Topic 2.2: What Makes a Narrative Successful?
What Makes a Narrative Successful?
What makes a narrative successful? For most people, it is emotional engagement.
Think back to some of the news stories or novels you have read in the past and think about why they remain with you. Most likely it is because the stories (fiction and non-fiction) were something that engaged you on an emotional level. For example, reading about a tsunami and its aftermath in a small Japanese village compels a reader to sympathize with the terrible conditions of the village inhabitants. It may even compel a reader to act in such a way that he or she wants to get involved in providing assistance to all victims of natural disasters.
Of course, the scale of an event need not be that of a natural disaster to engage a reader's interest or sympathies. Here's an example of a short narrative that appeared originally as a Facebook note:
In this paragraph, the writer describes a singular event involving her pet, which has made a tactical error in seeking its prey. Notice how the paragraph introduces the reader to the scene, shows the subject of the piece in action, and carefully plots the events in such a way that there is reflection about why this event is significant.
As you prepare your Narrative Essay, remember that you are limited to a singular experience. In your prewriting, you may start broadly, picking an area of personal interest (rodeo riding, for example), but you must narrow the topic to a single experience (the day you fell in an important riding competition, perhaps). A nice example of a significant experience narrative is "A South African Storm Links to an external site." by Allison Howard, a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa from 2003-2005. In this essay, the author narrows the topic to one event on one day: Walking with groceries from the store in the rain, the author takes time to unravel the events of the walk, making observations about her environment and her interactions with others on the road. The author encounters a conflict on this walk also, and it is here that we see the efforts she takes to work though the significance of the event. Use this essay as a place of reference as you begin your narratives. Topics in narrative essays that fail to narrow tend to be so general that the reader does not understand the purpose of the story and fails to engage emotionally.
To get started on your essay:
1. carve out time to review possible subjects
2. use freewriting, or any other type of prewriting you have discovered in your readings to help you narrow your topic to one experience. Remember that "story starters" are everywhere. Think about it—status updates on social media websites can be a good place to start. You may have already started a "note"on Facebook, and now is your chance to develop that idea into a full narrative. If you keep a journal or diary, a simple even may unfold into a more narrative. Simply said, your stories may be closer than you think!
3. do not try to rehash an old essay from some high school vault—blech.
When drafting your essay:
1. come up with an enticing title
2. use the introduction to work the reader into your subject
3. avoid addressing the assignment directly ("I am going to write about my most significant experience")
4. think of things said at the moment this experience started for you—perhaps use a quote, or an interesting part of the experience that will grab the reader
5. let the story reflect your own voice (is your voice serious, humorous, matter-of-fact?)
6. organize the essay in a way that may capture the reader, but don't string the reader along too much with "next, next, next." To avoid just telling what happens, make sure you take time to reflect on why this experience is significant. Your reading assignment, "A South African Storm Links to an external site.," is a good example of the proper structure (beginning, middle, end) with the right amount of reflection throughout. The author takes you through a walk from one place to another, but she stops along the way to share her thoughts on the impact of that walk.
For reinforcement on sticking to one experience and one experience only, take a moment to watch writing teacher Penny Kittle describing the best piece of advice her mentor, writer David Murray, ever gave her.
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