The Language of Narrative Writing
YEREVAN STATE LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY AFTER V. BRUSOV
TERM PAPER
TITLE: THE LANGUAGE OF THE NARRATIVE WRITING
YEREVAN - 2009
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One. Techniques of Narrative Writing
1.1 Selecting a Topic
1.2 Selecting Details
1.3 Organizing Information
Chapter Two. Major Functions of Narration
2.1 Informing by Narrating
2.2 Objective Narratives
2.3 Anecdotes and Illustrations
2.4 Narrating a Process
2.5 Entertaining by Narrating
2.6 The Story
2.7 The Setting
2.8 The Plot
2.9 The Scene
2.10 The Summary
Conclusion
Bibliography
The present
paper explores the peculiarities of narrative writing from the view point of
its structure, functions and types. Narration is an act of telling a story. It
is not just telling a story, but it is also telling a story of a sequence of
real or fictional events - which seems to be a more natural activity for most
people than, say, giving directions or describing a scene. Narration is the
kind of writing that answers the question, “What happened?” The expression
“narrative writing" covers an enormous territory. Narratives vary in
length from a few sentences to long stories. Some narratives are based on
actual experience, some are entirely fictitious, and others use a mixture of
truth and fiction. Some narratives are meant to amuse, others inform or convey
a message to readers. Narratives appear in many forms, including poetry, “regular”
prose stories, and drama on the stage, in film, or on television. In short you
are surrounded by narratives every day, some of them in print, many in the
electronic media, and others passed along orally. Good narratives can be spoken
just as well as written, but audiences expect more polish and structure in
written work. Though narratives often make serious points, many narratives are
meant to amuse. Most readers enjoy lighthearted or humorous stories, even if
the experiences were not humorous to the people involved at the time. Some
readers are also entertained by scary stories, which may be about narrow
escapes and other frightening moments in the writers’ lives.
The paper consists
of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and bibliography. Introduction
reveals the general guidelines of the paper.
Chapter one
presents the major techniques of narrative writing.
Chapter two
concentrates on types and functions of narrative writing, signing out informing
by narrating and entertaining by narrating.
Conclusion summarizes
the results and outcomes we have come to in the course of the research.
Chapter One. Techniques of Narrative Writing
No one knows
for how many thousands of year’s people have been telling and listening to
narratives, but we do know that every culture has a storytelling tradition; even
it does not have a writing system. Well before Homo sapiens learned to read and
write, they had evidently framed much of their wisdom in story form. Fiction
has always been a natural vehicle for people to communicate their experiences,
fantasies, and fears. Similarly, children delight in stories long before they
are able to read or write. Almost as soon as a child has learned to talk, she
can enjoy not only listening to stories, but making up her own as well. She may
pretend, for example, that her stuffed animal is alive and wants a cookie, or
she may scold a doll for some imaginary misbehavior. These baby stories become
more elaborate as the child acquires more experiences to weave into her
fiction, and she will often develop her own version of a story she has heard. We
adults gossip, share jokes, complain about what happened to us this morning,
speculate about the future. And in telling even these informal tales, we are
likely to pay careful attention to the sequence of the events we are speaking
about. Because stories create an order that life lacks, we naturally draw upon
narrative. To make sense of our lives, we need to think of beginnings, middles,
and endings, and we use these fictions to try to organize the past, the present
and the future. (Surmelian 92)
Though
narratives often make serious points, many narratives are meant to amuse. Most
readers enjoy lighthearted or humorous stories, even if the experiences were
not humorous to the people involved at the time. Some readers are also entertained
by scary stories, which may be about narrow escapes and other frightening
moments in the writers’ lives. Such stories may simply thrill readers, or they
may be the basis for a serious point. Writers sometimes relate embarrassing
moments, not necessarily to convey serious messages, but to amuse and to share
those experiences with readers. Whether narratives convey a serious point or
simply entertain, they express main ideas and back them up with supporting information.
In other words, narratives follow the main principles of paragraph writing:
Present a topic
idea (often in a topic sentence at the beginning)
Support that
topic idea with the other sentences
In narrative
writing, you will continue to apply these principles:
1. Select and
refine the topic so that a main idea is stated clearly in the topic sentence. In
narratives, the main idea will probably deal with conflict or emotional
response to conflict.
