This module discusses the stories we tell to make sense of the world. The importance of  storytelling to human existence is explained. Narration is then introduced as another  word for this storytelling, and its connection to other academic writing and description is  discussed. Examples are provided of perspective and point-of-view, and the primary  components of narrative writing (characters, conflict, and purpose) are introduced to  help writers begin constructing their own stories. Chronological order, the ordering of  events through time, is explained, as is the concept of the flashback, jumping  backwards in time. The prewriting strategies of questioning and freewriting are  introduced as ways to generate ideas for a narrative. Outlining is emphasized as  necessary for the construction of logical, cohesive papers. Finally, the importance of  using transitions (joining words) to connect ideas when composing is discussed. (1)

Objectives

Upon completion of this module, the student will be able to:

•  Explain what narration is and why it is central to human life

•  Identify fiction and nonfiction writing, as well as the complications involved  in such distinctions

•  Explain the problem of perspective

•  Identify the primary elements of a narrative: character, conflict, and  narrative purpose

•  Use chronological order and flashbacks to organize events in time

•  Use questioning and freewriting to generate ideas

•  Use outlining to prepare a narrative paper

•  Compose a narrative piece of writing

•  Use transitions to tie events together (1)

Our Selves, Our Stories

Human beings are fundamentally storytelling creatures. Of all the ways we use words,  perhaps the most important (and most typical) is to communicate who we are, where we  have been, and where we are going. Think of all the times you use words to convey  what has happened to you in a single day, even a single hour! Indeed, we spend most  of our lives using our words to spin stories about ourselves; even our own sense of  identity is a kind of story we tell ourselves to make sense of the world!

Because using words to tell stories is so fundamental to our everyday  experience, narration , a fancy word for storytelling, is the perfect place to start our  composition course in earnest. For many students, a narrative essay, one which  requires to writer to tell a story of some sort, is the most comfortable and enjoyable kind  of assignment to tackle. This is especially true if you are interested in creative writing or

have aspirations of publishing short stories, screenplays, or novels. Aside from being a  familiar and creative kind of writing, narration is also a key component in many other  kinds of essay writing, and as the course continues you’ll see that narration comes in  handy when you are trying to come up with interesting hooks to start papers or are  looking to explain specific points about a topic with examples that help your reader  understand your point of view. Finally, the kind of writing we did in the last  module, description , the translation of the senses into words, plays a key part in all  types of narrative writing; after all, to tell a good story, you have to provide details that  help your reader become immersed in the world you are creating. (1)

Fiction, Nonfiction, and the Problem of Perspective

Before we begin discussing how to construct an effective narrative, we need to consider  an important distinction that humans have to make when it comes to storytelling: the  difference between nonfiction, or writing that purports to be true or “real,” and fiction, or  writing that announces itself as a fabrication, a “made-up” story told by the author to  entertain or to make a hypothetical (believable yet fictional) point.

At first glance, this distinction might seem easy to make. However, the words we use  are never equivalent to the world we experience; in some sense, whenever we tell a  story, we are fabricating what happened. If we could simply communicate events as  they happened, we wouldn’t need words at all! This is why there are so many  arguments about news stories and the meaning of current events; we all recognize that  any act of recalling what has happened is fraught with the problem of perspective , the  point-of-view or position of the storyteller.

As we’ll see in later modules, the problem of perspective is something that always  haunts the composition classroom and writing in general, so it’s important that we  recognize the issue here at the beginning.

Philosophers have argued about the problems of language and truth since the dawn of  civilization, and their battles rage on to this day. For the purpose of this module,  however, we will have to accept that what we mean by nonfiction writing is storytelling  that presumes to adhere to the world as it happened to the author or other  humans and fiction writing as storytelling that makes no such presumptions about its  literal truth .

Because all storytelling, be it fiction or nonfiction writing, is always caught up in the  problem of perspective, the point-of-view of the writer, it is important to clarify exactly  how this positioning makes itself known in a piece of writing.

Two Elements that Make a Story Click

Every effective story has two key elements: character and conflict. Characters are the  people that populate the world a writer creates. Conflict is what happens to those

characters, the catalyst for their actions. Without characters, a world would have no  actors; without conflict, characters would have no reason to take action.

Though a creative writing instructor would likely take issue with this simplification, for  the sake of this class characters can be broken down into three types: main characters,  side characters, and extras.

Main characters are the people on which a story centers, and a writer signals their  importance by providing the most details about them, including what they look like, what  they say, and possibly how they think or feel (depending upon how subjective the  story’s perspective is). Remember that a main character may even be the person telling  the story if the writer is using the first-person perspective.

Side characters often accompany the main character as important acquaintances,  friends, or enemies. Writers provide enough details about them for them to come alive,  but they don’t get as much attention as the main characters. They are often essential to  the conflict, however; for example, often the main character has an enemy who is a side  character but whose presence forces the main character to take action.

Extras help fill out the world of a narrative, but they are just window-dressing. They  appear in the background at parties or on busy city streets or in office settings. They are  not important to the story’s conflict, though they may be affected by it (think of all the  extras in a Hollywood movie who run screaming from a giant monster’s attack in a  movie likeGodzilla ).

A story’s conflict is the struggle that the main character must endure as the story  proceeds, the obstacle that he or she must overcome. This conflict could involve  another character, such as in classic confrontations of heroes and villains (Batman  fighting the Joker or Captain America confronting the Red Skull). However, main  characters may also experience less aggressive conflicts, such as facing a fear,  performing a task, surviving a hostile environment, interviewing for a job, enduring a  medical issue, or winning the heart of a love interest. Before you write your narrative,  you need to have a clear understanding of what this conflict is so that you can build to  a climactic moment when the conflict is resolved and the story’s purpose is revealed. (1)

Narrative Purpose: Why Readers Love It When a Plan Comes  Together

A story is interesting only insofar as it has some reason to exist. Conflicts get a story  moving and give characters something to do, but the overall reason behind the story  reveals itself when the conflict is resolved. Maybe a writer wants to show the importance  of sticking with something, no matter how hard it seems; maybe he or she wants to  emphasize the difficulty of loyalty or the insanity of the modern workplace. This purpose  can be funny or moving, and a story doesn’t have to convey some deep moral message  to be effective. However, a writer needs to consider how and why the conflict will

resolve and what the implications of that resolution will be. This purpose is usually left  unstated in narratives; readers don’t like to be told what to think, so you shouldn’t say  something like, “The moral of this story is . . . .” Still, try to make it a point to write out  the purpose in advance for yourself so you know what you are doing. This purpose  statement might end up being slightly off the mark after the whole story comes together,  especially since characters often have a way of taking on a life of their own and “doing”  things the writer didn’t expect. Still, having some idea where the story is going is  essential to avoiding writer’s block (when you get stuck and don’t know what else to  write) and keeping your narrative focused.

