A BLOG ON NARRATIVE WRITING
It is a piece of writing characterized by a main character in a setting who encounters a problem or engages in an interesting, significant, or entertaining activity or experience.
Definition
Narrative writing is, essentially, story writing. A narrative can be fiction or nonfiction, and it can also occupy the space between these as a semi-autobiographical story, historical fiction, or a dramatized retelling of actual events. As long as a piece tells a story through a narrative structure, it’s narrative writing.
Overview
Narrative writing is a written summary of your study's research findings. It is a useful way to succinctly summarize the purpose, main findings, and impact of your research study that is shared with research participants. Crafting a Narrative Summary can accompany writing a scientific manuscript and abstract.
Types of narrative writing
There are multiple ways to write a narrative. The right kind of narrative for your story or essay depends on your goals for the piece you’re writing.
Linear narrative
With a linear narrative, a story’s events are told in chronological order. Most books, movies, TV shows, and other pieces of media are linear narratives. With a linear narrative, each scene is followed by the next logical scene. There can be gaps between scenes, such as a book’s third chapter taking place two years after its second chapter’s events.
Some specific type of linear narrative you may have encountered is the historical narrative and quest narrative. The historical narrative follows a linear timeline to tell the story of an actual event or series of events and in the quest, the narrative tells the story of a character’s quest to reach a goal.
Nonlinear narrative
In contrast to a linear narrative, a nonlinear narrative presents its story’s events in nonchronological order. A well-known example of a nonlinear narrative is House of Leaves, a novel told through first-person narration, recovered documents, and footnotes throughout the book.
Viewpoint narrative
A viewpoint narrative focuses on the narrator’s perspective of the story’s events. Generally, these kinds of stories are more character-driven than plot-driven. The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most popular examples of a viewpoint narrative.
Descriptive narrative
In a descriptive narrative, the focus is on how the story’s setting, characters, and objects look and feel. The goal here is total immersion in the world of the story; this is different from how a viewpoint narrative strives to create immersion in a character’s inner world, a limited perspective on the world of the story. A well-known example of a descriptive narrative is Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart. After murdering a victim and hiding his heart beneath a floorboard, the narrator hears a heartbeat-like thumping, which gets louder and louder until they confess to their crime.
Characteristics of narrative writing
Descriptive language: This type of language evokes feelings rather than directly stating facts. Descriptive language techniques include metaphors, similes, personification, and onomatopoeia.
Characters: A story might have just one character, or it can have a huge cast of characters. In some stories, the narrator is the only character present. The narrator is the figure from whose point of view the story is being told, and they might (or might not) interact with the other characters.
Plot: The plot is the series of events that happen in your narrative. A plot can be simple, with only one or two events, or it can be complex and multi-layered.
Narrative structure: Every narrative, even nonlinear narratives, is organized in some way. This is how the main character pursues their goal or faces the challenge presented to them. No matter how you structure your narrative, it has three distinct parts:
The beginning: This is where the reader meets your writing. Hooking their attention at the beginning is crucial.
The middle: The middle of your story or essay is where the action happens. This is where your protagonist faces one or more conflicts and reaches the climax, the point where the narrative pivots to the falling action after the protagonist either meets or fails to meet their goal.
The end: After the narrative’s climax, the ending wraps up loose story threads, satisfies readers’ remaining curiosities, and positions the protagonist for life after the story’s events.
Conclusion: -
The conclusion of a narrative includes the closing action of the event, but also should include some reflection or analysis of the significance of the event to the writer.
Reference: -
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/narrative-writing
https://blog.empoweringwriters.com/toolbox/what-is-narrative-writing
Written by: Mohd Arifuddin
M. Pharmacy
Student ID: 207/1222
Email: mohammedarifuddin98@gmail.com
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