Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs. Crompton.

Our focus today is Narrative writing.

You will need a pen and paper.

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

To begin with today, we're going to look at this idea of a writing process.

And within a writing process, I'm going to suggest that there are five stages.

We need to think initially about what our task is and the ideas that we could include within our piece of writing.

We need to put together a plan of how we're going to deal with that task and actually execute the instructions.

We then need to do some drafting, think about how we're going to word things, play around with our language, make sure that we are being precise.

And in doing so, we're also going to be critique in our work.

We're going to be looking at it and making amendments, making refinements, making improvements.

And then, finally, we get to the point where we have completed our writing process.

So I want us to have this underpinning our thinking as we work through today's session.

What you're going to find is that I'm going to give you opportunities to break these steps down, and at the end of the lesson, or by the end of the lesson, you will have a complete narrative.

Okay, let's start.

So let's start with a task.

And our task today is going to be to write a story as suggested by this image.

So just pause the video at this point.

And I want you to jot down on your piece of paper, all your initial ideas.

This is your thinking stage.

Pause the video, resume when you're ready for your next step.

Next steps then.

So what we're going to do now is to look at some of the qualities and features of narrative writing.

There are bits of information on the next few slides that you are going to want to record on your piece of paper.

So the first thing I'm going to say is write narrative writing as your title.

And then I definitely want everyone to get the definition down, which is the, a narrative is built from a series of events.

That's absolutely crucial to defining a narrative as opposed to a descriptive piece of writing.

However, we're going to find that description comes into it.

So some of these things are into playable, but one key feature, a narrative is built from a series of events.

Now, when I go through these bullet points, you will have the opportunity as ever to pause at the end of each slide.

So don't worry about trying to write as I speak.

I will make sure that I give you those opportunities.

So the key features within a narrative that we can identify that we're going to see things like a well-described setting.

We want that engaging series of events.

We want to see some believable characterization, and we really need to concentrate on the beginning and the end.

Those are quite crucial elements to a well-built narrative.

Pause at this point if you need to.

Next step then.

In terms of narratives, a little bit theory.

So this theory is almost like the science of a narrative.

And let's have a look at that now together.

So most narratives revolve around a single question that represents the core of the story.

And there's your quotable piece of information.

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

So you can almost construct a question that you want to answer within your narrative as a starting point for your planning.

For example, in The Three Little Pigs, the narrative revolves around the question, will the Pigs beat the Wolf? Or will it be the other way around? Okay, so we have a core question, and that's what we're looking at all the way through the narrative.

What happens in the rest of the narrative is the series of events that follow an attempt to answer this question.

Pause if you need to.

We're now going to have a look at different types of narrative.

So a narrative can be written up in lots of different ways to again add to the interest.

And this is part of the organisation thinking about how we're going to make deliberate design choices to engage our readers.

So we could have a linear narrative.

The author tells the story in a chronological order.

We could have a non-linear or fractured narrative.

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

Pause if you need to.

We could have a circular narrative.

So the story ends where it began although the characters could be in an entirely different circumstance at the resolution.

And finally, we could have a parallel narrative where we've actually got the narrative being delivered by more than one person.

But we're getting the same plotline, we're getting that same question being answered.

Again, pause if you need to.

Let's have a look then at our main task in this little section.

We need to do our initial planning then and bearing in mind what we've just looked at.

We are going to plan around the idea of establishing who our characters might be, what our setting is going to be like, what we want to say about the setting.

And then we've got the event.

So this is the question we're trying to answer.

First of all, what is the problem or challenge? What is that question? And that goes in your third box.

Next, I want you to think about the components that will attempt to resolve.

So what are the other events that are going to happen in your narrative to answer the problem or challenge? However, and this is why you need to look to the third box down where it says event, event, event so third box event, climax or conclusion.

This is important.

We're not going to try and write a whole story.

You are either going to work from exposition through to climax or from climax to conclusion, just those three elements.

And that's your choice.

And that is to give your writing more shape.

And it's also to acknowledge that writing a whole narrative, writing a really convincing extended story takes a lot of time and can take years.

So we're just going to concentrate on exposition through to climax or climax down to conclusion.

On the right-hand side, I have given you an image of the full types of conflict, which we have encountered previously, but just a reminder, another really good way of generating your ideas is to think about a question that links into either a man versus man conflict, a man versus nature conflict, a man versus himself conflict, or a man versus society conflict.

I have also got the image there for you.

All right, so you can now take control of the screen.

I will go back to the beginning here.

Pause as you need to.

And I'll be waiting for you to go onto the next step once our plan is in place.

See you very soon.

And welcome back.

So let's now concentrate on some of those crucial elements.

Of beginning, what are we going to do at the beginning of our narrative? How can we start story? On the screen, we can see a few examples.

We could start with a description of setting.

We could start with a description of a character or characters.

We could have some sort of action events.

So we're starting to establish the plots.

We could actually open mid-action, media res is the fancy name for opening mid-action.

We could have something quite intriguing, either an unusual sentence, some sort of detail.

That's a little bit on Orthodox, or maybe do something interesting with the structure.

So we could take our reader by surprise.

These are all options we could consider.

