Narrative writing can be broadly defined as story writing – a piece of writing characterized by a main character in a setting who encounters a problem or engages in an interesting, significant or entertaining activity or experience.What happens to this main character is called the plot. The plot follows a beginning, middle, and end sequence. The middle of the story is the largest, most significant part, which we call the main event. The main event is really what the story is all about and involves either a problem to be solved or a significant life experience for the main character.

THE LEAD

The lead is the beginning or introduction to your story. It gives the reader a preview of what your story will be about.

A lead is what draws the reader into your story. A good lead hooks readers from the beginning and makes them excited to continue reading.

Setting

Setting is essential to a story because it helps put your readers on familiar ground with your characters. It explores the time, the place, and the elements surrounding your character.

The Elements of Setting

The types of logistical information conveyed by your setting – what we might call the base elements of setting – are relatively simple, though crucial to your story. They include:

Location (Are we on a football field, or in a prison cell? In San Francisco, or in Paris? On earth, or in outer space?)

Time (When is this story taking place?)

Historical time (Is it the modern day, or the 17th century, or some imagined past or future time?)

Seasonal time (Is it winter or summer?)

Daily time (Is it morning or evening?)

Weather (What’s the temperature like? Is it humid or brisk? Is it ?raining?)

You don't need to give your audience information about all of these things in every story; just include the ones that are relevant to your story, the ones that will communicate something useful and interesting to your audience.

Using the Five Senses

To communicate your setting – especially logistical information such as time and weather – you need to think about and use your five senses, and make your audience use theirs, too. The five senses are:

sight

sound

touch

taste

smell

Imagine you have just awakened in your bed. What time is it? How do you know, without looking at a clock? If you hear bird songs and garbage trucks, it’s probably early in the morning. If you hear people talking and laughing on the street, it’s probably later. How bright is the light coming through your window? Do you smell bacon cooking, or coffee brewing? What’s the temperature like?

To write good settings, you must cultivate all five of your senses. We tend to take them, and the information they provide, for granted, but a writer can’t do so, or he’ll write settings that do not feel real, that don’t come alive for his audience. You don’t need to excite all five of your audience’s senses in every story, but if you’re only describing what things look like, then your setting – and hence your story – will not feel as realistic as it could.

Plot