Narrative Writing

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Narrative Writing
A general outline accompanied by a specific
lecture
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Definition

• A narrative tells a story
• Narration is a powerful method by which a writer
  may engage a reader and hold their attention

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Purpose

• A narrative may instruct and inform
• A narrative may divert and entertain

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Types of Narratives

• A novel
• A short story
• Some poems
• Anecdotes (a short, entertaining account of a
  single event.)

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The Process

• Every good story must have a point or purpose.
• For this essay, your purpose will be to create a
  story that recreates a time in your life when you
  went through a rites of initiation.

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The Narrator

• The narrator is the teller or speaker in the
  story.
• This essay is subjectivethe details and language
  will be chosen to express your feelings

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Verb Tense

• Telling a story in present tense (instead of
  past) gives events a sense of immediacy-
  -everything will seem as though it is happening
  right now.
• Peering out her window, a woman spies a strange
  man.

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What to emphasize

• What happened?
• Who took part?
• When did it happen?

• Where did it happen?
• Why did this event take place?
• How did it happen?

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Strategies

• Scene you visualize each event as vividly and
  precisely as if your were there.
• Recall dialogue, portray people, and include
  description

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Summary

• Relate events concisely
• Write down just the essentials of what happened.
• A summary is to a scene as a simple stick figure
  is to a portrait in oils.

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Scene
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Summary
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Scene and Summary

• Good storytellers know what to emphasize.
• Use summary to pass briskly from events of less
  importance to an important scene.
• Summary is the glue that holds scenes together

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Organization

• The simplest approach is chronological order-
  -the way the events happened.
• You may begin in medias res and open with a
  colorful, dramatic event.
• You may use flashback to return to earlier events

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Transitions

• Use transitions of time to make events clear.
• Seven years later, A moment earlier

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The Point

• In most types of narration, the storyteller
  refrains from revealing his or her point at the
  beginning of the story.
• Most narratives wait until the end of the story
  to state the thesis or theme.

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Narrative strategies

• Splitting the second stroboscope the action in
  slow motion slice the actions into separate,
  smaller segments. Fill out the experience with
  so much detail that it takes longer to read the
  event than it took to witness the actual
  experience

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Splitting the second

• Example how can you split the second when
  describing how you brush your teeth?
• You will split the second on more important
  events in your essay.

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Hero Journey Essay Organization

• Flashback
• First write the conclusion a carefully described
  summary or insight that is personal, spiritual,
  historical, or psychological.
• This should be a description of yourself as a
  mature person.

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Hero Journey Essay Organization

• Now work backwards by going back in time to the
  next closest event which lead to your conclusion
  or revelation. Describe it in detail.
• Even though you are writing this section second,
  remember that it will really be the second to
  last paragraph in your essay

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Hero Journey Essay Organization

• Now work backwards again, asking yourself what
  experience must have prepared or under-prepared
  you for the second-to last event.
• This experience will form the third to last
  event.

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Hero Journey Essay Organization

• Keep working backwards until you have reached the
  starting point for your story.
• After you have completed your rough draft, you
  will go back and reverse the order of your
  paragraphs. Hence, the last paragraph becomes
  your first, etc.