Narrative writing makes upwardly the majority of what we know as storytelling.

Simply it's non as easy as simply telling the story…information technology takes a lot more than that to write and even publish a book with a heavy focus on narrative writing.

If you desire to…

  • Larn more about narrative writing
  • Larn why mastering narrative writing is the fundamental to good storytelling
  • Learn how to principal narrative writing to improve your books and projects

And then you lot're in the right place.

Here'southward what you'll learn well-nigh narrative writing:

  1. What is narrative writing
  2. Parts of narrative writing
  3. Narrative writing prompts
  4. How to utilize narrative writing
  5. Learn narrative writing from those experienced
  6. Read often to meliorate narrative writing
  7. Practise narrative writing regularly
  8. Enquire for feedback to meliorate
  9. Scout movies and Tv set shows
  10. Invoke all 3 primary story elements in i judgement

What is Narrative Writing?

Narrative writing is writing that has a story, characters, conflict, and other essential parts of a story. Narrative writing is often synonymous with a story.

And this differs greatly compared to other forms of writing, similar in textbooks and certain nonfiction books.

However, if you're writing a story of some kind, that is narrative writing, where a narrator is telling the story.

Parts of Narrative Writing

Narrative writing is made of specific parts. These parts of a book end upward completing the whole, and are necessary for writing a good novel.

Graphic symbol – The characters are essential. Information technology'southward extremely difficult to tell a story without them, as character development is ane of the best parts in narrative writing. Retrieve of your characters as the driving strength of the narrative. Sometimes the character chosen is unreliable and therefore has holes throughout the story.

Disharmonize – This part of narrative writing is where the tension comes from. Conflict of whatever form, whether it's between characters, betwixt elements in your setting, or fifty-fifty in your plot, is essential for not just a good book, just for narrative writing.

Plot – This is the main point of your story. Where is it all going and what's happening while we get there? This tin can often include any disharmonize, but is usually a bigger "main" portion of your story, and therefore the narrative.

Setting – The setting of a story is really what determines its genre every bit well equally its learning curve. The learning curve refers to how much readers need to learn about the world, aka, how unlike it is from our ain. The setting adds to this extensively considering if your volume is in a new world, more worldbuilding is necessary, which means it volition bleed heavily into your narrative.

Theme – These are embedded into your story even if you're non trying to. Narrative writing tells a story and with any stories, lessons are learned and these become the themes of your story. Whether you mean to or non, your own thoughts about the world and important values bleed into your work inside the narrative writing.

Narrative Writing Arc – This is the story structure the narrative takes. This includes things like the inciting incident, key milestones like the first slap and second slap, the climax, the resolution, and even nuances like the graphic symbol arc.

Narrative Writing Prompts by Genre

If you're set up to get started on narrative writing, even earlier we've covered the of import tips below, check out these writing prompts to inspire you lot.

Narrative Prompts #1 – Fantasy

  1. Set up in its own world, write a story virtually a single found, kept alive in a temple for thousands and thousands of years. Until one twenty-four hours, the guard on duty noticed it has dried and shriveled completely, cut off the society'south magic.
  2. Write a story about a adult female who works the dark shift at a local convenience store finding herself in the midst of what seems to be an otherworldly magic battle…in her shop.
  3. Create your own globe and write a story about a modern civilization equally if magic is and has always been the norm…until someone from the outside is discovered to be marveling at its wonders, as if they've never seen it earlier.

Narrative Prompts #2 – Science Fiction

  1. Write a story focusing on a street sweep who works in the Dark, the place at the Earth's surface where smog and pollution has taken over. Except when cleaning a particular street corner, they uncover an hush-hush culture who take perfected the technology to filter the air, leaving them with the purest in the earth.
  2. Write a story virtually a doctor who was only replaced by a auto to diagnose, treat, and even operate on patients.
  3. In a futuristic society, the right to privacy has been abolished in order to keep people rubber after a worldwide terrorist attack. Your master character, an engineer, has discovered how to override the "foolproof" surveillance system…what they observe in the database changes everything.

Narrative Prompts #three – Romance

  1. Your chief character is a strawberry picker who has a run-in with the dearest involvement, who is hiding in the fields, eating and picking strawberries as a means of survival because they're on the run…and homeless.
  2. Write a story about two people who have been friends since childhood, though their families take promised them spousal relationship to others despite them existence in love.
  3. Write a story focusing on a semi-truck driver trying to outrun a jaded past every bit they meet someone who works in law enforcement while at a diner.

Narrative Prompts #4 – Dystopian

  1. More than than a thousand years have passed since information technology happened—since 1 human being disobeyed government orders to destroy his research into a nanobot technology subsequently he discovered how to make them recall.
  2. Write a story about an old man whose grandfather, when he was young, made the pick to unleash the secrets of cancer inquiry—and its cure—to the world. Now population control has become an even bigger issue.
  3. Climate change is inevitable. Write a story about what happens when a small-scale hole tears in the Earth's temper due to climate change, and what lodge must look like in gild to heal it.