2. Select
appropriate, vivid supporting details. In narratives, the details will tell
about time, place, actions, and people’s motives and reactions.
3.organize the
information so that readers will be able to understand and follow the story. In
narratives, chronological arrangement is normal. Any shifts in time (or place) must
be made clear to the reader. (Karls/Szmanski 110-111).
For narratives,
as for other kinds of writing, look for possible topics in your own life: your
background, experiences, interests, and firsthand observation of other people. You
will write best when you write about things that really matter to you: personal
experiences, beliefs, worries, impressions, and knowledge in specific areas. You
may begin with many possible topics. Brainstorming will produce related ideas,
or sometimes lead you to an even better topic. Before writing, you must examine
the possible topics and supporting ideas. The goal is to narrow your focus to
specific instance. One way to narrow a broad topic is to limit the time and
place to a few minutes (or maybe a few hours) and to particular place. For
example, suppose you enjoy hunting, fishing, and exploring in parks and
forests, you also work on a construction crew. You could tell many stories
based on your experiences, but for a brief narrative, you would limit yourself
to one brief time in one specific place. Ideally, you would select an episode
that stands out in your mind as dramatic or memorable.
In this
paragraph, the student writer limited himself to one brief but dramatic moment:
Last October, I
was out in the woods with a work crew, cutting a surveying line for a gas
pipeline. We got to a clearing and decided to take a break. Seconds after I
found a tree to lean against, I heard the crackle of underbrush breaking. I
turned to look and saw a huge bear racing right at me. I remembered that I was
armed with only a machete and a walkie-talkie. I nudged a guy near me. We stood
there helpless with our mouths open and our eyes the size of frying pans. The bear
kept coming until it was about fifteen feet away. Suddenly it saw us. I had
never before seen a bear with a surprised look on its face. Within a second, it
lurched back into the woods. But before we could breathe a sigh of relief,
another big bear came rushing toward us. When it got within about seven feet
and saw us, it also dashed into the woods. Our hearts were pounding. When we recovered
a little, we decided that the next time we work in the woods; we should go
better prepared for the unexpected. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.112-113).
When you have a
workable topic in mind, some details will occur to you immediately, and others will
spring to mind as you brainstorm and write your first drafts. You want to
select the best details you can. That means selecting relevant, vivid details. At
times, you may think of a dramatic moment, full of colorful details sure to
grab your readers’ attention and hold their interest. If so, writing comes more
easily, except that you may not have a main idea until you think about the
story later. At other times, you may be writing simply to share an interesting
or amusing experience; your main idea may be implied. Besides using details to
make the scene vivid, you must provide the details readers need in order to understand
the situation. When you write you first draft, you will put in some appropriate
details; you may also end with some irrelevant ones. As you revise, you must
consider which details really matter. You want to include details that help
support your main idea. The goal in selecting details sounds quite simple and
obvious: Tell the readers what they need to know, nothing more and nothing less.
Telling the readers more than they need to know slows them down. Telling them
less than they need to know leave them puzzling over the time, place, or situation.
By including enough details, but only appropriate details, you will give readers
the information they need.
In this
paragraph, a student writer shares a dramatic and amusing moment.
I am a
firefighter with the city fire department. Last fall, I responded to a fire
call reported by a neighbor as “smoke in the house next door”. Upon arrival, we
donned our self contained breathing apparatus and entered the house to do a
primary search and rescue. We discovered that a meat loaf was burning in the
oven, causing the kitchen and much of the house to fill with smoke. I quickly extinguished
the meat loaf, then focus on searching for possible victims. I rushed around,
hoping I wouldn’t find anyone home, but knowing I had to check everywhere to be
sure. Upon entering the bathroom, I came upon a lady soaking in the tub. She
was listening to loud music and apparently hadn’t heard a thing. I guess I must
have looked like Darth Vader, because she screamed and threw a bottle of
shampoo at me. Before entering the bathroom, I was worrying about possible
victims, but seeing her like that embarrassed me so that I couldn’t concentrate
on the job I needed to do. Everything worked out well, and it is the experience
I will never forget. (Surmelian 65).
