Narrative Writing Techniques

• Students will develop narrative writing skills by reading short stories
• Students will practice creative writing of narrative openings and endings
• The focus will be on structure and symbolism

Key Concepts and Ideas

• Writers make structural choices at sentence, paragraph, and whole text level
• These choices involve symbolism, motif, foreshadowing, in media res, listing, chronological (linear) and cyclical structures
• Writers deliberately choose a narrative voice
• An example is a third-person omniscient narrator, who is not a character and can easily switch between events and perspectives

Key Terms

• Freytag's Pyramid represents typical narrative structure, with six parts to label and describe
• Cyclical structure involves a narrative ending that connects back to the beginning
• This is different from a strictly linear structure, as the story is not told in chronological order
• Setting is defined as the time and place in which a narrative takes place
• Narrative voice is the "voice" telling the story:
  • Examples include a third-person omniscient narrator or first-person from the protagonist's perspective
• Motif is when a writer uses the same symbolic image or idea throughout a text
• Connotation is what most people think of when they read a word beyond its literal meaning:
  • 'Blue' suggests sadness, 'grave' suggests death, 'child' suggests innocence
• Foreshadowing is when a writer hints or warns about future events in the narrative
• Juxtaposition is when a writer places two words or images next to each other to highlight the contrast
• Epiphany is a moment of sudden awareness or understanding

Key Skills

• Making inferences from quotations
• Making relevant annotations when reading
• Generating ideas and plans for narrative writing from written prompts, focusing on an isolated moment
• Constructing an opening "drop" paragraph and a closing paragraph using mirroring with a written prompt, including deliberate structural features

Freytag's Pyramid Elements

• Exposition: Introduces the protagonist and establishes the setting
• Inciting Incident: An event, complication, or revelation that changes the protagonist and leads to the rest of the events in the plot
• Rising Action: More events and problems unfold, increasing tension
• Climax: The peak of action or emotion where the protagonist faces a major challenge or conflict
• Falling Action: Describes what happens as a result of the conflict or challenge in the climax
• Resolution: The end of the narrative, where problems are solved, or the protagonist moves on