If you have to write a story, or narrative, the following techniques will get you started.
- Decide why you are telling the reader this story.
- Choose an illustration, event, or experience that can be covered adequately and still interest the reader. Do not try to narrate the whole of World War II in one story!
- Decide the point of view you will use. Do you want to tell the story from one character’s point of view (1st person narrative), or do you want the narrator to be outside the story and know everything (3rd person omniscient)? Which is more appropriate for your purpose?
- Keeping your purpose in mind, select those details or events which seem the most important or the most revealing.
- Arrange those details in an order, using either a strict chronological order or one that employs flashbacks. To help your reader follow your story, keep your verb tenses consistent and signal any switches in time.
- Remember the differences between showing and telling. Which method will be better for your narrative?
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