Most of the
time, narrative writing is organized chronologically, meaning that events move
forward in time. Sometimes, the writer changes normal order by using flashbacks.
The writer describes an earlier event, disturbing the chronology but providing
insight or explanation. Less often, a writer may jump forward in time. Ordinarily,
straightforward chronology suits your stories, and it is easy for readers to
follow. But if you want to jump back or forward in time, you can, provided you make
sure your readers will understand what you are doing. There are some cases,
when the writers organize information so as to build suspense or create a
surprise ending. They withhold information so that the reader is lured along, picking
up clues as in a detective story. Sometimes, writers give clues that lead to an
amusing ending. Writers can use narratives for their own sake or as part of
other kinds of writing. Narratives are among the most enjoyable kinds of writing
- for readers and writers. The principles are more or less self-evident: select
a narrow enough topics, select appropriate details, and organize so that the reader
can follow the sequence of events. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.112-113)
In the
following whimsical paragraph, the early statements entice readers, arouse
their curiosity, and keep them reading until they come upon a surprise ending:
She was
standing in the corner, the light reflecting off her soft brown hair. Her eyes
were beckoning for attention. As I approached her, a gentleman asked me if I
need some assistance, and so inquired about her. He said “She is 10 percent off
this evening”. After asking if she was clean and in good health and being
assured she was, I walked over to her. I held her in my arms, and she gave me a
kiss. She looked longingly into my eyes, and I caressed her face. I asked how
much she would cost, and the man said, “$55". I paid at once and took the
cuddly rabbit home. Rabbits are lovable and inexpensive pets.
Chapter Two. Major Functions of Narration
Narration has
two major functions: informing (nonfiction) and entertaining (fiction) by
narrating.
Narrating is
telling a story. Usually, you think of telling a story, you think of fiction -
of novels and short stories. But fiction is only one kind of narrative. There
are narratives that are true - accounts of real incidents and events. Because
narration can be based on fact as well as on imagination, it can be used to
inform as well as to entertain. For example, you can use narration to tell your
reader about personal experiences - your first day on a new job - or historical
events - the Apollo 13 space flight. You can use it to explain a process - how
the body digests food - or the way to do something - how to play chess. If
description is like a photograph, then narration is like a motion picture. Narration
follows events through time. (Kharatyan M. / Vardanyan L.55)
There are
singled out two types of narratives:
Personal narratives
Objective
narratives
Personal Narratives
If you are
going to write about something that happened to you, you will probably write a first
- person narrative. You will say things like “I did this” and “We did that".
This is your experience, so you will include your reactions to events, your
feelings about them. But there is an important limitation to this approach. To
be consistent, you can relate only what you know and feel or what others report
to you - your point of view is restricted to your own thoughts, feelings, and observations.
And since what happened has already occurred, you will probably do you are
telling in the past tense. This is what the actress Shirley McLain has done in
her autobiography. Here is an excerpt from it describing how she commuted to
dancing class while she was in high school.
Rehearsals
ended at midnight. I would rush for the bus, which it seemed, was always either
late or early, but never on schedule. I’d stumble groggily from the bus an hour
and a half later, and make my way down the quiet street to a dark and silent
house. My dinner usually was saltine crackers smothered in ketchup and Tabasco
and with them a quart of ginger ale. I always ate standing up, and then I’d
stagger to bed, rarely before two o’clock…
It was a lonely
life, for a teenager especially, but I had a purpose - a good reason for being.
And I learned something about myself that still holds true: I cannot enjoy
anything unless I work hard at it.
Sometimes, in a
personal narrative, you will want to give the reader a special feeling of
immediacy. You will want your reader to have a feeling of being there and experiencing
what is happening along with you. Often you can covey this feeling by using the
present tense. Here is a writer narrating an event that he experienced thirty
years ago. But he uses the present tense. The event was the Allied invasion of
German - occupied France. He was on one of the thousands of ships that crossed
the Channel from England to Normandy. (Brown 61-62)
It is three am,
it is four am. We are six miles off shore… By now the enemy must know what’s up.
