What Is Narrative Writing?
Narrative writing is, essentially, story writing. A narrative can be fiction or nonfiction, and it can also occupy the space between these as a semi-autobiographical story, historical fiction, or a dramatized retelling of actual events. As long as a piece tells a story through a narrative structure, it’s narrative writing.
The purpose of a narrative is simple, to tell the audience a story. It can be written to motivate, educate or, most commonly, entertain. Narratives can be both fact or fiction.
The challenge in writing a good narrative is to captivate the audience and keep them engaged as the story is told.
TYPES OF NARRATIVE WRITING
There are many narrative writing genres and sub-genres such as these.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NARRATIVE WRITING
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
ORIENTATION (BEGINNING) Set the scene by introducing your characters, setting, and time of the story. Establish your who, when, and where in this part of your narrative
COMPLICATION AND EVENTS (MIDDLE) In this section activities and events involving your main characters are expanded upon. These events are written in a cohesive and fluent sequence.
RESOLUTION (ENDING) Your complication is resolved in this section. It does not have to be a happy outcome, however.
EXTRAS: Whilst orientation, complication, and resolution are the agreed norms for a narrative there are numerous examples of popular texts that did not explicitly follow this path exactly.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
LANGUAGE Use descriptive and figurative language that will paint images inside your audience’s minds as they read.
PERSPECTIVE Narratives can be written from any perspective but are most commonly written in the first or third person.
DIALOGUE Narratives frequently switch from narrator to first-person dialogue. Always use speech marks when writing dialogue.
TENSE If you change tense make it clear to your audience what is happening. Flashbacks might work well in your mind but make sure they translate to your audience.
What are Story Elements?
Story elements are the building blocks needed to make a story work. Without these blocks, a story will break down, failing to meet the expectations of readers. Simply put, these elements remind writers what to include in stories, and what needs to be planned. By understanding each element, you increase the chances of writing a better story or novel.
Over the years, writers have adapted these elements to suit their writing process. There can be as few as 4 elements in the literature up to 12 elements. The most universally used story elements contain just five building blocks:
- Characters
- Setting
- Plot
- Conflict
- Resolution
These five elements are a great place to start when you need help planning your story. You may also notice that these story elements are what most book outlining techniques are based on.
1. Characters
Characters are the most familiar element in stories. Every story has at least one main character. Stories can also have multiple secondary characters, such as supporting characters and villain/s. The main character should be introduced at the beginning. While introducing this character it is a good idea to include key information about this character’s personality, past and physical appearance. You should also provide a hint as to what this character’s major conflict is in the story (more on conflict later).
The main character also goes through changes throughout the story. All the challenges and obstacles they face in the story allow them to learn, grow and develop. Depending on your plot, they might become a better person, or even a worse one – if this is a villain’s origin story. But be careful here – Growth should not be mistaken for a personality change! The main character must stay true to who they are. Deep inside their personality should stay more or less the same. The only thing that changes is the lessons they learn, and how these impact them.
2. Setting
Settings in stories refer to three things: Location, period and Mood. The easiest element to understand is location. Location is the physical place/s the story takes part in mostly. For example, the tale of Cinderella takes part in two main locations: Cinderella’s Palace and the Ballroom at the Prince’s Palace. It is a good idea to explain each new location in great detail, so the readers feel like they are also right there with the characters. The physical location is also something that can be included at the beginning of the story to set the story’s tone.
Next comes the period. Every story is set in some period. Some stories especially about time travel may be set across multiple periods. You don’t always have to include the exact date or year in your story. But it is a good idea that during the planning phase, you know the year or even dates the story is set in. This can help you include accurate details about location and even key events. For example, you don’t want to be talking about characters using mobile phones in the 18th century – It just wouldn’t make sense (Unless of course it’s a time travel story)!
The final part of the setting is the mood. The mood is the feeling you want readers to feel when reading your story. Do you want them to be scared, excited, or happy? It’s the way you explain and describe a particular location, object, or person. For example in horror stories, you may notice dark language being used throughout, such as gore, dismal, damp, or vile. While a fairy tale such as Cinderella uses light and warm language like magical, glittering, beautiful, or happily ever after. The choice of words sets the mood and adds an extra layer of excitement to a story.
3. Plot
The plot explains what a story is about from beginning to end. It can contain multiple scenes and events. In its simplest form, a plot has a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning introduces the characters and sometimes shows a minor conflict. The middle is where the major conflict occurs. And the ending is where all conflicts are resolved, and the story comes to a close. The story mountain template is a great way to plan out a story’s plot.
4. Conflict
A story is not a story without conflict. Conflict is also a key part of a story’s plot (see section above). The purpose of conflict in stories is to challenge your characters and push them to their limits. It is only when they face this conflict, do they grow and reach their full potential. Conflicts can be internal, external, or both. Internal conflicts come from inside your main character, such as not having confidence in themself or having a fear of something. While external conflicts are created elsewhere, such as natural disasters or evil villains creating havoc.
5. Resolution
The resolution is a solution to the main conflict. Without a resolution, the conflict would be neverending, and this could lead to a disappointing ending to your story. Resolutions could include huge battle scenes or even the discovery of new information which changes everything. Sometimes in stories resolutions don’t always solve the conflict 100%. This normally leads to cliffhanger endings, where a small piece of conflict still exists somewhere. But the important thing to remember is that all conflicts need some kind of resolution in stories to make them satisfying to the reader.
Story Elements Examples
We explained each story element above, and now it’s time to put our teachings into practice. Here are some common story element examples we created.
The fox and the crow
The fox and the crow is one of Aesop’s most famous fables. It tells the story of a sly fox who tricks a foolish crow into giving her breakfast away. You can read the full fable on the read.gov website.
Here are the elements of a story applied to the fable of the fox and the crow:
- Characters: A sly fox and a foolish crow.
- Setting: Bright Morning in the woods.
- Plot: A hungry fox is looking for food. The fox notices the crow with cheese in its beak. Using his charming words, the fox tricks the crow into dropping the cheese into the fox’s mouth. The story ends with the fox feeling satisfied, and the crow left with nothing to eat.
- Conflict: The Fox wants the cheese that the Crow has.
- Resolution: Using his charming words, the fox can trick the crow into singing. When she starts to sing, the cheese drops into the fox’s mouth.
Cinderella
Cinderella is one of the most famous fairy tales of all time. It tells the tale of a poor servant girl who is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters. One night with the help of her fairy godmother, she attends the ball. It is at the ball that the prince falls in love with Cinderella. Eventually leading to a happy ending.
Here are the elements of a story applied to the short story of Cinderella:
- Characters: Cinderella, the stepsisters, the stepmother, the fairy godmother, and the prince.
- Setting: Long time ago in a kingdom. Physical locations include Cinderella’s palace and the ballroom at the Prince’s Palace.
- Plot: Cinderella’s father passes away leaving her with her horrible stepmother and two stepsisters. They abuse her and make her clean the house all day. One day, an invite comes from the Prince’s palace inviting everyone to the ball. Cinderella is forced to stay at home, while her stepmother and sisters attend. Suddenly Cinderella’s fairy godmother appears and helps her get to the ball. But she must return home by midnight. At the ball Cinderella and the Prince fall in love. The clock nearly strikes twelve and Cinderella runs away leaving a glass slipper behind. The prince then searches the kingdom to find Cinderella. Eventually, he finds her. The two get married and live happily ever after.
- Conflict: Cinderella must find a way to get away from her stepmother and stepsisters.
- Resolution: Cinderella and the prince get married.