Narrative Prompts #5 – Mystery

  1. Your grapheme receives a call that seems ordinary, from their dr., about a recent test they took. When your character goes in for the appointment to discuss, their regular physician is gone—missing…only to plough up dead days later.
  2. Viii astronauts went to space. Only 7 returned. And none of them have any memory of an eighth person having e'er been with them at all.
  3. All people in comas have been disappearing from hospitals all over the country for the by 3 months, with no leads. Your grapheme is the sister of i of the missing coma patients.

Principal Narrative Writing With These Strategies

Past learning a few tips about how to write narrative really well, you'll be well on your manner from novice to proficient.

#1 – Larn from the experienced

Most frequently, the all-time advice comes from those who are and take been in the thick of the affair you lot want to larn about.

They've got inside cognition for the how-tos that are frequently far more effective that those but didactics those methods.

Hither are our favorite resources for learning nigh narrative writing:

  • Our Youtube Aqueduct
  • Brandon Sanderson's Sci-Fi/Fantasy lectures
  • Jenna Moreci'due south Youtube Channel
  • Hannah Lee Kidder's Youtube Channel
  • Author'southward Digest
  • Well-Storied

Y'all can likewise take a look at this listing of writing advice blogs to sift through.

#two – Read a lot

You larn storytelling by reading or listening to stories. That'south how everyone learns how to tell a story.

While some are better than others by nature, reading more and more than tin can open your eyes to new techniques and methods within the narrative writing. Understanding figurative language can assist with describing a scene, and tone words tin set the mood in virtually scenes.

Reading at to the lowest degree a volume a calendar month tin can help you meliorate your writing by just immersing yourself in the words of someone else.

While some people might worry that their own writing volition mimic the book they're reading, this fearfulness is oftentimes unfounded. Your natural vox volition always be at the forefront unless you're intentionally trying to sound like someone else.

Which we don't recommend.

#three – Exercise regularly

Narrative writing is a skill that gets better the more you practice, much like most other skillsets.

As you write and craft stories with protagonists, slap-up conflict, interesting setting, and more than, you'll larn how to brand each of those elements better.

Recognizing where your strengths and weaknesses are volition help you lot know what to focus on and improve…but that can only be done through experience, aka, practice.

Bank check out these writing tips and exercises to get better if you desire some intentional exercise.

#4 – Ask for Feedback

Information technology's very difficult to exist objective with your own work. We tin can't often take a stride dorsum and recognize what we're doing incorrect and therefore, we tin can go stunted in our growth as writers.

Feedback is the key to fixing this. You won't get better without being challenged. In many instances beta readers will help you with kickoff drafts, just even before that information technology's nice to take an editor or respected peer look over your piece of work.

Other people see what you lot don't. Nosotros all find different things and this remains true for writing in particular.

Getting someone to offer feedback on your narrative writing is one of the all-time ways to improve and gear up your weaknesses, becoming an overall better writer.

Here's what some of your feedback tin can look like:

how to write a short story feedback

#v – Lookout movies and TV shows

Yes! We're officially giving you permission to watch Television instead of work on writing, but for a very specific reason.

When you listen to writing advice, whether information technology'southward from a friend or teacher or published author, y'all might hear them reference movies equally examples.

The reason for this is because while some movies are adapted from books, all movies tin teach y'all about storytelling and the construction of a good story overall.

And while movies are best for an overall view of storytelling for a book, Tv set shows are much improve at teaching you how to write a proficient affiliate, since each episode serves equally a chapter of that story, the entire season as the equivalent of a novel.

Here are some questions to inquire later you watch a picture show or TV show:

  • How did it beginning?
  • What was different and intriguing virtually how events unfolded?
  • Was at that place a twist? What foreshadowing did they employ to make the twist surprising, but inevitable?
  • What were the iii biggest moments in the story?
  • Did the ending connect to the kickoff?

#vi – Invoke all 3 main elements in each sentence

These are graphic symbol, plot/conflict, and setting.

Brandon Sanderson talks a ton nearly these three main elements of narrative writing in his lectures on Youtube.

what is narrative writing

The idea behind this is that these 3 main components brand up the entirety of a story. When you tin can really dig deep into these three, you lot'll become a amend and better author.

And not only that, merely if y'all larn how to chief invoking all 3 of these elements into each sentence, you've mastered the art of writing.

Now, this is very difficult. Not all authors exercise this. In fact, very, very few tin do this and it's non something you tin practise in every judgement.

However, when yous're thinking of writing each line with the goal of showing your readers more than well-nigh the character, the world/setting, and the disharmonize all in one, you will be an incredible author overall.

Here's an example of what this ways:

Non good: The adult female wandered outside without any gear.

Better and invoking 3 elements: The woman was crazy enough to step outside, not a single scrap of gear on her body, flesh exposed in several places.

Why this is better: In the first case, we don't actually acquire annihilation. All we come across is a woman going exterior without any gear. Now, yeah, in this outset example we get the feeling that having gear on is probably important, but nosotros don't come across how much. In the second example, however, we get a sense of all three elements. Showtime, we know that the character thinks such an human activity is crazy. Secondly, we learn that the setting must be dangerous and harsh enough to need gear (or be deemed crazy if you don't accept it). And lastly, this potentially adds to the plot or conflict by showing us that the outdoors is dangerous, or a place one can't simply walk out to with skin exposed.

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