Writing Quality Narrative Essays

1. Situate events in a time and place When and where does the story take place? Bring it to life by appealing to the reader’s senses

2. Establishing COntext Put the topic into perspective for someone who knows nothing about the story “I’m sitting in a hospital bed waiting for Max. Max, he’s my best friend, but you’d never guess it by looking at us. He’s the strength, and I’m the brains, but you’d be shocked by how smart he is too.” – Freak the Mighty

3. Logical Event Sequence Go in a logical order Narratives need transitions to show change in time or action When there’s a change in action, time, or setting, you need to start a new paragraph. Ex. Later that night, meanwhile, Because of this

4. Develop the point of view Use a tone; create a mood. Bring the reader intimately into the character’s experiences. Make us feel the anger, sadness, happiness

5. Develop the character’s motives Make the reader understand WHY they are doing what they are doing

6. Use dialogue correctly Have a reason for using dialogue! A. Move the story along. B. Develop the characters or setting. C. Provide emphasis.

Using Dialogue Correctly Rule #1: New paragraph and indent when a new person starts talking. Rule #2: Quotation marks only go around what the person is saying. Rule #3: Always capitalize the first word in quotations. Rule #4: When there is a quote, you need a COMMA somewhere.

Practice writing dialogue Find a page of dialogue in your book and copy it directly into your notebook.

Use the next two pages to draw your plot diagram

Use the next two pages to plan out your dialogue and sensory details