Pause if you need to, at this point, if you want to get those options down, it's not an exhaustive list.

These are just a few ideas to get us going.

And let's have a look at an example together.

One, the light flickered.

Two, there was a rumble.

Three, it was time.

Yet what was the point in thinking about time anymore? What would really be different in a few seconds? What had been different for the past ten years? The sun had risen and fallen twice now in the past half hour.

Once more: the last opportunity for light before - the dark hours.

Let's just pause for a moment.

So within this opening, we have got quite a few of the features that I had at the bottom here on usual sentence constructions, some very odd details, and it seems to open in media res.

It seems to open the middle of an action.

And what's unusual is this idea that the sun has risen and fallen twice in half an hour.

What are the dark hours? What is this countdown at the beginning? So we've got various things designed to intrigue the reader as the opening to this model paragraph.

And then before I hand over to you to have a little go at writing around beginning, just a quick reminder of the criteria that you need to think about, we need to make sure that we are considering the organisation.

And here, we are making some deliberate choices with the beginning.

We're just writing the beginning.

Think about the precision of your vocabulary.

The model answer deliberately had the dark hours at the end.

What was that about that darkness is really ominous looming at the end of the sentence.

Think about the use of punctuation.

We saw examples of the use of ellipses.

We saw examples of sentences used for effect.

So I shall hand over to you, let you go back and have a little look.

Screens again.

So control is over with you.

When you resume, you will have a beginning of your choice crafted out.

Off you go.

And welcome back.

So our next step now is to consider the middle of our piece of writing and how we're going to create movement within our piece.

Remember, we are working from exposition up to the climactic point or from the climactic point down to the denouement.

Let's have a look at another sample response.

And what I want you to think about is how movement is created within this answer.

Silence.

She listened intently, but it was unmistakable, the droning noise had stopped.

Shivering, she cowered in her hiding place.

In her head, she knew she should make her move right now, but her limbs just wouldn't function.

Caught in a web of fear, her whole body was paralysed.

And then it began again.

This time, the reverberations had trebled in volume; it had become more frenzied.

The same incessant droning, drilling deep into her head: the noise became unbearable.

Everything faded to black.

The creature hovered over the girl, antennae twitching in quick succession.

Victory.

So we have a response here where we are building up attention, and it's linking back to the beginning that we've just looked up.

So I'm going to give you an opportunity now to look at the sample response again at your own leisure and to now start thinking about some of the techniques that you will include in this mid parts of your response.

Over to you.

I will be waiting for you when you've finished.

Oh, welcome back.

So we're onto the ending.

What makes an effective ending? Let's a look at some of the features.

And again, you might want to take a few notes at this point because even if you don't choose one of these features today, you might want to choose one of these options in a future piece of writing.

So at the end, we are looking for a logical resolution, all the strands of the story come together.

If you remember the word the new way, and we have that image of not saying, and everything's become knotted up as the narrative has progressed.

And at the end, we want to unravel the knots and make sure that everything is smooth again.

And we create a new equilibrium.

At the end, we could have a moment of change - the action culminates in a change of situation for the character, either physical or mental.

So there's another option to think about what the change is, might be just a really minor change.

It could be something in the way that they see the world around them.

So it could be physical or mental.

An effective ending often provides a sense of justice.

So the reader feels that the right outcome has been achieved.

So here we are introducing that moral dimension to our piece of writing.

An effective ending could be that feeling of the inevitable has been reached.

So the reader knew that this outcome was the most likely; so with my narrative that we've been looking at with the antenna twitching, it's not looking good, is it for our character? However, we know that in stories, usually, the hero wins.

So we are looking for the inevitable.

You could also introduce a moral dimension here, but it might not need to be the result that you want.

So it could be something that we are thinking about in terms of the inevitable.

Finally, it could be that our conclusion gives us some sort of message.

It's some sort of idea that we have been fostering throughout the piece that makes us think about those big picture ideas about man versus man, man versus self, man versus society, where we go away thinking that was bound to happen because these are the fundamental rules by which we work.

So at this point, opportunity for you to take control again.

And now, I would like you to pause and draught out an ending that you are also thinking about in relation to your introduction.

So my tip to you would be to go back to your beginning, read it, and then think about how you're going to end.

Okay, over to you.

To complete the writing process then going through all of our stages, we are now going to re-read the whole thing.

Review the plan, have a look all of the different parts of the response that you've created.

And I want you now to concentrate on the critique stage.

And then when it says write, what I mean by that this point is making the adjustments that you need to.

It might be that you actually do want to re-write a paragraph because now that you look at it together, you've changed your mind about how you want to open it.

And you can see that you could make a better choice.

However, really, really crucial part of the writing process is to work through all the steps from think, plan, draught.

We've got the draughts.

We are now onto critique and writes.

A reminder also of the criteria that we're trying to achieve, control is over to you as you re-read and complete the writing process.

Well done, so you have a narrative.

Thank you for your focus today.

I hope you found the techniques useful to help you generate your ideas for the narrative today, and also to give you options for future narrative writing.

All that remains for me to say is, don't forget to complete your exit quiz and enjoy the rest of your learning today.