Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs Crompton.

Our focus today is narrative writing, and we're going to look at what makes a good opening.

You will need a pen and a paper.

Take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away, and have everything you need to hand.

To begin with then, we're going to have a look at some ideas about the components of narrative writing, some theory about it, and you're going to need to take some notes.

So what I would like you to do first of all, is to put the title narrative writing at the top of your piece of paper.

As we take the notes, I want to remind you that good notes contain key words and phrases, and are written in your own words.

And at the end of our note writing process, I will be reminding you to select three top learning points.

And that's really important in note taking, because it's really important that we actually do something with that information.

And if you select your best points, at the time that you've actually originally written the notes, you're more likely to be able to make those notes useful moving forward.

Okay, are we ready? Right then let's go.

So first of all, what is narrative writing? One definition is, that our narrative is built from a series of events.

And that's how you distinguish a narrative from a piece of descriptive writing for example.

The key features to consider in a narrative are a well-described setting, an engaging series of events, believable characterization, and a well crafted beginning and end.

Pause at this point, if there is anything that you need to take a note about, but remember we are taking notes, not taking down the whole paragraph.

Resume when you're ready.

Now, this is a really helpful idea.

So let's make sure that we've understood this completely.

Most narratives, revolve around a single question, that represents the core of the story.

And then, a series of events will follow the attempt to answer this question.

For example in Samphire, the core question that O'Brian might be asking, is what happens to a relationship when the dynamic is changed.

And so within that incident on the cliff phace, we have a change in dynamic and it's an exploration of the consequences of that shift.

Okay.

Let's have a little look.

Pause if you need to at this stage, and then we'll move on to the next step with this idea that it's a single question that we're trying to answer within the remainder of the narrative.

Let's have a look at different types of narrative.

So I've got this core definition.

Now we can think about how we're going to tell our story.

A story could be linear or chronological, and that's why the author tells the story in time order.

So it's as it's happening.

It could be nonlinear/ fractured.

The narrative jumps around in timeline, and can switch between multiple characters.

Pause if you need.

It could be circular.

The story ends where it began.

Although the characters could be in an entirely different circumstance at the resolution.

That could be a parallel narrative that's where more than one narrative voice runs throughout.

So you'd have two people, telling the story from different circumstances.

And then you see how the story unravels.

Pause if you need to.

Okay.

Now we've got narrative perspective to consider.

So what end are we telling our story from? Who's telling the story? It could be first person point of view.

So the main character is telling the story.

It could be third person point of view.

And that's when your narrator is not a character in the story, but the narrator can also have different levels of control.

Pause if you need.

Let's look at these different levels of control.

It could be third person limited.

So the narrator is limited to one character's perspective.

It could be third person multiple.

The narrator can follow the action from the perspective of different characters.

Or it could be third person omniscient.

The narrator knows everything, so they can move around the text freely, and give you any angle, on their own judgments as they go along too.

Pause at this point if you need to.

Okay, so we've taken various notes.

At this stage, what I would like you to do, is to review and prioritise the notes that you have taken.

You are going to re-read through everything, and you're going to put in order of importance, the three things that you want to try and experiment with, when it comes to your narrative writing.

Which three things are most important for you to consider? Or three things within those three things, things that you want to try out.

Okay, so pause, review, prioritise, resume when you are ready.

And welcome back.

So today, we're going to have a look at task.

And our task is going to be, write a story about a dangerous situation, as suggested by this image.

Or, write a narrative about a dangerous location.

So sometimes when you're asked to write a narrative, you can have a picture as a starting point, or you could just be given an instruction.

Write a narrative about a dangerous location.

Entirely up to you.

But first thing that I would like you to do, is to take down the titles, and just to begin your thinking about which one you're going to focus on.

Resume when you're ready.

Now in terms of writing to narrate, our success criteria are as follows.

We need to consider the organisation of our writing, we need to think about the vocabulary that we choose, and we need to make sure that we are keeping our technical control but also thinking about how we are using our punctuation for effect, and to have an impact on the meaning.

Just to select a few key features from this success criteria, within a narrative in particular, it is absolutely crucial that we consider, the linking and the development of ideas and structuring for a fact, making those deliberate choices.

And that's the thing that I really want us to consider.

And the way that we are writing our narrative, is that we're going to break it down into different components, and today we are going to be writing, our beginning.

And we are really thinking about connections, as we move on.

As we continue to work through our narrative, we're going to think about how we are going to create some sort of movement.

Okay, so we're not going to try and write the whole story, but we do need to think about how we are moving from one part of the text to another.

And I want you to think about how we are going to see mimic the narrative pyramid, and how you're going to build opportunities to change the perspective and pace of your response.

What we're actually going to do, within our narratives is to concentrate on working from either the opening, through to the climax.

Or from the climax, down to the conclusion.

Okay.

Let's continue, and I'll explain that a little bit further.

So the first thing that I would like you to do, is to draw the following box.

And we're going to be thinking about some of those ideas, and extending them to make sure that we've got sufficient depth within our answer.

And that's why I've got the reminder of the four types of conflict.

