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Directed Writing - Narrative Composition
242
Narrative
Writing
CIE iGCSE English as a First Language
Point of view
Narration of the story from the perspective of first, second, or third person.
who is going to tell the story and how much information is available for the narrator to reveal
Is the narrator directly involved in the action or reporting.
Point of view
First person
“I” am telling the story. The character is in the story, relating his or her experiences directly.
Second person
The story is told to “you.” This POV is not common in fiction, but it’s still good to know (it is common in nonfiction).
Third person, limited.
The story is about “he” or “she.” This is the most common point of view in commercial fiction. The narrator is outside of the story and relating the experiences of a character.
Third person, omniscient. The story is still about “he” or “she,” but the narrator has full access to the thoughts and experiences of all characters in the story.
4 points of view
Mark Scheme
Hook
General
• Content is complex, engaging and effective. (W1)
• Structure is secure, well balanced and carefully managed for deliberate
effect
Specific – narrative
The plot is well-defined and strongly developed with features of fiction writing such as description, characterisation and effective climax, and convincing details.
Hook
- Conflict - important or engaging to hook your reading right away.
- Setting - if it’s key to your plot and helps set the right mood.
- Strong narrative voice or a description of your main character if its character-driven
- Dialogue or a minor conflict or mystery - immediately draw your reader in
How to start
setting
Join the characters in a pause before the action - get to know the characters and the setting first.
Use when setting and mood is more important than plot and characters
setting
Establish conflict
conflict
The exact moment conflict happens.
A scene that is essential to the main character or the narrator and shows them in action, doing something that will have consequences later or sets up the plot.
Generally - use the past tense for your story, but you could start with present tense
Ex: “Today, I will rob a bank” may be more effective than “Yesterday, I robbed a bank”,
Strong Narrative Voice
Show the reader how the narrator views the world and present their voice so the reader knows what to expect from the rest of the story.
Character Voice
strong dialogue
Dialogue
Never just for the sake of conversation.
It should reveal character and progress the story’s key events or plot.
Start with one line
and then zoom out
to tell the reader
who is speaking or
where the speaker
is situated within a
scene.
The dialogue is also usually spoken by a main/central character in the story.
Examples
Identify What these are
- Narrative Voice
- Dialogue
- Conflict
- Scene Setting
Examples
Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
Hobbit
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
catcher in the rye
Delirium
It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists perfected a cure.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
1984
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
George Orwell, 1984
The Towers of Trebizond
“‘Take my camel, dear,’ said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.”
— Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
Describing characters
- show don't tell
Character intro
1. Emotion is more important than physicality.
2. Use figurative language.
3. Describe facial expressions.
4. Make the descriptions match the tone.
5. Scatter physical descriptions throughout the prose.
6. Describe actions that reveal physical characteristics.
7. A first person narrator can give biased opinions about appearances.
8. Describe clothing and accessories.
9. Describe the way characters move or carry themselves.
10. A little description can go a long way.
Personality over physicality
1. Personality over physicality.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the reader never really learns the color of Daisy’s hair or eyes, but does it matter? We can still picture her in our minds: “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth.”
2. Use figurative language.
figurative
“I … easily spotted her blond hair like a white flame… The edge of her white kimono flapped open in the wind and I could see her breast, low and full. Her beauty was like the edge of a very sharp knife.” -White Oleander by Janet Fitch
3. Describe facial expressions.
facial expressions
“Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings. Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck. Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it.”
-“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Conner
4. Make the descriptions match the tone.
facial expressions
In a funny or sardonic piece, for example, your descriptions can be the same: “He was a funny-looking child who became a funny-looking youth—tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola.”
-Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
5. Scatter physical descriptions throughout the prose
scatter descriptions
You don’t have to give all your description of a character when he or she first arrives on the scene. Instead, scatter brief descriptions throughout multiple scenes. No doubt many of your favorite writers do this.
6. Describe actions that reveal physical characteristics
Describe actions
“As we’d been talking, she’d pulled [her hair] into a high, loose bun with shorter pieces of hair falling around her face.”
-Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
7. A first person narrator can give biased opinions about appearances.
1st person can be biased
“I was, and still am, despite mes malheurs, an exceptionally handsome male; slow-moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor.”
-Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
8. Describe clothing and accessories.
clothing/accessories
“Today Charis is wearing a sagging mauve cotton jersy dress, with a fuzzy grey cardigan over top and an orange-and-aqua scarf with a design of meadow flowers draped around her neck. Her long straight hair is grey-blonde and parted in the middle; she has her reading glasses stuck up on top of her head.”
-The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
9. Describe the way characters move or carry themselves.
how they move
“She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.”
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. Remember that a little description can go a long way.
a little goes a long way
This might be the most important tip of all. You don’t have to describe a character from head to toe and constantly review what he or she looks like. Just an introductory description and a few well-placed clues throughout the prose will be enough to help readers form and keep a picture in their minds: “She was a fat girl. She was fat all over and she huffed when she breathed.” - “Kindling” by Raymond Carver.
character development
EXAMPLE
Character development
In order to develop a living, breathing, multi-faceted character, it is important to know way more about the character than you will ever use in the story. Here is a partial list of character details to help you get started.
