Crafting a Compelling Narrative: Transform Your Life Event into a Captivating Story

1. The Narrative

2. What is Narration? • To narrate is to tell a story. • Your job, as a writer, is to choose an important event in your life, and tell that story. • Write it like a short story, not like an essay.

3. Step 1 - Getting started • Think of an important event in your life. • Briefly write about that event. • Choose something that changed you. • The best stories are ones where the character is changed by the experience.

4. Step 2 - Description • Once you have a sense of the story, it is time to begin to think about description. • Think about particular details that relate to the event: sounds, sights, feelings, smells, etc. • These details help bring the event to life. • They help the reader experience it just as you did. • The key is to never allow the details to hurt the pace and flow of your story.

5. Step 3 - Choosing Details • Once you have a sense of the details, you need to decide whether these details support the story or get in the way of the story. • Be vivid. Help the reader really see, hear, touch, smell the item you are describing. • Like editing a movie, you need to view your story and decide: does it flow well, does the description enhance the story or get in the way.

6. Step 4 - Honing the work • At this point, step back and see what you have.

7. Step 5 - Active/Passive Voice • Now that you have written the work, look at the parts where action occurs. • Try to keep these in the active voice. • Example: • I was pulling the trigger - passive voice • I pulled the trigger - active voice

8. Step 5 - Voice Continued • As with everything, variety is the spice of life, but active voice is more engaging than passive. • It puts readers in the middle of the action, and when handled properly, will keep them on the edge of their seats. • Passive voice uses the helping verbs “to be” and “to have’ along with another verb. • To stay in the active voice, avoid these sentence constructions • Using the active voice will quicken the pace of your story.

9. Be Honest • This is your story. • No one can tell it better than you, so don’t use constructs from other writers. • Tell it the way you would naturally tell it. • Avoid cliches, such as, the passion that burns, or big as a house. • Stick to your own way of telling your story and your own style. It will make the work more engaging to read.

10. Email • If you have any questions, or you would like me to see something, email your work to me. • If it is too close to the deadline, I may not get to it. I have five composition classes, and everyone has questions. • Good luck!