So when we are thinking about our plan, we need to think about what characters we're going to use, where we're going to set our narrative, or the cliff phase, as a starting point.

But you have got the alternative of a dangerous setting, dangerous location, and a dangerous event.

We've got to think about the actual event, the problem or challenge that question that we're trying to answer.

And then we also need to think about how we're going to attempt to resolve that question.

And finally, need to make the decision about whether you're going to go from start to climax, or from climax down to conclusion within your pace.

The reminder of the four types of conflict, is that to get you to think about having that extra layer of interpretation within your writing.

Do you want to structure your question your problem, around a man versus man conflict? A man versus nature conflict? A man versus self conflict? Or a man versus society conflict? So, having said all of that it's now your chance to start generating some initial ideas.

You are going to draw the table, respond to the prompts to generate your ideas initially.

The question is there again.

A dangerous location, and then we've got the prompts.

Okay, so it's over to you.

If you control and I'll be waiting to go through to the next step when you are ready.

And welcome back.

So, I did say today we will primarily going to focus on actually writing the beginning of our narrative.

But before we could get there, we obviously needed to understand how to put together a narrative in a very organised way, so that we're thinking about what we're trying to achieve.

And I hope that you have found the concept of a single question, that we are trying to resolve.

A useful way of generating ideas.

Now, we're going to think about the beginning in particular.

And how can you start your story? On the screen, are a few examples, that you might want to explore and think about.

What I'd really like you to do within this session is to try something that you wouldn't normally do.

So try and take yourself out of your comfort zone, and try a new technique to see how it fits.

Because writers don't just write one draught of something.

They are constantly amending, tweaking, going back to things.

And I bet if you gave a novelist their own novel, they would want to change things immediately.

They'd want to change a word here or there because that's what we do with writing.

It's never a finished process constantly looking at it.

Sometimes we just have to finish the dome like.

So what we're going to do today, is to think about the different ways of starting.

So we could start with a description of setting, we could focus on character, we could be concentrating on an action or an event, particularly if we're going to go from climax to end.

We could, if we're also going from climax to when it starts media res which means mid-action.

And that's really quite confusing.

So you're creating disequilibrium, at the start of your response.

And if you're very used to building narratives where you're quite clear at establishing characters, maybe that's the one for you.

Try that whole thing of throwing your readers into the middle of a piece of action.

Starting the whole thing in the middle of an event where they don't really know where they are.

And then finally, thinking about maybe having something that's unusual, either as a sentence, as an idea, a detail, or doing something interesting with the structure.

Okay so what I would like you to do is to pause at this point, take down some of those ideas, and start to think about something that might be a challenge for you today.

Now let's just have a little look again, as we think about openings, of what was happening with the beginning of Samphire.

So we'll have to look at this together.

And I want you to notice as I read through, the focus on the setting, the way that characterization is developed through contrast, and the descriptive detail that is used.

Sheer, sheer the white cliff rising straight up from the sea, so far that the riding waves were nothing but ripples on a huge calm.

Up there, unless you leaned over, you did not see them break, but for all the distance, the thunder of the water came loud.

The wind too, tearing from the sea, rushing from a clear high sky, brought the salt tang of the spray on their lips.

So although we've got the setting, notice that we haven't got the revelation of the characters yet.

We know that that who are they? Why are they leaning? All the intriguing detail.

They were two, standing up there on the very edge of the cliff: they had left the levelled path and come down to the brake itself.

And the man was crouched, leaning over as far as he dared.

She could not answer, so she melts and crawled to the edge.

Heights terrified her, always had.

She could not close her eyes; that only made it worse.

She starred unseeing, while the brilliant air and the sea and the noise of the sea assaulted her terrified mind and she clung insanely to the thin grass.

Three times he pointed out and the third time she heard him so as to be able to understand his words.

".

fleshy leaves.

You see the fleshy leaves? They use them for pickles!" He laughed, excited by the wind, and put his hand on her shoulder.

Even then she writhed away, covering it by getting up and returning to the path.

That word writhed, as we come to the final sentence really shows the contrast.

She is having the most hideous time, and he is completely oblivious.

So think about all of the features within that opening, where we have got an unusual situation, despite the fact that it goes under quite a conventional idea of establishing setting and character and even plot the manner in which it's done, is really quite intriguing.

Okay.

It's now over to you.

What I would like you to do, is to make use of all of the notes that we've made, and to think about the planning that you have done.

And I would like you to craft an opening.

It might be, that you craft alternative opening.

So write the opening paragraph or paragraphs to your narrative.

The other thing is that you might want to do more than one paragraph, if you choose to do quite a short paragraph in there.

So you might want a single sentence as an opening.

Well then, write a little bit more.

Okay.

So it's a time to experiment and try and get some options, for the opening to your narrative.

Make use of the planning.

Control is over to you.

When you are happy with your response, assess against our success criteria.

And in particular, think about that deliberate impact.

What is it you want your reader to feel? Over to you.

And welcome back.

So all that remains for me to say, is thank you for your focus today.

Keep this beginning.

We will continue working with the remainder of our narrative.

Don't forget to do the exit quiz.

And enjoy the rest of your learning today.