The Narrative Essay
Create and edit literary texts that experiment with language features and literary devices encountered in texts.
A story with a shape. The most common mistake is spending three quarters of the words getting to the interesting part — so plan the shape before you write a word.
Method
Start close to the trouble
Do not begin with waking up and having breakfast. Begin as near to the problem as you can.
One problem only
A short narrative has room for one complication. Two makes both feel rushed.
Show, do not tell
Not she was scared. Write what scared people do — she counted the steps twice before she went up.
Worked example
e.g. Write a narrative that ends with the line: and the gate was open.
- Plan the shape first, in five lines. Never start writing without it.Orientation · Complication · Rising action · Climax · Resolution
- Orientation. Who, where, when — in about three sentences.Keep it short. This is the part that always runs long.
- Complication. The thing that goes wrong. Get here quickly.By a quarter of the way in, the problem should have arrived.
- Rising action. It gets worse. Two or three steps, each harder.Each attempt to fix it should make things slightly worse.
- Climax. The moment it turns. Slow down here and use detail.This is where your best writing goes.
- Resolution. Short. Do not explain the story you just told.Two or three sentences is usually enough.
- If you are given a final line, write it down first and aim at it.and the gate was open.
Practice
Each of these is a habit worth breaking early.
1
A narrative spends the first half describing a character's morning. What is the problem?
AnswerThe orientation has eaten the story. The complication should arrive early — a reader will forgive knowing less about the character, but not a story with no problem in it.
2
Rewrite showing rather than telling: He was nervous about the interview.
AnswerHe read the first question three times and still had to ask them to repeat it.
3
Why plan the ending before you start writing?
AnswerSo the story aims at something. Narratives that are made up as they go tend to stop rather than end.
4
You have written a strong story but it has two complications. What do you do?
AnswerCut one. Use the space you free up on the climax, which is almost always the underwritten part.