Bombers roar overhead. Flares drop inland. I am so wrought up I do knee bends. A
thousand youngsters are on board almost as inexperienced as I. It is pathetic
to hear them ask my opinion. Everything’s fine I say. Now we wait three miles
off shore. All nine guns point at the beach.5: 30 am. There are yellow streaks
in the cloud cover. Now! The guns go off and our ship the Quincy bounces. Down
finds us on Germany’s doormat like the morning milk bottle.
2.2 Objective Narratives
When someone
else - not you - is the centre of your narrative, you will probably write in
the third person. That is you will write “She did this” and “They did that".
And since you are not the focus of the narrative, your feelings and reactions
will be kept in the background or omitted entirely. This is what meant by
objective narrative because objective narrative does not require a restricted,
first-person viewpoint, you have an advantage. You can describe events going on
in several different places, even when you are not a witness to them. Also, if
you want to suggest a habitual action, an action that repeats itself, you may
want to use the present tense in an objective narration.
Here is part of
an objective narrative. The writer is explaining how a pioneer couple located
their homestead on the Nebraska prairie in 1873.
George Cather
hired a man with team and wagon, measured the circumference of one of the back
wheels, tied a rag on the rim so they could more easily count the revolutions
and started across the prairie. George had a compass to keep him going in the
right direction. His wife sat in the back of the wagon, counted revolutions and
computed mileage… When they had according to calculations, reached their
homestead, they drove on a bit to what they judged to be the center of their
property, just to make sure they were really on their own land - and pitched a
tent for the night. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.115)
2.3 Anecdotes and Illustrations
Sometimes you’ll
find that you need to support a general statement with a specific example to
fully express what you mean. One way you can do this is with a brief story - an
anecdote. Thus, you may include a small - scale narrative, or perhaps several,
in a larger composition.
Here is an
anecdote told about Jackie Robinson after his retirement from major league
baseball. The writer uses it as an example to support his general statement
about the character and strength of Jackie Robinson even in ill health.
He accepted the
blindness and the limping with a courage born of beauty. At an old - timers’ game
last season in Los Angeles, someone threw a baseball at him from the
grandstands, ordering, “Hey, Robinson. Sign this”. The unseen baseball struck
his forehead. He signed it.
An anecdote is
a vivid way to back up a general statement. But you can’t count on always
having one handy. And sometimes an anecdote just doesn’t seem to fit in. Then,
rather than have your reader hang in the air with only a general statement, you
should specify. You should back up your statement with an illustration. For
instance, it isn’t enough to state; you need to go on from such a statement to
illustrate what you mean, as this writer has done. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.120)
It happens all
around us … It happened to me personally. My mother was from Poughkeepsie, New
York, my mother from Marietta, Ohio, my stepmother from Washington,
Pennsylvania. I was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, raised in Athens, Georgia,
educated in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Ithaca, New York, and Baltimore, Maryland,
and I know work in Rabun Gap, Georgia. I’ve learned a lot from all of that, but
still I have no more idea of where I fit in space and time and community than
if I had just landed inside a meteor from Pluto. I make my home where I am.
2.4 Narrating a Process
Narratives
which are directions and explanations not only answer the questions “What
happens? ” but also “How does it happen? ” These kinds of narratives follow the
movement of the process from one stage to the next. You may narrate a
how-to-do-it process in the first person or in the second person. For example,
you may write, “I begin with a few simple breathing exercises" or “You
should begin with a few simple breathing exercises”. Using the second person
has the advantage of sounding as though you were talking directly to your
reader, having a face-to-face conversation.
But whether you
choose the first or second person, you should “walk through" the steps of
your directions in your mind to make sure that they are in the right order and
that nothing has been left out. You may even want to number the steps, as this
writer has done in explaining how to replace a fuse.
When the fuse
blows, grope your way over to the flash-light and unplug the offending
appliance (usually the last one turned on before the blow).
Get your spare
fuses and open the fuse box door.
When you shine
the flash on the fuses you will see one with its little glass window all black
and burned looking. Replace this fuse…
Numbering the
steps this way works well with brief, fairly simple directions, however, you
may want to use transitional words like first, then, next, and
finally as you move from step to step in the process. Also, you can use
words like if, when and after to introduce the conditions
required from the next step, as in “After the paint has dried, apply the second
coat". (Karls J. / Szmanski R.124)
Not every
explanation of a process is a how-to-do-it. Often, you will need to tell how
something happens - for example, how plants make food from sunshine. Such
explanations are usually told in the third person. Sometimes, especially in
explaining a process that is habitual, you will want to use the present tense,
as this writer has done.
