Narrative, descriptive writing

We have concentrated on the English Language side of the syllabus for a couple of weeks now. Some learners with questions on the essay side felt neglected. That apprehension is over now as we discuss creative writing in general.

You know by now that the examination has specific writing requirements which include a piece of descriptive writing and a narrative expressive task to name but a few.

There is little doubt that reasonable practice work on these aspects has been given and as you march towards the examinations you are ready. Researchers say: “Whenever you write, you have to dream up words and put them into sentences. All writing requires you to be creative. Creative writing perhaps requires a little more of your imagination than some other types of writing, but the best imaginative writing is based on the possibilities of real life and experience; people and places, situations and stories, descriptions and narratives.

“This article purports to show you the distinctions between descriptive and narrative writing. In descriptive writing you focus on a place or a person. When you write about a place you naturally write about the people in a description of the scene. When you write about a person, you naturally write about a place or places associated with the person.

Focus is the key word on this. In narrative writing you build an account of events that linked together. When you write a narrative, you control the selection of events. Control is the key word.”

Remember you are assessed in mainly these two parts: content and organisation, sentence structure; punctuation and spelling. Punctuation includes use of full stops at the end of sentences which is generally overlooked by many these days. Correct use of commas, exclamation marks, use of correct quotation marks when writing dialogue. Use the apostrophe correctly when required. What makes a good piece of descriptive writing? The content will engage and interest the reader.

Here is an examiner’s tip on this type of writing: “Some learners probably try too hard with descriptive writing,. They feel their descriptive skills have to be on show from the start. Relax, and start by writing some clear sentences that set you up. The organisation of the writing will be clear and orderly. Paragraphs will be used effectively with some structure and style. Learners ask if they ca use paragraphs in descriptive writing.

The answer is: “Of course you can, and it is a good idea to do so. There are some natural breaks even within a short piece of writing, so take the opportunity to show that you know how and when to use them. You need detail in a description, and you need thoughtful vocabulary to make the meaning of the description more precise. Using well selected nouns and verbs can help to add detail. The rain fell swiftly and soaked the old woman striving to get home with her overstuffed shopping bags.

Caution, do not overdo the aspect of adding detail. Do not feel that you need to add an adjective to every noun and an adverb to every verb in order to make your writing detailed. Also avoid dropping impossible long words into the description just to impress.

Narrative writing: Take note of good advice on how not to write a narrative. “Narrative writing is about clear and meaningful communication to the reader. Remember the key word is control, with maturity not far behind. You should avoid creating a piece of unoriginal stories of horror, fantasy and war heroics. For example, a story of fantasy is imagined, fictional, make-believe and verges on being unrealistic.

Writers of this kind of narrative are often re-living a film – badly – and forgetting that a good writer writes for the reader. Bad writers write to a formula – in other words, let’s be predictable, let’s feed off as many clichés as we can! O, let’s not!

They should understand that a story has a structure. The story structure consists of the beginning or introduction, the middle (body) or ending (conclusion). This story structure can be developed under the following headings: Beginning (introduction), Problem (complication), (high point (climax) Ending (Resolution). The next point is on what makes a good piece of narrative writing?

The plot and the characters will be well-constructed and sustained. It is suggested you keep the plot manageable and keep the number of characters down to three or four only. There will be a good beginning and an appropriate ending.

The narrative should be purposeful and well-paced. Paragraphs should be varied in length, with links and connectives keeping the story going. Remember connectives like: in addition, on top of that, in the long run, otherwise, on the other hand to mention just a few.

This is what some examiners say: “Paragraphing is not rocket science. Before you develop the confidence for variation, begin with paragraphs of roughly equal length. Connectives can be associated words, or they can be the grammatical words and phrases that signal a change. For example, “One hour later . . ., in the next village … or simply, However. . .” Overall the reader’s interest is held perhaps by means of interesting devices, words, phrases and sentences.

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