THINKING STRATEGIES

AND MORE

How to write your narrative.

Schema Hook your reader from the start! Provide some background knowledge, if necessary for your

reader to understand; Appeal to your readers’ emotions – their feelings. Make the story suspenseful so that your readers will use their

background experiences to predict what’s going to happen.

Example:

As she peered at his storm grey eyes and green fanged teeth, she realized instantly that he would create the greatest terror her world would ever know.

She saw a monster.

Questioning

Make your story interesting and provide clues (foreshadowing and symbols) so that your reader asks deep-level questions (level two and level three) about the narrative.

If the reader is asking more level one questions (question-mark questions), your writing may not be clear enough. (Ask your partner to check this out.)

Sensory Imagery This is the most important to your narrative

writing process! Write so that your reader will see, hear, touch,

taste, and smell (yes, smell) your descriptions. Show your reader, don’t tell. Example:

Her eyes shone brilliant blue across the dance floor and he could feel her body swaying to the music.

Her eyes were blue and she danced well.

Inferences Don’t give everything away by telling things

outright. Boring! Present clues so that your reader has to read

between the lines to get to know the characters and “put two-and-two together.”

Examples:

Jessie read Bible stories, went to church every Sunday, followed the word of the Lord in every decision she made.

Jessie was religious.

Don’t forget Freytag’s Pyramid!

Your narrative should have a beginning, middle and end.

The climax should occur near the end.

Rising Action Falling Action

ResolutionExposition

Climax

Dos and Don’ts for Writing Dialogue

Do: Pay attention to each character's different speaking style. Edit dialogue to trim off most of the fat. A lot of what

people say is just blah-blah-blah, but you don't want to bore your reader.

Show how the character speaks instead of telling it. If the character speaks angrily, you can make this come through in her words -- it's therefore often not necessary to add an expressive dialogue tag such as, "she said angrily." The same if a character is shouting or crying, etc. Keep the reader's attention on your character's speech, not your explanation of it.

Don’t Don't feel obligated to add a tag to every

bit of dialogue. If it's clear who's saying what without them, then you can leave them off.

Don't let your reader get disoriented. Use dialogue tags when they're needed to prevent confusion. There's nothing worse than stopping in the middle of an exciting scene to retrace the dialogue and try to figure out who's saying what.

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