In warm weather
the local thunderstorm takes its place as an important water producer. It comes
chiefly as a result of temperature differences on the earth’s surface. There
may be many causes for these differences. For example, the dark earth of a
plowed field will absorb more heat than the surrounding forest, and over this
warm field the air will rise. As it goes higher the moisture in the air begins
to condense into water droplets, producing the towering cumulus clouds whose
contours outline the movements of the rising air. Given the proper combination
of heat, moisture and subsequent chilling, the cloud will at last build up to
produce a thunderstorm.
Whether you are
giving directions or providing an explanation, you may need to do some research
to be sure of your facts - of the exact sequence of events, for example, and
their cause-and-effect relationship, if any. And we must not forget the
audience. If you are writing for someone completely unfamiliar with the process
you are explaining, do not leave out a step assuming your reader can figure it
out. Put it in, in the right place. You will also want to use the kind of
detail and vocabulary appropriate for your audience. (Kharatyan M. / Vardanyan
L.57)
2.5 Entertaining
by Narrating
One major
purpose of writing is to entertain - to bring insight, surprise, or delight to
the reader. Language as art - literature - can inform and persuade, but its
real purpose is to entertain, to bring enjoyment by a simulating the
imagination. Literature, like informative and persuasive writing, stresses what
is said. But literature also places great emphasis on how something is said. It
demands that the writer find just the right words and express them in just the
right order.
Much of
literature - stories, plays, and poetry - is fiction. It includes facts about
real people and actual experiences but really depends upon the writer’s unique
imagination. Fiction also uses special devices, such as figurative language and
dialogue. Some literature - like the future article - is nonfiction. Such
literature demands that the writer present real-life situations in an
interesting, entertaining way. Whether fiction or nonfiction, each literary
form is unique. But all literary forms have the same basic goal - to entertain
the reader through the artistic, creative use of language.
2.6 The Story
Writing a good
story either in first and third person means describing a sequence of events in
an interesting, lively way. A good story should consist of:
An interesting
beginning to catch the reader’s attention and make him/her want to go on
reading your story.
Good
development in the main body. To develop your story you should use appropriate
tenses, especially past ones, e. g. Past Simple to describe the main events,
Past Continuous to set the scene, Past Perfect to talk about events which
happened before the main events, etc.
A good ending,
if possible an unexpected or unpredictable one, to surprise the reader and
create a long-lasting impression of your peace. (Evans V. /Dooley J.43-44)
There were stories
even before there was writing. And they were preserved orally and passed from
one generation to the next. Even though there was fiction, they sprang from the
experiences of the people who told them and listened to them. They reflected
the people’s lives and values. Over the years many of the stories were lost.
The term
function is applied to stories that tell about invented happening and people,
not real ones. The problem with this term is that for many people it implies
that such stories deal in the false and the untrue, that they have no
connection with real life. But fiction, good fiction, while not a factual
record of real life, is grounded in real life. Similarly, the stories you
invent should grow out of your life - your experience, observations, the people
and things you value. This is not to say that you can take an incident directly
from life and record it without change. You have to let your imagination
reshape your experiences. Change some details, add some detail, and subtract
others. Rework your ideas until your story says exactly what you want it to say.
What is a story?
Without attempting a formal definition we may say that a story is a coherent
account of a significant emotional experience, or a series of related
experiences organized into a perfect whole. The fiction writer re-creates human
events, which might be external or mental, imagined or real, and are emotional
experiences for the people involved in them. In more dramatic terms, a story is
the imitation of an action - an action, complete in itself. By a complete
action - at least in fiction - we do not necessarily mean the final answer to
the emotional problem or the resolution of a conflict. But the action should be
complete enough to reveal the underlying truth in the story, and what is
important is this revelation. When we look upon fiction, as an art of
revelations we may readily admit that the real story is the meaning of the
event.
