How to Write a Narrative

Putting pen to paper and tapping into a source of inspiration to be creative and write a narrative is even difficult for the most seasoned professionals.

So many attempts at what schools would call “creative writing” border on contrived and are full of cliches.

More often than not stories lack structure, letters lack formatting and poems use a formulaic rhyme scheme in an attempt to be “poetic”.

Here are some things to remember when undertaking a creative writing project.

Make a plan

The number of students I’ve seen who just dive headlong into a narrative without any form of structure or forward-thinking.

More often than not, the creative thinkers make it seem as though they are working spontaneously, but really they are working to a plan they have spent hours on.

For an at-home assignment, you can take a little bit more time on a plan to ensure you know where you are headed with your creativity.

In an exam or test, spend four or five minutes making a rough plan to generate some ideas.

Any time lost in writing, will not equate to a loss of marks because your story will be much more thought out and will not go off on a million tangents.

Know your conflict

Having read numerous stories that have no clear conflict it is easy to see where students have failed to understand the point of writing a story.

Where an essay is structured and formulaic, a creative story gives you free reign to do what you want.

What most people fail to do is define that there are still structures to a story. There is time to give background, a rise of tension to an ultimate point of conflict and then a resolution.

We are taught this structure in primary school, but by the time it comes to writing the stories we have long-forgotten what we need to include.

The most important part of the story is developing a believable, but original source of conflict.

Want to understand how this works? Start reading.

Edit, edit, edit

Grammar and punctuation are as important to a piece of creative writing as the subject matter.

Make sure you allow 10 minutes at the end of your time to read back over your essay.

Editing is important to everything from an email to a thesis, so of course, you need to do it for your story.

Outside of school, you can take the time and read aloud, which will produce the best results.

In a test or exam situation, read the sentences very carefully and slowly to ensure you have picked up every mistake.

For more information on how to write an amazing narrative or creative piece, contact us today.