Name __________________________ Date _________________ Period _______

Narrative Writing Techniques 10.1

I. Purpose and Audience.
Most authors write to _________________, _________________, or
_____________________.
A. Instructions: Read the description of each item, and determine the authors
purpose.
1. An instructional booklet describing how to use a smart phone.
Authors purpose: _________________________
2. A poem about why the iPhone is the greatest consumer device ever made.
Authors purpose: _________________________
3. The story of a young athlete who takes steroids and his life and future fall
apart.
Authors purpose: _________________________
Determine the purpose for writing your narrative early on, and be aware of
your audience. Take your reader into consideration, and be sure that your
writing is clear and rational.
II. Conflict and Change or Resolution.
Conflict is the problem in the story. Change or Resolution is how your conflict
ends.
There are two types of conflict; inner conflict and outer conflict.
_________________ conflict occurs within you, while _______________
conflict occurs outside you.
Resolving a conflict is as important as having one.
Think of your resolution before you begin writing, so you have a goal in
mind.

A. Instructions: Determine if the following examples demonstrate inner or

outer conflict.
1. Building the nerve to ask someone out. Inner / Outer
2. Sticking up for yourself or someone else. Inner / Outer
3. Trying to decide between pizza and wings for dinner. Inner / Outer
III. Description.
Descriptive language is key to writing an interesting and engaging narrative.
There are many ways to incorporate descriptive language.
One way to incorporate descriptive language is to show, dont tell. Rather
than just telling how a character feels, have the characters perform actions
that imply the told feeling.
A. Instructions: Make the following telling statements show. You may change
the sentences and add new things, but be sure to express the original idea.
Example: Telling: Tom didnt want to go to school today.
Showing: Tom slammed his bag on to the counter. Crumpling his
half-completed homework, he sighed.
1. Telling: She was bored while he was telling his story.
Showing: __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
2. Telling: The pizza was delicious.
Showing: __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
Using ___________ _____________, one can visualize a narrative essay
moving in two directions forward, where the sequence of events is
narrated, and vertically, where time lingers and the narration is focused on
description.
B. Instructions: Use vertical time and sensory details to create enhanced,
descriptive sentences from the following scenarios. Feel free to make things
up.

1. I was walking through a dark alley.

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
2. Suddenly, a man popped out of the shadows.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
IV. Point of View and Dialogue.
Narratives are written in the ___________ - person point-of-view.
Use these pronouns when writing in the first-person: I, Im, me, my, mine,
myself, our, ourselves.
__________________ is conversation between two or more people.
A. Instructions: Dialogue between multiple characters can add depth to your
narrative. Practice adding dialogue to the following excerpt:
1. Though we had been friends for years now, I could feel the tension
building between us. She had been purposely embarrassing me in front of
the class. I decided that I had finally had enough, so I stood up and
shouted, __________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________.
I quickly realized how stupid I must have looked, so I blurted out the first
apologetic sentence I could muster, _____________________________
_________________________________________________________.