Excellent Narrative Writing Steps and Tricks
The satisfaction of losing yourself in the book, sinking into another world, having the time escape you while you're reading... It sounds familiar to any avid bookworm, doesn't it? But have you ever wondered what you need to create a plot by yourself, converting familiar into remarkable, enriching the story with a mesmerizing undertone that tells a wonderful tale?
First, you should figure out the main concept of storytelling. The leading term is narrative writing — an imaginative type of exposition which mostly seeks to entertain, educate, justify, or simply tells a story. This narrative is usually based on real concepts, but ones embellished and framed into the specific types of obligations or standards and essential elements.
The Components of Narrative Writing
No tale can exist without the characters it's about. Their portrayal has its own pecking order, or hierarchy, in accordance with the tempo of developing the story. The central person in the narration represents the protagonist, also called a hero or a heroine. Second detail of narrative writing is an antagonist — the figure opposite to the lead character. The interaction between them creates and maintains the framework of the overall story.
Also, it is typically needed to add minor characters for the future evolution of the plot and its branching. The plot is the next main condition for the success of the story. In simple terms, if nothing out of the ordinary happens to the characters, there is no point in writing it at all. Remove the plot, and it's just your characters picking their noses doing naught.
Components of the plot are the exposure, rising action, culmination, falling action, and denouement, and it is important to include them into the novel exactly in that order.
- The exposure defines the theme, scenery, characters, and climate at the story’s launching.
- The rising action is the element that pushes you to keep reading until you strike the story climax.
- The culmination is what we call the highest point of tension and drama in the whole novel.
- The falling action follows the climax (culmination) and guides the reader to a logical ending.
- The last part of a plot is the resolution when the problem gets solved.
Next element the author needs is the conflict, which means any battle among opposite sides. Yet those are not always the good guy and the bad one.
Seven Principal Kinds of Conflicts
- Person against person.
- Person against self.
- Person against god or fate.
- Person against natural forces.
- Person against society.
- Person against supernatural.
A typical sci-fi and mystical novels conflict where the hero stands up against something metaphysical (Stephen King's The Shining).
- Person against technology.
A traditional situation with the protagonist and antagonist (Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort; Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty).
The struggle between ambition or selves with a great deal of personal narrative, classic combination when one is good and other is evil (Rodion Raskolnikov In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment).
The type of conflict when a fatality or fortune catches a character; release usually seems unreal (Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five).
Humans fighting nature for survival or pursuing the domination over it (Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville's Moby Dick).
An opposition to social norms and standards, battling for individuality (The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger).
This genre is more popular in filmmaking or comics. A person or humanity as a whole tries to overcome unemotional machines that don't need people anymore (Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Logically different conflicts need different genres of writing.
- Fantasy.
- Quest.
- Mystery.
- Children's.
Authentic fiction based on the strangeness of settings (like different time eras or worlds) and characters (e.g., supernatural creatures).
Throughout the whole story, the hero and their friends search for a certain item, place, or person. They can be close friends from the beginning or become them in the process.
Novels telling about the unknown (horror, pseudo-scientific, world riddles). They divide into fantasy, mystery/whodunit, comedy, tragedy.
Stories created mostly to entertain but usually with the educational foundation. They're usually separated into adventures, fairytales, and myths and are provided in the early elementary school.
Becoming Proficient
You may wish to know if it is possible for each person to be an author and which professional skills are needed for narrative writing. Let us explore it all!
First and foremost, the author needs to choose what genre is the most interesting for them. Here are the key elements that different types of narrative must have.
- Orderliness.
- Intriguing beginning.
- Elaborate detail.
- Tension.
- Fully developed major events.
- Satisfactory ending.
This means a good understanding of the shape that the story takes, as well as the salient characteristics of a certain kind of writing.
The narrator must realize the responsibility of a story initiation — to grab the readers' attention and involve them in the story world. Also, it's important they recognize the unique strategies and methods the author used to achieve this.
It includes much more than supplying the nouns with correlating adjectives. The teller needs to understand why they need to elaborate (the reader should be able to feel the story characters, places, time, and everything through the senses of the main hero).
Story suspense is what pushes the reader to keep turning the pages. It is essential for students to feel the need for tension; also, authors must understand how to combine them in the plot.
A narrative story has a main significant central event — the seed of what it is all about. This moment should be expressed through a blend of action, depiction, communication, minds, and emotions.
Logically, it should occur after the central event when the protagonist reflects on the feelings, dreams, wishes, and solutions that have manifested as the result of the main events of the story.
The theory is explored, and it is time to talk about the practical aspect of narrative writing. There is a great way to avoid creative torment when you don't want to be an author, but need to accomplish your university task. The student who is looking for easy but reliable way can appeal to custom paper writing services. Professionals will write it confidentially, originally, and in time.
For beginners who are trying to achieve glory with their stories, the first step is good time management and planning. Divide your time between studying and researching. Your English teacher or professor should become your best friend to help with your progress. It's a good idea to get to know some of your favorite modern authors, such as poets and novelists, and learn from their experiences.
Learn to create dozens of drafts while you write. Story writing is about constant development and improvement — be ready to change the main events a few times to fit the latest surge of inspiration. And don't think that the hours you spent on the previous versions are worthless — they were your steps on the ladder to success!
The final stage is self-editing. This process needs a lot of concentration and your own intuition to decide how it is better to edit and structure the novel, as well as diligent grammar grinding. Don't forget to always fact-check! It is important that you research what you want to write about because even if it's fantasy, there are still some basic universal rules to adhere to.
Narrative Writing Checklist
- Scenery.
- Characters.
- Conflict.
- Apex.
- Happy ending?
Determine the place and time of the action. Depending on the genre of the story you want to tell and the events it is based on, the setting will change, enlightening your readers to help them “get” the story. History drama may be started at some Middle Age castle with a king and queen, crusades, and revolutions.
Main and minor heroes that look realistic is the most complicated aspect of storytelling for students. Creating a character from a real person like your friend or a family member can make them more believable. If you don't have an appropriate person, start from the detailed description of the hero, their appearance and temper.
The main rule here is that it is impossible to create a story arc without a problem — the pushing force of the story development. It can be something the hero wants or doesn't want to happen, or the obstacle they have to overcome.
The strongest drama moment in the story, actually the whole reason for your writing. Here, the author will decide whether the novel will have a positive or negative ending. The closer it is to the final, the more the tension increases to intrigue the reader.
Sometimes, after the climax, there are still open questions for the reader, even if the conflict has been resolved. Sum it up, make your hero reflect on the events of the story, outline their future.
Narrative writing is about telling a story. So we wish you a thousand ideas and a ton of inspiration!