New
New
Year 11
Edexcel
Planning outstanding narratives
I can plan an interesting narrative.
New
New
Year 11
Edexcel
Planning outstanding narratives
I can plan an interesting narrative.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- When writing a short story, we can condense the traditional narrative arc.
- We need to craft for a believable unfolding of events for a short story.
- In short stories, we may need to plant seeds of conflict from the very beginning.
- We can also manipulate time in a short story to hook the reader,
- We can begin our story with the climax, a flashback or a moment after the events of the narrative have taken place.
Common misconception
All narratives have to follow the traditional story arc and have a chronological order for them to make sense.
Short stories often have to manipulate the traditional story structure to be engaging from the very beginning.
Keywords
Chronological - following the order in which a series of events occurred
Manipulate - to change or control something in a skilful manner
Ignominy - public shame or disgrace
Take one of your pupils' story ideas and put it under the visualiser/on the board. As a class, discuss ways that you could plan each section this narrative. This will help with pupil confidence but also show pupils that there is not just one set way to plan their story.
Teacher tip
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Video
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Starter quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
'Chronological' describes a narrative in which ...
events are described in a different order to which they actually occur.
large chunks of time between events are skipped.
Q2.
Starting with the first, put each section of the narrative arc in chronological order.
Q3.
What is a flashback?
transitioning to a future time in a narrative
skipping large chunks of time in a narrative
Q4.
Which of these is not a manipulation of time in a narrative?
flashback
flashforward
Q5.
What is a climax in a narrative?
the part of a text where characters are introduced
the part of the text where conflict is resolved
Q6.
Which of these events is the most appropriate for a climax?
a woman is alone in the forest
it starts raining heavily
Exit quiz
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6 Questions
Q1.
'Exposition, rising action, , falling action, resolution'.
Which is the technical term for the part of the narrative arc that is missing from the sequence?
action
drama
tension
Q2.
For short narratives, what might an exposition need?
biographical details of the author
an introduction to every character one by one
Q3.
Which of these sequences does not manipulate time?
Flashback -> exposition -> rising action -> climax
Present -> past -> past
Q4.
Which of these would be most likely to lead to ignominy?
someone wears last season's fashion to a party
two friends argue on the bus
Q5.
When writing a short story, what is the least important thing to do?
craft each scene consciously
allow for a strong sense of voice to shine through
Q6.
In order to begin with the climax in a short story, which order could these narrative events be described in?