How To Write A Captivating
Narrative
"Great stories happen to those who can tell them." - Ira Glas
Qualities Of A Narrative Essay
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It should be a story
It should have a defined point of view
It should make a point
It should be vivid
The Story
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An account, or retelling of an event
Walk your readers through it
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Beginning - Context
Middle - Conflict, Climax
End - Closing, Resolution
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First person
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Point Of View
Internalization, rumination, reactions, emotions,
observations
This is your story, give the reader your voice
Nobody else can tell your story like you
Play around with writing how you speak
Aside from being assigned to do this :) what
makes this story worth telling?
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This should be your thesis - the
main point that you continue to
reference throughout the piece
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Stories teach lessons, provide
information and allow individuals to
share experiences
Painting The Scene
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Details, Details, Details (Be specific)
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Descriptive Language
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Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Accurate, specific well-thought out adjectives
Sensory experience
Sounds, smells, sights, tastes, textures
Dialogue
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Gives breath to characters
Provides dimensions
"There's always room for a story that
can transport people to another
place." - J.K. Rowling
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“Her smile seemed sad.”
“Her
last smile to me wasn’t a
sunset. It was an eclipse, the last
eclipse, noon dying away to
darkness where there would be no
dawn.”
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“The painting was a field of
flowers.”
“The painting was a field of
flowers, blues and yellows atop
deep green stems that seemed to
call the viewer in to play.”
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“Back at camp, it is sunset.”
“Back at camp that night, it's
nearing sunset and the sky is
alive—drenched in shifting hues
of fiery orange, crimson, and
violet.”
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“The dog had soft fur.”
“My dog’s fur felt like silk against
my skin and her black coloring
shone, absorbing the sunlight and
reflecting it back like a pure, dark
mirror.”
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“Winter came fast that year.”
“Winter hit like a welterweight
that year, a jabbing cold you
thought you could stand until the
wind rose up and dropped you to
the canvas.”
Looking At Descriptive Language
Non-descriptive:
Descriptive:
“It was a gloomy day in
November.”
“It was a cold grey day in late November.
The weather had changed overnight, when
a backing wind brought a granite sky and a
mizzling rain with it, and although it was
now only a little after two o'clock in the
afternoon the pallor of a winter evening
seemed to have closed upon the hills,
cloaking them in mist.”
Looking At Dialogue
Without Dialogue:
“The crew discussed what to do
next”
With Dialogue:
"There are three possibilities," Woolford surmises. "They've gone farther away, they're circling around, or they've gone
for reinforcements and might come back to attack us."
"Attack us?" I whimper.
"That means we are not safe," says Ferdiny.
"No shit," I say, noticing that the porters have already started to pack our gear, scurrying around camp at twice the
speed I've seen them move before.
"The natives can follow our footprints and come attack us at base camp later," says Rumbarar, the local guide, who
has barely uttered a word the entire trip. "But if they come back, it'll be more than eight people." Rumbarar then tells
Woolford that the tribesmen were responsible for triggering the rainstorm last night, so they could abscond in the
dark without being followed.
"The rain covers their footprints in the mud," says Rumbarar.
"Yeah, they made the rain," says Woolford. "They can do that. I've seen it happen in other parts of Papua."
"They can't make it rain," I interject. "So stop saying that."
"You don't believe me?" says Woolford. "It's true—I've seen it with my own eyes."
"I think this is a good note to leave on," says Ferdiny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV0M5l5KhnE