Narrative Writing:
Narrative writing is writing that tells a story, whether true or fictional.
Graphic Organizers:
Graphic organizers can be used to help students draft their writing assignments and organize their thoughts. Click the links to find sample organizers like those that will be used in class.
Word Choice:
Narrative stories are engaging and keep the reader's interest. They describe the setting, characters, and plot using clear details and all five senses (see, hear, smell, feel, taste). Narrative stories use vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to describe things in the story. This allows readers to visualize everything that's happening in their minds.
Good narrative writers use Concrete Language instead of Abstract Language.
Concrete language:
…makes the story or image seem clearer and more real to us.
…gives us information that we can easily grasp and perhaps empathize with.
Examples:
Abstract: It was a nice day.
Concrete: The sun was shining and a slight breeze blew across my face.
Abstract: I was scared.
Concrete: I was so terrified that I was shaking and had goosebumps all over my body.
Abstract: Mr. Smith was a great teacher.
Concrete: Mr. Smith really knew how to help us turn our thoughts into good stories and essays.
Good narrative writers use Concrete Language instead of Abstract Language.
Concrete language:
…makes the story or image seem clearer and more real to us.
…gives us information that we can easily grasp and perhaps empathize with.
Examples:
Abstract: It was a nice day.
Concrete: The sun was shining and a slight breeze blew across my face.
Abstract: I was scared.
Concrete: I was so terrified that I was shaking and had goosebumps all over my body.
Abstract: Mr. Smith was a great teacher.
Concrete: Mr. Smith really knew how to help us turn our thoughts into good stories and essays.
Methods:
There are several things a writer needs to think about when telling a story:
Show, Don’t’ Tell
Don’t tell the reader what he or she is supposed to think or feel. Let the reader see, hear, smell, feel, and taste the experience directly by using vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Dialogue (Let People Talk)
Use dialogue - characters speaking and "quotation marks" - to show what characters are saying, thinking, and feeling. This allows characters' personalities and voices to emerge and uses active rather than passive voice.
Choose a Point of View
Point of view is the perspective from which your story is told. Most personal narratives are told from the first-person point of view - the main character is the one telling the story. However, at times a narrative will be told from the point of view of a different character, multiple characters, a third-person observer, a narrator, or another perspective.
Tense
Most narratives are written either in present or past tense - is the action in the story happening right now or did it already happen?
Tone
The tone of a narrative sets the overall feeling of the story. The writer needs to consider what he/she wants the audience to feel when they finish reading the narrative. Careful word choice sets the tone of the story - upbeat, positive, hopeful, negative, depressing, angry, etc.
Show, Don’t’ Tell
Don’t tell the reader what he or she is supposed to think or feel. Let the reader see, hear, smell, feel, and taste the experience directly by using vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Dialogue (Let People Talk)
Use dialogue - characters speaking and "quotation marks" - to show what characters are saying, thinking, and feeling. This allows characters' personalities and voices to emerge and uses active rather than passive voice.
Choose a Point of View
Point of view is the perspective from which your story is told. Most personal narratives are told from the first-person point of view - the main character is the one telling the story. However, at times a narrative will be told from the point of view of a different character, multiple characters, a third-person observer, a narrator, or another perspective.
Tense
Most narratives are written either in present or past tense - is the action in the story happening right now or did it already happen?
Tone
The tone of a narrative sets the overall feeling of the story. The writer needs to consider what he/she wants the audience to feel when they finish reading the narrative. Careful word choice sets the tone of the story - upbeat, positive, hopeful, negative, depressing, angry, etc.