Imagining all these details will help you get to know your character, but your reader probably won’t need to know much more than the most important things in four areas:
Appearance
Action
Speech
Thought
APPEARANCE
ACTION
SPEECH
THOUGHT
TELLING
College Student chatacter development
Her name is Jen, short for Jennifer Mary Johnson. She is 21 years old. She is a fair-skinned Norwegian with blue eyes, long, curly red hair, and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. Contrary to the stereotype about redheads, she is actually easygoing and rather shy. She loves cats and has two of them named Bailey and Allie. She is a technical writing major with a minor in biology. Jen plays the piano and is an amateur photographer. She lives in the dorms at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She eats pizza every day for lunch and loves Red Rose tea. She cracks her knuckles when she is nervous. Her mother just committed suicide.
details
Your Character
Name
Age
Job
Ethnicity
Appearance
Residence
Pets
Religion
Hobbies
Single or married?
Children?
Temperament
Favorite color
Friends
Favorite foods
Drinking patterns
Phobias
Faults
Something hated?
Secrets?
Strong memories?
Any illnesses?
Nervous gestures?
Sleep patterns
Whats important
Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.
Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than simply listing adjectives.
Speech. Develop the character as a person — don’t merely have your character announce important plot details.
Thought. Bring the reader into your character’s mind, to show them your character’s unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.
For example, let’s say I want to develop a college student persona for a short story that I am writing. What do I know about her?
Show what your character is like
your turn
Use appearance, action, speech and thought.
turning point
turning point
The turning point should be the most exciting part of any story—all of the drama, anticipation, and action should build up to it. A narrative should achieve several things:
- Change the rising action into the falling action
- Provide clarity to the story
- Answer unanswered questions
- Confirm or dismiss theories within the story
- Show the characters as they really are (sometimes as either good or evil)
- Resolve the story’s conflicts
- Reveal surprises or secrets that affect the outcome
- Bring the narrative to a close
Examples
examples
The detective looked through the photos over and over, just like she did every night since they had found the woman’s body. What am I missing? she asked herself. She picked up the small evidence bag that held the woman’s wedding ring. Inside the ring was inscribed “September 20, 1998.” She dropped the ring and gasped. She was killed on her anniversary! The detective grabbed her coat and ran out the door. She knew who the killer was.
examples
In Joseph Conrad’s novel The Heart of Darkness, the narrative reaches its climax when Marlowe starts his journey in his steam boat, in the direction of the inner station, and his final discovery upon reaching the station and meeting “Kurtz.” He was shocked to discover that Kurtz had abandoned all norms and morals of his civilization, after giving in to the savage customs of the wild Congo. Following this point in the novel, the mystery surrounding Kurtz is unfolded, and the questions in the mind of Marlow find their answers automatically when he sees the real situation.
examples
In Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, the climax occurs when the main character, Humbert, discovers that the young girl he has been keeping hostage, Lolita, has escaped from him. This is the highest point of tension during the story and has been built up to through his paranoia of being followed and watched as they travel across the country.
examples
Believing Snape has found a way past Fluffy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione rush to stop him from taking the life-giving Philosopher’s Stone—which they believe he intends to give to Voldemort. They are stymied by a life-size game of lethal wizard’s chess, in which Ron sacrifices himself, so Harry can continue on to the final confrontation. The villain who is hosting Voldemort’s remains turns out to be Quirrell, not Snape.
Climactic Moment: Harry kills Quirrell, and Voldemort’s spirit flees.
Resolution
resolution
- Questions and mysteries are answered and explained.
- All complete stories have a resolution, even if the author doesn't disclose every last detail to the reader.
- Not every story has to end happily.
- Main character must involved in the plot resolution.
- Lessons learned/or not
- Go back to the start but different
- Tension is released
- No 'paper dragons' - no it was a dream, he need not have worried endings
Peter pan
Peter Pan
In J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan," the titular hero—a young boy who loves adventure and never grows old—invites a group of London children to visit the fictional island of Neverland, a magical place home to pirates and mermaids. The rising action of the story is made up of the children's many adventures, which culminate in a battle between Peter Pan and a one-handed pirate, the dreaded Captain Hook.
After Peter defeats Captain Hook, he takes control of the pirate's ship and sails it back to London, where Wendy and the other children return to their home. This resolution brings the story back to where it began, the children safe and snug in their beds, away from harm. They have learned a lot from their experience, and are changed for it, but the story has reached a point of stasis, having resolved all of the problems and conflicts created by the rising action.
1984
1984
A much different resolution occurs in George Orwell's "1984." This dystopian novel, published in 1949, tells the story of Winston Smith, a government employee whose curiosity about the workings of the ruling party lead to great trouble and misery. By the end of the book, Winston is an enemy of the state, and after he is captured by the Thought Police he is sent to Room 101, a torture chamber where victims are confronted with their worst fears. At the prospect of being placed in a cage with rats, Winston is overcome with panic and terror. His spirit broken, he finally betrays his lover, Julia, abandoning his last bit of humanity in a final cry of surrender. "Do it to Julia!" he shouts, begging to be released. This is the climax of the novel, the point at which Winston makes an irreversible decision, one that marks a fundamental change in his character.
Later, after his release, he sits alone in a cafe. He is no longer an enemy of the state, an opponent of the mysterious leader known as Big Brother. He is a different man entirely:
"Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
The story ends on an unambiguous note. It is, in a sense, a classical resolution, eliminating any mystery about where Winston's allegiances lie. The man is defeated completely, and all of the tension that has propelled the novel is released. There is no longer a question of whether Winston will uncover the truth, or whether the Party will stop him first. By the end, we have the answer.