1. Aspects of Narrative Writing Grade 8

2. Successful Writing Risks Tell your story in scenes, not in exposition. A scene contains a purpose, an obstacle or conflict, and a resolution that tells us something new about the characters and their circumstances. Develop your characters through action and dialogue. Show us, don’t tell us, what’s going on and why (NOT He was loud and rude, but “Get out of my way, you imbecile!” John screamed.).

3. Successful Writing Risks Include all the elements you need for your conclusion. If everything depends on throwing a person a surprise party, show us the invitation long before the party happens. (this is where description is important!) Give your characters adequate motivation for their actions and words. Drama is people doing amazing things for very good reasons. Melodrama is people doing amazing things for bad or nonexistent reasons.

4. …Continued Develop the plot as a series of increasingly serious problems. (The heroine escapes the villain in paragraph 4 by fleeing into the snowy mountains; now in paragraph 5 she risks death in an avalanche.) Establish suspense by making the solution of the problems uncertain...(How will the heroine escape the avalanche and avoid freezing to death in paragraph 7?). Make solutions of the problems appropriate to the characters (Good thing she took Outward Bound training which we found out in paragraph two).

5. Remember in Your Story… Remember that nothing in a story happens at random. Why is the heroine’s name Sophia? Why is she blind? Why is her dog a black Lab? The easy answer is that you’re the God of your novel and that’s the way you want things. But if you have a conscious reason for these elements, the story gains in interest because it carries more meaning: For example, “Sophia” means “wisdom” and the name can provide a cue to the reader. Use image, metaphor and simile with a conscious purpose, not just because a phrase “sounds good.” Maintain consistent style, tone, and point of view.

6. Also Remember… Establish the setting—where and when the story takes place. Establish the area of conflict. If the setting is in the Nanaimo coal mines at the turn of the century, the area of conflict may be relations between miners and owners, or within a family of miners, or within a single miner's personality. Foreshadow the ending. If the hero dies in a blizzard at the end, a few flakes of snow may fall in the first paragraph. Set the tone of the story: solemn or excited, humorous or tragic.

7. Writing Dialogue 1. All words spoken by characters must be surrounded in quotation marks. A direct quotation may come at the beginning or end of a sentence. – Ted smiled and thought, “I can’t wait to get to the ball game!” 2. A direct quotation begins with a capital letter. If a quotation is interrupted, the second parts begins with a lower case letter. – “Yes, I am the one who baked the chocolate cake,” admitted Granny.

8. Writing Dialogue 3. A direct quotation is set off from the rest of a sentence by commas. If a direct quotation is interrupted, commas are placed before and after the interruptions. The comma before the direct quotation falls outside the quotation marks. The comma or any quotation after the direct quotation falls inside the quotation marks. – “Jim,” she said, “I am going to make sure you lose this match!”

9. Writing Dialogue 4. Dialogue is less formal than any other writing. To make your characters sounds natural, you may use short sentences and contractions. 5. In a conversation between characters, start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. 6. Be careful not to use the word “said” too often. Use other livelier verbs such as “shouted,” “ yelled,” “whispered,” “confessed,” etc.