The disorder of
life may be part of some supreme order and in a novel and short story, and in a
play or poem too, it does become order: thus the writer overcomes in a measure
the imperfections and limitations of mortality. The reader imaginatively enjoys
these re-created events, which may have actually happened, and in this sense a
story is a history, though not necessarily in its historic order. Or they might
happen, and it is the pretended history, though not an improbable one, it
should be convincing. Or the story may be a mixture of the two, the actual and
the possible, or the probable, as it so often even in the most realistic
fiction today. The perceptive writer searches for hidden meaning in human
events and builds the stories around them. This freedom of imagination enjoyed
by the writer is one of the characteristics of fiction - as distinguished from
history - but in a good story imagination does no violence to reality and is
based on reality. It is not reckless invention. (Surmelian 21)
From disorder
to order (plot), from multiplicity to unity, from the particular to the general
(theme), and back to the particular (through concrete correlates), from matter
to form - this, briefly, seems to be the creative process in fiction. A good
story represents a larger reality than itself, if it is, for instance, the
struggle of a man and woman for happiness, or for sheer survival, the writer
finds universal meaning in their struggle, and the moment he does that he has a
story. The meaning of a story varies for each reader; it does not wholly lie in
the story itself. Probably no work of fiction is exactly the same story for two
readers. Each sees something different in it, what he himself is capable of
seeing. These variations in reader response may be so great that a story becomes
meaningless for one person, and highly significant for another. (Surmelian 1-4)
There are two
ways of writing a story: scene and summary. Scene is the dramatic and summary
the narrative method. Fiction is dramatic narration, neither wholly scene nor wholly
summary, but scene-and-summary. If it were all scene, it would be a play, if
all summary, more of a synopsis than a story.
2.7 The Setting
A story must
happen somewhere - it must have a setting. Perhaps your idea for a story will
start with an interesting place you know. What stories of interesting incidents
could occur in such a place? Perhaps, instead, your story idea concerns some
exciting action. In that case, you will have to supply a setting completely
appropriate to and supportive of that action. In describing your setting, you
should do so as quickly and vividly as you can. Long-winded place descriptions
tend to clog the flow of a story and bore readers.
How you select
the details will depend partly on your purpose. If you are trying to convey the
feeling that a city apartment is a wonderful place to live, you might use such
details as “a panoramic view of sleek gray skyscrapers,” “the cheerful laughter
of children playing below,” “parsley and rosemary growing in small red pots in
a sunny kitchen window." If the feeling you are trying to convey is that
city apartments are unpleasant, you might use such negative details as “a view
of dirty brick building," “children wailing and screaming in the next
apartment,” “a small, cramped kitchen with a stained sink and a dripping faucet."
Details of setting create a specific atmosphere in which the characters and
their actions appear convincing and realistic. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.171-172)
2.8 The Plot
Something must
happen in the story - a story must have a plot. But plot is more than a string
of events. For example, a new article about a hotel fire deals with a string of
events, but it has not plot because there is no conflict. To have a plot there
must be conflict, problems that the characters must face and solve or fail to
solve. Thus, the sequence of events making up the plot must be planned and
arranged to present incidents that
introduce the
conflict
build toward a
climax - the point where a solution to the conflict is unavoidable
present the
solution or resolution, of the conflict
There are many
types of conflict you could use as plot starters. One type of conflict is the
physical opposition of two characters - for example, the cowboy hero in a
shoot-out with the villain. Does the hero win or lose? Why? On a more realistic
level, you might have two students as finalists for a scholarship that only one
could win. What happens?
Another type of
conflict involves making an important decision. For example, a girl sees her
best friend shoplifting - she must decide between loyalty and honesty. What
does she do? Or a boy’s has been rejected by a group they both belong to, for a
reason he consider unfair. He must decide if he should support his friend at
the risk of also being rejected by the group.
