24
YEREVAN STATE LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY AFTER V. BRUSOV
TERM PAPER
TITLE: THE LANGUAGE OF THE NARRATIVE WRITING
YEREVAN – 2009
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One. Techniques of Narrative Writing
1.1 Selecting a Topic
1.2 Selecting Details
1.3 Organizing Information
Chapter Two. Major Functions of Narration
2.1 Informing by Narrating
2.2 Objective Narratives
2.3 Anecdotes and Illustrations
2.4 Narrating a Process
2.5 Entertaining by Narrating
2.6 The Story
2.7 The Setting
2.8 The Plot
2.9 The Scene
2.10 The Summary
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
The present paper explores the peculiarities of narrative writing from
the view point of its structure, functions and types. Narration is an
act of telling a story. It is not just telling a story, but it is also
telling a story of a sequence of real or fictional events – which seems
to be a more natural activity for most people than, say, giving
directions or describing a scene. Narration is the kind of writing that
answers the question, “What happened?” The expression “narrative
writing” covers an enormous territory. Narratives vary in length from a
few sentences to long stories. Some narratives are based on actual
experience, some are entirely fictitious, and others use a mixture of
truth and fiction. Some narratives are meant to amuse, others inform or
convey a message to readers. Narratives appear in many forms, including
poetry, “regular” prose stories, and drama on the stage, in film, or on
television. In short you are surrounded by narratives every day, some of
them in print, many in the electronic media, and others passed along
orally. Good narratives can be spoken just as well as written, but
audiences expect more polish and structure in written work. Though
narratives often make serious points, many narratives are meant to
amuse. Most readers enjoy lighthearted or humorous stories, even if the
experiences were not humorous to the people involved at the time. Some
readers are also entertained by scary stories, which may be about narrow
escapes and other frightening moments in the writers’ lives.
The paper consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and
bibliography. Introduction reveals the general guidelines of the paper.
Chapter one presents the major techniques of narrative writing.
Chapter two concentrates on types and functions of narrative writing,
signing out informing by narrating and entertaining by narrating.
Conclusion summarizes the results and outcomes we have come to in the
course of the research.
Chapter One. Techniques of Narrative Writing
No one knows for how many thousands of year’s people have been telling
and listening to narratives, but we do know that every culture has a
storytelling tradition; even it does not have a writing system. Well
before Homo sapiens learned to read and write, they had evidently framed
much of their wisdom in story form. Fiction has always been a natural
vehicle for people to communicate their experiences, fantasies, and
fears. Similarly, children delight in stories long before they are able
to read or write. Almost as soon as a child has learned to talk, she can
enjoy not only listening to stories, but making up her own as well. She
may pretend, for example, that her stuffed animal is alive and wants a
cookie, or she may scold a doll for some imaginary misbehavior. These
baby stories become more elaborate as the child acquires more
experiences to weave into her fiction, and she will often develop her
own version of a story she has heard. We adults gossip, share jokes,
complain about what happened to us this morning, speculate about the
future. And in telling even these informal tales, we are likely to pay
careful attention to the sequence of the events we are speaking about.
Because stories create an order that life lacks, we naturally draw upon
narrative. To make sense of our lives, we need to think of beginnings,
middles, and endings, and we use these fictions to try to organize the
past, the present and the future. (Surmelian 92)
Though narratives often make serious points, many narratives are meant
to amuse. Most readers enjoy lighthearted or humorous stories, even if
the experiences were not humorous to the people involved at the time.
Some readers are also entertained by scary stories, which may be about
narrow escapes and other frightening moments in the writers’ lives. Such
stories may simply thrill readers, or they may be the basis for a
serious point. Writers sometimes relate embarrassing moments, not
necessarily to convey serious messages, but to amuse and to share those
experiences with readers. Whether narratives convey a serious point or
simply entertain, they express main ideas and back them up with
supporting information. In other words, narratives follow the main
principles of paragraph writing:
Present a topic idea (often in a topic sentence at the beginning)
Support that topic idea with the other sentences
In narrative writing, you will continue to apply these principles:
1. Select and refine the topic so that a main idea is stated clearly in
the topic sentence. In narratives, the main idea will probably deal with
conflict or emotional response to conflict.
2. Select appropriate, vivid supporting details. In narratives, the
details will tell about time, place, actions, and people’s motives and
reactions.
3.organize the information so that readers will be able to understand
and follow the story. In narratives, chronological arrangement is
normal. Any shifts in time (or place) must be made clear to the reader.
(Karls/Szmanski 110-111).
