you tell it?

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Finding Your Story

• Searching your memory
• Think about special moments
• Reflect on people who affected you
• Techniques
• Brainstorming
• Listing
• Cluster Diagram
• Significant Event Graph

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Significant Event Graph
P o s i t i v e
- - - - -
5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5
Made the honor roll!
Moved to Las Vegas
I was born!
A

74 77
82 85 89
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N e g a t I v e
- - - - -
Broke ankle playing tennis
Parents divorced
Grandpa died
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Sally's Story
-the day her dog died -visiting her grandmother
in a nursing home -the first time she read her
writing before an audience
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Why Are You Writing?

• To express feelings about an interesting, sad, or
  important personal experience
• to entertain readers by sharing a funny
  experience
• to teach readers by sharing a surprising
  discovery
• to make sense of something that happened to you

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Digging Up Details
The right details will make your narrative come
to life.
incidents
words
characters
reflecting
images
setting
recalling
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DRAFTING

• Decide where to begin.
• Keep a time line in mind.
• Use descriptive details.
• Keep the same tone.
• Wrap it up.

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Quotable Quote
"Most of the basic material a writer works with
is acquired before the age of fifteen." --Willa
Cather
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Sentence Starters
I learned so much about myself when. The
funniest thing that ever happened to me was
. The thing I remember most about last summer
is.
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REVISING

• Reviewing your draft
• Coherence Checklist
• Unity Checklist
• Interest-Level Checklist
• Target skill
• Elaborating with Dialogue
• Show rather than tell

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EDITING

• Edit in Stages
• Reread draft several times
• Check for something different each time
• Read Aloud
• Awkward sentences
• Overused words and phrases
• Target skill
• Correcting Run-on Sentences

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PUBLISHING

• Reflecting
• Sharing

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Real World Personal Narrative
Autobiographies
Photographic Journals
Letters
Documentaries
Comedy Monologues
Diaries
Magazine Profiles