The Building Blocks of a Narrative:

1. The Building Blocks of a Narrative: The art of telling a story ENG 101: Professor Bailey-Kirby

2. Narrative Conventions • Narratives are generally written in the first person, that is, using I. However, third person (he, she, or it) can also be used. • Narratives rely on concrete, sensory details to convey their point. These details (vivid verbs and modifiers) should create a unified, forceful effect, a dominant impression. • Narratives tend to SHOW rather than tell. • Narratives apply the four direct methods of character presentation: appearance, thought, dialogue, and/or action. • Narratives, as stories, include specific elements, such as a plot, setting and characters, etc. (See the next slide).

3. Narrative Elements • All narratives contain the following elements: • Plot • Speaker • Characters • Setting • Theme • Point of view

4. Plot • Plots have a beginning, middle, and an end (arrangement of events). In most stories, the events of the plot can be divided as follows: • Exposition: Introduces the characters, setting, and conflict. • Rising action: Builds the conflict and develops the characters. • Climax: Shows the highest point of the action (or turning point). • Denouement or resolution: Resolves the story and ties up all the loose ends. • Here's the classic diagram of plot structure:

5. Speaker • The speaker (also called the personae) is the personality the writer assumes when telling a story. For example, you can tell the story as a young girl, an old man, or a figure from history. You can be anyone you want to be when you tell a story. You can change size, shape, age, gender, and even species. For example, you can be your future self or younger self as your personae/speaker. • When you become the speaker, you're donning a mask that allows you to reveal— and conceal—as you will. Don't confuse the speaker with the writer. Even when you're telling the story as yourself, you're wearing a mask/personae.

6. Characters • A character is a person or an animal in a story. Main characters have important roles in the narrative; minor characters have smaller parts. They usually serve as a contrast to the main character or to advance the plot. If you were asked to write a narrative about an event in your life, ask yourself the following: • Who are the key players/main characters of your story? • What role do these main characters play in your story? • How do the minor characters affect you or the main characters?

7. Four Direct Methods of Character Presentation • Appearance: gives you the characters looks (scars, tattoos, etc. • Thought: helps you get directly inside their heads and know what they are thinking. • Dialogue: gives you a sense of how characters talk to others (conveyed through accent, language, inflection, or even a talking tick). • Action: helps you see how characters move and interact (Are they nervous, excited, patient, etc?).

8. Setting • The setting of a story is the time and place where the events unfold. You can establish the setting directly or suggest it from details in the story. • The setting is more than a mere backdrop to the action. Rather, it serves to underscore the action and theme. • The setting may also convey the mood or atmosphere (emotion/feeling of the work) through the significant details.

9. Point of View • First-person point of view: The narrator is one of the characters in the story and explains the events through his or her own eyes, using the pronouns I and me. • Third-person omniscient point of view: The narrator is not a character in the story. Instead, the narrator looks through the eyes of all the characters. As a result, the narrator is omniscient or “all-knowing.” The narrator uses the pronouns he, she, and they. • Third-person limited point of view: The narrator tells the story through the eyes of only one character, using the pronouns he, she, and they. • (NOTE: Each has its advantages. For example, if you use the first-person point of view for your narrative, readers see the experience through your eyes and your eyes only. As a result, the first-person point of view allows an immediacy and intimacy absent from the third-person point of view. However, the third-person points of view, in contrast, allow the writer to achieve distance and some measure of objectivity. )

10. Theme • Effective narratives do more than entertain; they often suggest a truth about life, a theme. This observation touches a cord within your readers and makes your story memorable. Here are some sample themes: • People are capable of great heroism when put to the test. • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. • The world is a lonely and bitter place. • You can't recapture the past. • It's a dog-eat-dog world. • You can state the story's theme directly in the story, or have readers infer it from details about plot, characters, and setting.