Another kind of
conflict involves solving a problem or overcoming a handicap. For example, a
boy whose parents are very poor needs to buy new clothes for a job interview. Or
a young athlete has been crippled in an accident and must learn how to live a
meaningful life. Real life is full of conflicts that can form the bases for
story plots. It provides writers with a never-ending supply of material. You
might also get ideas for conflict from magazine and newspaper stories. But
remember to keep the conflict - and the plot - reasonably close to your own
experience. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.172-173)
2.9 The Scene
The scene is a
specific act, a single event that occurs at a certain time and place and lasts
as long as there is no charge of place and no break in the continuity of time. It
is an incident acted out by the characters, a single episode or situation,
vivid and immediate. The scene is the dramatic or plays element in fiction and
a continuous of a present action while it lasts. The scene reproduces the
movement of life, and life is action, motion. As a moving picture the scene is
a closer imitation of what of what happens in life than a summary of it would
be. The pictorial quality of a story and its authority depends partly on scene,
and the reader’s participation is greater in the scene. Seeing is more
realistic and convincing. It shows the action. The reader can share an emotional
experience more readily. We live “scenically". Life itself is dramatic in
method. (Surmelian 1-2)
Ernest
Hemingway in “The Sun Also Rises" introduces Robert Cohn with a few
paragraphs of summary, followed by a scene.
Robert Cohn was
a member, through his father, of one of the richest Jewish families in New York,
and through his mother of one of the oldest. At the military school where he
prepped for Princeton, and played a very good end on the football team, no one
had made him race-conscious. No one had ever made him feel he was a Jew, and
hence any different from anybody else, until he went to Princeton. He was a
nice boy, a friendly boy, and very shy, and it made him bitter. He took it out
in boxing, and he came out of Princeton with painful self-consciousness and the
flattened nose, and was married by the first girl who was nice to him. He was
married five years, had three children, lost most of the fifty thousand dollars
his father left him, the balance of the estate having gone to his mother,
hardened into a rather unattractive mould under domestic unhappiness with a
rich wife, and just when he had made up his mind to leave his wife she left him
and went off with a miniature-painter… We had several fines after the coffee,
and I said I must be going. Cohn had been talking about the two of us going off
somewhere on a weekend trip. He wanted to get out of town and get in a good
walk. I suggested we fly to Strasbourg and walk up to Saint Audile, or
somewhere or other in Alsace. “I know a girl in Strasbourg who can show us the
town," I said. Somebody kicked me under the table. I thought it was
accidental and went on: “She’s been there three years and knows everything
there is to know about the town. She’s a swell girl". (Surmelian 25)
I was kicked
again under the table and, looking, saw Frances, Robert’s lady, her chin
lifting and her face hardening…
The scene
reproduces realistically the very process of living, and each individual scene
gives us a close-up of a particular act. It is a single specific moment in the
plot, a single dramatic picture, and these single acts together give us the
movement of the whole action. The modern tendency is to write the story as a
series of single acts, scene by scene, and to give a dramatic or
cinematographic imitation of life. The scene shows us the actors in action, but
some narration is usually mixed up in it, and we hear the narrator’s voice also
as he describes the gestures of the speakers and gives other stage directions
which in a play would guide and inform the actors and not form part of the
dialogue. In its pure form, with no stage directions, no commentary, the scene
eliminates the narrator’s voice and is, as in an acted play, only character
voice, and this heightens the illusion of reality. In the scene the burden of
narration is shifted to the characters themselves and they do the work, they
carry the ball.
In the scene
the reader is taken through the process by which the result is obtained. The
scene gives the story recentness or immediacy. We cannot narrate events that
have not taken place, but the writer can give the impression that it is
happening now, as though for the first time, and it is a unique event that means
that you can start your story at a specified time, then go back in time and set
the previous scene using the Past Perfect. Continue your story using normal
past tenses, leading your readers up to the specified time, then go on to the
end of your story. Using the flashback technique makes your story more exciting.
(Surmelian 5-10)
The scene
shouldn’t be cluttered with information, comment, biography, psychological
analysis, description of the setting - the author introducing in third person. At
its best it is somewhat stark, unfurnished. Ideally and by its nature the scene
is action pure and simple, and should be freed of those elements in the story
that do not quite belong to it, though necessary for the total picture. Much
may be smuggled into a scene, especially if it is a long one, in small doses, a
little there, and the reader will take it in with the action without pausing to
distinguish the narrator’s voice from the character voices. There are few pure
scenes in fiction, but the writer should clear the decks before he gets to the
action and make it carry, if possible, the final punch. A good scene requires
preparation and is the crest of the waves in the story line.
