Narrative WritingTell us a story.

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

C5 Select and use strategies before writing and representing, including

setting a purpose

identifying an audience, genre, and form

analysing examples of successful writing and representing in different forms and genres to identify key criteria

generating, selecting, developing, and organizing ideas from personal interest, prompts, texts, and/or research

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

C6 select and use strategies during writing and representing to express and refine thoughts, including

analysing models of literature

accessing multiple sources of information

consulting reference materials

considering and applying feedback from conferences to revise ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency

ongoing revising and editing

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

C7 select and use strategies after writing and representing to improve their work, including

checking their work against established criteria

reading aloud and listening for fluency

revising to enhance writing traits (e.g., ideas, sentence fluency, word choice, voice, organization

editing for conventions (e.g., grammar and usage, capitalization, punctuation, spelling)

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

C8 use writing and representing to express personal responses and relevant opinions about experiences and texts

C9 use writing and representing to extend thinking, by

developing explanations

analysing the relationships in ideas and information

exploring new ideas (e.g., examining alternative viewpoints, transposing writing from one form to another)

C10 reflect on and assess their writing and representing, by setting goals and creating a plan for improvement

taking steps toward achieving goals

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

C11 use the features and conventions of language to express meaning in their writing and representing, including

complete simple, compound, and complex sentences

subordinate (i.e., dependent) clauses

past, present, and future tenses

effective paragraphing

effective use of punctuation and quotation marks

conventional Canadian spelling for familiar and frequently used words

spelling unfamiliar words by applying strategies (e.g., phonic knowledge, use of common spelling patterns, dictionaries, thesaurus)

Name your character

Develop a backstoryAge

Develop a backstoryAge

Physical description

Develop a backstoryAge

Physical description

Clothing

Develop a backstoryAge

Physical description

Clothing

Personality

Develop a backstoryAge

Physical description

Clothing

Personality

Object

Click icon to add picture

Develop a backstoryAge

Physical description

Clothing

Personality

Object

Background-rich, poor, family, education

SettingWhere does the story take place?

Pick a time and place…

A vacant lot

Restaurant

School Camp

City

Farm

Details

Who is in charge?

You have to consider more than just the place.

Details

Who is in charge?

What are the laws? Is there a lunch table she can’t sit at or a boy who is off-limits?

You have to consider more than just the place.

Details Who is in charge?

What are the laws? Is there a lunch table she can’t sit at or a boy who is off-limits?

Socioeconomics of this place—how rich is it and how rich is my character?

You have to consider more than just the place.

Details Who is in charge?

What are the laws? Is there a lunch table she can’t sit at or a boy who is off limits?

Socioeconomics of this place—how rich is it and how rich is my character?

What is the weather?

You have to consider more than just the place.

Details Who is in charge?

What are the laws? Is there a lunch table she can’t sit at or a boy who is off limits?

Socioeconomics of this place—how rich is it and how rich is my character?

What is the weather?

Draw a simple map.

You have to consider more than just the place.

Outline your storyKnow where you are going.

Somebody Your characters…

Wanted This is the plan…

But This is the problem…

So… What happened?

Story Framework

Point of View and TenseWho will tell the story and how will they tell it?

Point of View (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

First Person Point of ViewIn the first person point of view, the narrator participates in the action of the story.

Point of View (Wolf Brother)

Third-person point of view is that of an outsider looking at the action. The writer may choose third-person omniscient, in which the thoughts of every character are open to the reader, or third-person limited, in which the reader enters only one character's mind, either throughout the entire work or in a specific section. Third-person limited differs from first-person because the author's voice, not the character's voice, is what you hear in the descriptive passages.

Wolf BrotherTorak woke with a jolt from a sleep he'd never meant to have.

The fire had burned low. He crouched in the fragile shell of light and peered into the looming blackness of the Forest. He couldn't see anything. Couldn't hear anything. Had it come back? Was it out there now, watching him with its hot, murderous eyes?

He felt hollow and cold. He knew that he badly needed food, and that his arm hurt, and his eyes were scratchy with tiredness, but he couldn't really feel it. All night he'd guarded the wreck of the spruce bough shelter and watched his father bleed. How could this be happening?

Only yesterday—yesterday—they'd pitched camp in the blue autumn dusk. Torak had made a joke, and his father was laughing. Then the Forest exploded. Ravens screamed. Pines cracked. And out of the dark beneath the trees surged a deeper darkness: a huge rampaging menace in bear form.

Tense-How will you tell it?

Is it happening right now?

Or did it already happen and you are telling about it?

Pre

sen

t te

nse:

It is

hap

pen

ing

rig

ht

now

.

Past tense: It already happened

Torak woke with a jolt from a sleep he'd never meant to have.

The fire had burned low. He crouched in the fragile shell of light and peered into the looming blackness of the Forest. He couldn't see anything. Couldn't hear anything. Had it come back? Was it out there now, watching him with its hot, murderous eyes?

