Narrative Overview

• Features
• Scaffold Outline
• Narrative Voice
• Structure
• Atmosphere
• Characterisation

WRITING FROM A VARIETY OF POINTS OF VIEW

• First Person Subjective: Character speaks directly to the reader, who know everything the character chooses to reveal. This allows you to reveals thoughts and emotions in an intimate way to the reader. This style of writing only enables the one point of view: all events in the story are seen through the eyes of one character.

• First Person Objective: An observer writes about someone else. The use of the perosnal pronoun ‘I’ makes the reader feel as if they are sharing the expereince. Again we only know what the observer knows.

• Second Person: Difficult to sustain, this style is like you are instructing someone on how to do something: ‘you hear a noise, you walk towards to the door…’

• Third Person Omniscient (all-knowing): The writer knows everything, they can see into the minds of the characters and know their emotions and thoughts. This enables you to be all knowing

TASK:

• Read the examples provided in your booklet
• Write the same passage in all the different points of view and see how it changes

VARYING YOUR STRUCTURE

• Chronological (in order)
• Retrospective (Start at the end, then go back and explore how and why something happened
• Flashback Sequences
• Circular (start at the climax and work you way back, then end the story)

WRITING FOR ATMOSPHERE

Atmosphere is created through word choice. You must describe the setting in a way that helps create a certain mood, do this by referring to the five senses:

• SIGHT
• SOUND
• TASTE
• TOUCH
• SMELL

Be as descriptive as possible to make your reader feel like they are there, use figurative devices: similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia to help you create the picture in words.

• Read the examples provided in your booklet

TASK:

Describe the following setting, use clear paragraphs. Create the atmosphere through your description, think about what you want your readers to feel….set the mood….

CHARACTERISATION

The way you describe your character is very important in understanding their emotions and personality. Look at the examples of the following in your booklet:

Miss Murdstone

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a gloomy-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with very heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose…She brought with her two uncompromising hard black boxes, with her initials on the lids in hard brass nails.  When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite.  I had never, at that time, seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

Initial Discussion:

Is Miss Murdstone someone you would like to meet? Do you think she will be friendly? What parts of the passage make you think as you do?

1. What kind of person is Miss Murdstone? How has Charles Dickens conveyed that information?
2. Identify the words and phrases that the author used to show what the character is like. Even her name, Murdstone, sounds like a combination of the words murder and stone and suggests that she is cold, unpleasant, and even cruel.

The four key techniques an author uses to create characters:

• what the character says
• how the character appears
• what others say about her
• what the character does

What happens when we change certain words:

• Discuss how this description of Miss Murdstone is different from that in the original text.

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a lady she was; she looked like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice. She brought with her two black boxes, with her initials on the lids. When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a purse, and she kept the purse in a bag which hung upon her arm. I had never, at that time, seen such a lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

1. Identify which techniques Dickens used to describe Miss Murdstone.

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a gloomy-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with very heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose…She brought with her two uncompromising hard black boxes, with her initials on the lids in hard brass nails.  When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite.  I had never, at that time, seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

TECHNIQUES:

• uncompromising – personification
• hard – repeated three times in a row –physical hardness of her possessions suggesting hardness of personality
• Very jail of a bag – metaphor
• Heavy chain
• Shut up like a bite – simile

Change Miss Murdstone to a different character -

Try changing Miss Murdstone’s character as a reader would first perceive her. You may need to use other techniques that description  of her belongings and physical appearance, so don’t hesitate to use devices that differ.

• Make her soft, quiet and charming

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a charming-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with finely arched eyebrows, over her delicate nose. She brought with her two brightly colored bags, with her initials on the outside in green thread. When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a small purse, and she kept the purse in a soft leather bag which hung upon her arm by a silk cord. I had never, at that time, seen such a quiet lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

• Make her strong and sure of herself (you may have to use a different technique than describing just her belongings)

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a confident-looking lady she was; smiling  a greeting  out of a strong-featured face. Carrying her luggage easily in one hand, she strode up and introduced herself. “Hello, I am Miss Murdstone. You must be my new sister-in-law, and is this your boy?”   When she paid the coachman she thanked him profoundly for her excellent  journey, and tipped him handsomely. I had never, at that time, seen such a thoroughly  strong and cheerful lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

• Make her shy and a little bit afraid of other people (you may have to choose different methods than the description of her belongings, but have her say something or do something to indicate that she is shy)

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a shy -looking lady she was; pale, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with barely discernable eyebrows and a trembly chin. She brought with her a few very small bags of nondescript appearance, and she seemed reluctant to ask for help in carrying them. When she paid the coachman she asked him the amount twice, in a quiet voice, as though afraid she would make a mistake. She seemed to scurry like a mouse to get out of the way rather than approach us to say hello. I had never, at that time, seen such a timid lady  altogether as Miss Murdstone was.

TASK:

Change the following descriptions by changing key words in the passage:

Uriah Heep

(1)

There was that tinge of red which is sometimes to be observed in the skins of red-haired people. It belonged to a red-haired person-a youth of fifteen, as I take it now, but looking much older-whose hair was cropped as close as the closest stubble; who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the pony’s head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise.

(2)

As I came back, I saw Uriah Heep shutting up the office; and feeling friendly towards everybody, went in and spoke to him, and at parting, gave him my hand. But oh, what a clammy hand his was! as ghostly to the touch as to the sight! I rubbed mine afterwards, to warm it, AND TO RUB HIS OFF.

It was such an uncomfortable hand, that, when I went to my room, it was still cold and wet upon my memory. Leaning out of the window, and seeing one of the faces on the beam-ends looking at me sideways, I fancied it was Uriah Heep got up there somehow, and shut him out in a hurry.

(3)

As I was getting on the stool opposite, to talk to him more conveniently, I observed that he had not such a thing as a smile about him, and that he could only widen his mouth and make two hard creases down his cheeks, one on each side, to stand for one.

• Agnes Wickfield

(1)

Mr. Wickfield tapped at a door in a corner of the panelled wall, and a girl of about my own age came quickly out and kissed him. On her face, I saw immediately the placid and sweet expression of the lady whose picture had looked at me downstairs. It seemed to my imagination as if the portrait had grown womanly, and the original remained a child. Although her face was quite bright and happy, there was a tranquillity about it, and about her-a quiet, good, calm spirit-that I never have forgotten; that I shall never forget. This was his little housekeeper, his daughter Agnes, Mr. Wickfield said. When I heard how he said it, and saw how he held her hand, I guessed what the one motive of his life was.

(2)

She had a little basket-trifle hanging at her side, with keys in it; and she looked as staid and as discreet a housekeeper as the old house could have. She listened to her father as he told her about me, with a pleasant face; and when he had concluded, proposed to my aunt that we should go upstairs and see my room. We all went together, she before us: and a glorious old room it was, with more oak beams, and diamond panes; and the broad balustrade going all the way up to it.

I cannot call to mind where or when, in my childhood, I had seen a stained glass window in a church. Nor do I recollect its subject. But I know that when I saw her turn round, in the grave light of the old staircase, and wait for us, above, I thought of that window; and I associated something of its tranquil brightness with Agnes Wickfield ever afterwards.

YOUR TURN!

Once we understand these things, we can attempt our own short story….

TASK

Choose from the following options, you need:

• A setting – choose one
  

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• A character – choose one
  

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• An object: the Candlestick (no choice!)

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• A complication – something that happens (or goes wrong…)!!
  
• You get to decide this one.
  

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Then choose your Genre:

• Horror
• Comedy
• Crime Fiction
• Sci-Fi
  

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Write a short story!