2.10 The Summary
Not everything
can, or need, be shown in fiction. The writer can also tell a story. Summary
needs a teller and this is admittedly a weakness, it does not have the
seemingly spontaneous movement of the scene, it is not something acted out
before the eyes of the reader, who is listening to somebody tell him about it. But
summary has its rightful place in the structure of the story and can be
extremely useful. Summary brings in the author, or his alter ego, his
spokesman, unless it is summary by character, in which case it becomes dramatic.
There is a change in voice from scene to summary and from summary to scene, and
the reader unconsciously prefers a character voice, because it means more
mimetic writing. When the writer speaks through his own voice the all-important
element of mimesis is definitely less and the reader’s interest decreases. Hearing
is substituted for seeing and the ear is weaker than the eye in the creation in
mental images. Nevertheless, no matter how scenic, a story requires a narrator.
Omniscience may be eliminated, but not the narrator’s voice. We still hear it.
Summary, unlike
scene, does not individualize characters through their actions and speech. It
throws the whole burden of narration on the shoulders of the author or his
narrator. It gives us experience secondhand. Scene is self-explanatory, in
summary the narrator explains. Summary tends to be abstract, discursive, with
something fanciful and “literary" clinging to it, in contrast to the
concrete specific act of the scene. Scene at its best has the impact of life. In
it, the characters are on their own; in summary they lack this independence. In
scene, the reader also is on his own, judging the action for himself and
interpreting it in his own way, in summary, the reader is guided by the
narrator, who speaks in his own voice, whether or not the reader is directly
addressed. Something is happening in the scene, in summary it has already
happened. (Surmelian 16-18)
Summary makes
for distance. It does not give us a close-up of the action as it occurs, it is
along short. We no longer have the words spoken by the characters to others or
to themselves. Summary may reveal the characters, describe their actions and
thoughts and feelings, but it is not a close re-creation as in the scene. It
does not have the power of dramatic imitation, and the reader is deprived of
the pleasure of viewing the event for himself. Summary lacks the vividness of
the scene, the immediacy, the recentness of the action acted out by the actors.
Yet summary
does many important things in a story. It links the scenes together and gives
the story continuity and unity. If we consider scenes the main building blocks,
summaries are the cement in creative construction. The summaries that link
scenes also disconnect them. Summary means a break in the action, a lapse in
the continuity of time, or a change of place, but if it does not happen too
often, the story keeps moving despite, and because of, these breaks. An
extended summary, as when the author inserts an essay or biography or a long
description in the story, would break the continuity of the action. It may be
done in a novel.
Having studied
the recent achievements of the theory of narration, its point of types and
functions we have come to the following conclusions.
Narration is an
act of telling a story. It is not just telling a story, but it also telling a
story of a sequence of real or fictional events - which seems to be more
natural activity for most people than, say, giving directions or describing a
scene. Narration is the kind of writing that answers the question, “What
happened? ”
Some narratives
are based on actual experience, some are entirely fictitious and others use a
mixture of truth and fiction. Some narratives are meant to amuse, others inform
or convey a message to readers.
The using techniques
of narrative writing:
Select and
refine the topic so that a main idea is stated clearly in the topic sentence. In
narratives, the main idea will probably deal with conflict or emotional
response to conflict.
Select
appropriate, vivid supporting details. In narratives, the details will tell
about time, place, actions, and people’s motives and reactions.
Organize the
information so that readers will be able to understand and follow the story. In
narratives, chronological arrangement is normal. Any shifts in time or place
must be read clear to the reader.
There are two
major functions of narrative writing: informing by narrating (fiction) and
informing by entertaining (non-fiction). In the case of informing by narrating
two types of narratives are singled out: personal narratives and objective
narratives. The story is used as a main subtype, when applying informing by
entertaining. The story consists of the setting, the plot, the scene and the
summary.
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2. Evans V. / Dooley J. Course Book Enterprise. Longman, 2001
3. Karls J. / Szmanski R. The Writer’s Handbook, Laidlaw Brothers,
Publishers A Division of Doubleday and Company, Inc. USA, 1975
4. Kharatyan M. / Vardanyan L. Develop your writing skills. Yerevan,
2006
5. Soars S. / Headway L. Student’s Book, Advanced. Oxford, 1995
6. Surmelian L. Techniques of Fiction Writing Doubleday and Company,
Inc. Garden City. New York, 1988.