He felt hollow and cold. He knew that he badly needed food, and that his arm hurt, and his eyes were scratchy with tiredness, but he couldn't really feel it. All night he'd guarded the wreck of the spruce bough shelter and watched his father bleed. How could this be happening?

Only yesterday—yesterday—they'd pitched camp in the blue autumn dusk. Torak had made a joke, and his father was laughing. Then the Forest exploded. Ravens screamed. Pines cracked. And out of the dark beneath the trees surged a deeper darkness: a huge rampaging menace in bear form.

DialogueSay something (useful)

Conversations

Writing verbal conversations or dialogue is often one of the trickiest parts of creative writing. New writers often go into a story thinking it should be easy; after all, we all hold conversations several times a day!

What new story writers quickly realize is that crafting a relevant dialogue within the context of a story requires much more work than carrying out natural conversation.

Dialogue isn't just about creating direct quotations from different characters. Sometimes dialogue is best when it's put into a summarized form, rather than the drawn-out form of an actual conversation.

Boring

If you think about it, our conversations are boring to read, for the most part. A normal exchange would go something like this:

"Hi Tony," said Katy."Hey," Tony answered."What's wrong?" Katy asked."Nothing," Tony said."Really? You don't act like nothing's wrong."

Condense it

Pretty tiresome dialogue, right? But by condensing a conversation within the narrative, the writer can convey relevant information that isn't important enough to merit its own dialogue segment. You might think of dialogue as feelings that are verbalized in an abbreviated way.

Instead of writing a dialogue like the one above, a writer could condense the scene:

"Hi Tony."Tony looked down at his shoe, dug in his toe,

and pushed around a pile of dust. "Hey," he replied. Katy could tell something was wrong.

Dialogue does more than just talk… Do not use dialogue simply to convey information. Dialogue should set

the scene, advance action, give insight into characterization, remind the reader, and foreshadow. Dialogue should always be doing many things at once.

Keep the character's voice in mind but keep it readable. Dialogue doesn't have to be grammatically correct; it should read like actual speech. However, there must be a balance between realistic speech and readability.

Don't use too much slang or misspelling in order to create a character's voice. Also remember to use speech as a characterization tool. Word choice tells a reader a lot about a person: appearance, ethnicity, sexuality, background, and morality.

Tension! Sometimes saying nothing, or the opposite of what we know a character feels, is the best way to create tension. If a character wants to say 'I love you!" but their actions or words say 'I don't care,' the reader cringes at the missed opportunity.

Using Thoughts in Dialogue

Using thoughts or memories of occurrences and conversations can also show important details of a story without unnecessary character interaction. This indirect dialogue is another way of creating the feel of exchange without quotations. This often takes place internally in one of the characters.

"Hi Tony."Tony looked down at his shoe, dug in his toe,

and pushed around a pile of dust. "Hey," he replied.Katy braced herself. Something was wrong.

It is important to keep in mind when writing thoughts not to use quotations. If you must write a direct thought, always italicize what is being "said" within the character's mind.

Formatting Short Story Dialogue

Format and style are key to successful dialogue. Correct tags, commas, periods, question marks, and paragraph indents can be almost as important as the actual dialogue itself.

The first thing to remember is that punctuation goes inside quotations.

“I can't believe you just did that!” she said.

“Perhaps, you can’t,” he answered, “but, I did.”

Dialogue tags are the he said/she said's of quotations.

Show, Don’t Tell

Very often tags are mistakenly used as forms of description. For example:

"But I don't want to go to sleep yet," he whined.

While these types of tags are acceptable and even necessary at times, they should only be used sparingly. The dialogue and narration should be used to show the emotion or action stated in the tag. One of the most important rules of writing fiction is: show, don't tell.

Instead of telling the reader that the boy whined in the example above, a good writer will describe the scene in a way that conjures the image of a whining little boy:

He stood in the doorway with his hands balled into little fists at his sides. His red, tear-rimmed eyes glared up at his mother. "But I don't want to go to sleep yet."

Paragraphs and indents

Paragraphs are very important to the flow and comprehension of the dialogue. Remember to start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes within the dialogue. This helps the reader know when someone new is speaking (and who it is).

If there is action involved with a speaking character, keep the description of the action within the same paragraph as the dialogue of the character engaged in it.

Listen to the voices

Creative writing is one of the few activities where hearing voices is not only a good thing, it is a necessity. If you find yourself having difficulty coming up with new voices for your characters, there are a few things you can do to help develop the voices in your head.

Eavesdrop. You should always carry a small notebook with you and write down phrases, words, or whole conversations verbatim to help develop your inner ear.

Read! Reading will hone your creative abilities. It will help familiarize you with the form and flow of narration and dialogue until it becomes more natural in your writing.

As with anything, practice makes perfect. Not even the best writers get it right the first time.