Why is narrative used

There are narrative poems, narrative works of visual art, narrative essays , or narrative dances. If you can make something tell a story, it is narrative. The narrative voice, or narrative style can be used to transform virtually anything into a story. Everyone loves a story! Everyone has a story. Everyone wants to tell a story. Everyone can relate to a story. That is why it is important to use narratives.

Narrative is an engaging writing style. It immediately invites your audience into your world and offers them a chance to participate in the story you are telling. A reader can easily get wrapped up in a narrative. It is also a style that invites discussion and participation. By using it you tell your audience that this story is not over. They can take it home and think about it. They can retell it, add to it and change it. Narratives are social.

They are at the heart of how we communicate as social beings. If you look for definitions, descriptions, and discussions of what narratives are, you will find many references to the natural humanity of narratives. They are a part of who we are and how we share that with others. Have you ever read an article that just bored you to tears? Maybe you feel that way about this article? There is a good chance the author did not make good use of narrative, and thus never managed to draw you in.

Fiction: Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes is the tale of a man who is determined to be a knight. You may remember references to a madman on horseback fighting windmills?

This is that book. It is a standard and classic example of a book written in the narrative voice. Beloved , by Toni Morrison is the tale of an escaped slave, who remains haunted by things in her past. It is another more modern and ground-breaking narrative work. George watched as the boat slowly sank. He felt relief mixed with guilt. He turned to take the rudder, pushing away the thoughts that crawled like ants into his mind.

Third person omniscient The story is being told by a voice who shows they know more than the characters in the story — the narrator is all knowing. George watched as the boat sank. Six miles away a group of fishermen watched the horizon, looking for signs of the storm they could feel in the air. When thinking about narrative voice, think about the following: How does the reader feel about the narrator?

Does the reader trust the narrator? Do they seem reliable? Is the voice of the narrator the author or someone else? Myths , legends, fables, ballads, and folktales were performed aloud to entertain and inform an audience. These narratives were memorized using mnemonic devices such as oral-formulaic composition, which utilizes repetition of the same phrases that fit into specific metrical conditions.

As written languages developed, they were used to transcribe narratives from the oral tradition. Some of the earliest written narratives are the Sumerian stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh , which dates back to — BCE. With the advent of handwritten manuscripts and wood block-printed texts, written narratives continued in almost every culture in the Eastern and Western worlds. The popularity of different narratives depends on cultural context and often waxes and wanes based on interests and concerns of the era.

To build a narrative, writers rely on several other literary elements, including but not limited to characterization, conflict, frame stories, linear vs.

Direct characterization is when the narrator tells the audience specific details about a character; this information can also be provided by another character in the story.

There are two categories of conflict: internal and external. Internal conflict exists only as man vs. External conflict, on the other hand, can exist in five different forms: man vs. Frame Story. This is a literary form where one all-encompassing story contains one or more related stories.

The order in which events are told is another way to build narrative. If an author chooses to recount events in a chronological order, then their narrative is linear. Nonlinear narration, on the other hand, adds aesthetic interest to a written work and builds emotional resonance for readers. The rate at which a story develops, or its pace, is controlled through elements like the length of scenes, depth of description, and intensity and frequency of action. Genre often affects pacing as certain types of writing require a faster pace like action-adventures, horror, espionage, and crime thrillers while others need a slow, extended pace such as historical dramas or sweeping family sagas.

Point of View. This indicates the general character or attitude of a piece. There are as many types of tone as there are attitudes and emotions.

A piece of writing can be cheerful or depressing; romantic or sincere; elegiac or optimistic. Even an objectively written news article maintains a tone—in that case, the tone is neutral. Narrative is not restricted to fiction, nonfiction, and theater. Although some poems focus on an image, an emotion, an idea, or a mood, other poems tell a story. When a poem focuses on recounting a series of events, it is called a narrative poem.

Writers use narrative because it keeps audience members engaged.