NARRATIVE

WRITING
◦ A good narrative rests on three legs:

◦ Character

◦ Action

◦ scene
SCENE
◦ “While the outline is the structural skeleton of the narrative, the flesh and blood that turns that skeleton
into a living thing are not chapters … but scenes.”
- Peter Rubie

- We spin out narrative in a series of episodes. You must create a stage, a place where the story can unfold.
Once you have a story space, you can people it with characters. Then, the characters can breathe, move,
act. You launch your plot and complete the storytelling tripod created when you combine character,
action and scene.
SCENE
◦ In a narrative, each scene should unfold along the narrative arc, propelling the action line through the
story.
◦ You open your narrative with a scene suitable for exposition – you introduce the protagonist and the
backstory necessary for understanding the complication.
◦ If the first scene doesn’t contain the inciting incident, the next scene should.
◦ Then, a series of scenes will proceed from plot point to plot point moving upward through the rising-
action phase of the story.
◦ The crisis will unfold in one of the story’s key scenes, as will the climax.
◦ A single scene may be enough for falling action and RESOLUTION.
SCENE
◦ Details must be meaningful.

◦ Writers should follow Chekhov’s rule:

◦ “one must not put a loaded rifle n the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.”

◦ The point of description is to create scenes that seem absolutely real, and vivid details are the most
important elements in living scenes.
TASK 1: SETTING THE STORY
◦ All narratives have some kind of setting. Look at the following pictures. Imagine they are settings for
your own stories.
◦ a) What kind of stories do they suggest?
◦ b) Choose one of the pictures and write a short passage which captures the atmosphere of the place. You
can:

- describe it from the outside, writing in detail how you see it.

- describe it from the inside as if you were inside the scene shown by the picture; or

- describe it through the eyes of another person.

Now, list the most outstanding things you can see in the picture. Include: sights, sounds, smells, other
sense impressions, and your reactions.
LOOKING AND SEEING
NOISE
PLACE (adjectives)