Structuring Narrative Writing

This section on structuring narrative writing probably needs some explanation. (Plotting a novel is all about structure, isn't it? And you were supposed to be through with the planning by now!)

Allow me to explain...

• Narrative writing is basically writing that tells a story (which is what a novel is!)

• Structuring that writing is basically working out how best to present the events of the story.

Let's say that a chapter in your novel concerns a man arguing with his wife and then making up with her. How are you going to choose to present these events?

• Are you going to write everything that happens - the man returning home, the argument, the making up - as a full-blown scene, leaving nothing out? (It will be a long chapter if you do.) Or will you focus on the interesting parts, when emotions are running at their highest, and skim over the rest?

• Are you going to concentrate more on the dialogue or more on the action? Will you show the readers the viewpoint character's internal thoughts or present the scene more cinematically?

Up to now, you have been busy planning every chapter in your novel, and in quite some detail. But although you have worked out everything that happens - what is said, who does what to whom, and so on - you are still free to present this information in any way you choose.

The fact of the matter is that you are not going to be able to include everything. If you write every conversation in full and describe every tiny action, your novel will quickly grow to unwieldy proportions. If you describe every beautiful sunset and every thought passing through the viewpoint character's mind, it will take 80,000 words just to write the first chapter.

So you need to make choices. You need to decide what to focus on, what to deal with more concisely, and what to cut. You need to decide what to state explicitly and what to imply.

Confused? Don't be - the information below will make everything clear...

Structuring Narrative Writing - the Articles

The biggest skill you need to master here is when to show and when to tell. Fail to get this right and publishers are unlikely to welcome your novel with open arms. Fortunately, Writing a Narrative by Showing and Telling has all the answers.

Closely related to this is the subject of pace. Again, get this wrong and you will be putting yourself at an immediate disadvantage. Get it right, though - by reading Writing Fiction with Pace - and you will instantly place yourself head and shoulders above the competition.

And finally, The Elements of Fiction is really just a checklist of all the ingredients that a well-constructed chapter in a novel should contain. You might find it useful to refer to during the two stages of the writing process - writing a first draft then revising that draft.