1.1 Selecting a Topic
For narratives, as for other kinds of writing, look for possible topics
in your own life: your background, experiences, interests, and firsthand
observation of other people. You will write best when you write about
things that really matter to you: personal experiences, beliefs,
worries, impressions, and knowledge in specific areas. You may begin
with many possible topics. Brainstorming will produce related ideas, or
sometimes lead you to an even better topic. Before writing, you must
examine the possible topics and supporting ideas. The goal is to narrow
your focus to specific instance. One way to narrow a broad topic is to
limit the time and place to a few minutes (or maybe a few hours) and to
particular place. For example, suppose you enjoy hunting, fishing, and
exploring in parks and forests, you also work on a construction crew.
You could tell many stories based on your experiences, but for a brief
narrative, you would limit yourself to one brief time in one specific
place. Ideally, you would select an episode that stands out in your mind
as dramatic or memorable.
In this paragraph, the student writer limited himself to one brief but
dramatic moment:
Last October, I was out in the woods with a work crew, cutting a
surveying line for a gas pipeline. We got to a clearing and decided to
take a break. Seconds after I found a tree to lean against, I heard the
crackle of underbrush breaking. I turned to look and saw a huge bear
racing right at me. I remembered that I was armed with only a machete
and a walkie-talkie. I nudged a guy near me. We stood there helpless
with our mouths open and our eyes the size of frying pans. The bear kept
coming until it was about fifteen feet away. Suddenly it saw us. I had
never before seen a bear with a surprised look on its face. Within a
second, it lurched back into the woods. But before we could breathe a
sigh of relief, another big bear came rushing toward us. When it got
within about seven feet and saw us, it also dashed into the woods. Our
hearts were pounding. When we recovered a little, we decided that the
next time we work in the woods; we should go better prepared for the
unexpected. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.112-113).
1.2 Selecting Details
When you have a workable topic in mind, some details will occur to you
immediately, and others will spring to mind as you brainstorm and write
your first drafts. You want to select the best details you can. That
means selecting relevant, vivid details. At times, you may think of a
dramatic moment, full of colorful details sure to grab your readers’
attention and hold their interest. If so, writing comes more easily,
except that you may not have a main idea until you think about the story
later. At other times, you may be writing simply to share an interesting
or amusing experience; your main idea may be implied. Besides using
details to make the scene vivid, you must provide the details readers
need in order to understand the situation. When you write you first
draft, you will put in some appropriate details; you may also end with
some irrelevant ones. As you revise, you must consider which details
really matter. You want to include details that help support your main
idea. The goal in selecting details sounds quite simple and obvious:
Tell the readers what they need to know, nothing more and nothing less.
Telling the readers more than they need to know slows them down. Telling
them less than they need to know leave them puzzling over the time,
place, or situation. By including enough details, but only appropriate
details, you will give readers the information they need.
In this paragraph, a student writer shares a dramatic and amusing
moment.
I am a firefighter with the city fire department. Last fall, I responded
to a fire call reported by a neighbor as “smoke in the house next door”.
Upon arrival, we donned our self contained breathing apparatus and
entered the house to do a primary search and rescue. We discovered that
a meat loaf was burning in the oven, causing the kitchen and much of the
house to fill with smoke. I quickly extinguished the meat loaf, then
focus on searching for possible victims. I rushed around, hoping I
wouldn’t find anyone home, but knowing I had to check everywhere to be
sure. Upon entering the bathroom, I came upon a lady soaking in the tub.
She was listening to loud music and apparently hadn’t heard a thing. I
guess I must have looked like Darth Vader, because she screamed and
threw a bottle of shampoo at me. Before entering the bathroom, I was
worrying about possible victims, but seeing her like that embarrassed me
so that I couldn’t concentrate on the job I needed to do. Everything
worked out well, and it is the experience I will never forget.
(Surmelian 65).
1.3 Organizing Information
Most of the time, narrative writing is organized chronologically,
meaning that events move forward in time. Sometimes, the writer changes
normal order by using flashbacks. The writer describes an earlier event,
disturbing the chronology but providing insight or explanation. Less
often, a writer may jump forward in time. Ordinarily, straightforward
chronology suits your stories, and it is easy for readers to follow. But
if you want to jump back or forward in time, you can, provided you make
sure your readers will understand what you are doing. There are some
cases, when the writers organize information so as to build suspense or
create a surprise ending. They withhold information so that the reader
is lured along, picking up clues as in a detective story. Sometimes,
writers give clues that lead to an amusing ending. Writers can use
narratives for their own sake or as part of other kinds of writing.
Narratives are among the most enjoyable kinds of writing – for readers
and writers. The principles are more or less self-evident: select a
narrow enough topics, select appropriate details, and organize so that
the reader can follow the sequence of events. (Karls J. / Szmanski
R.112-113)
In the following whimsical paragraph, the early statements entice
readers, arouse their curiosity, and keep them reading until they come
upon a surprise ending:
She was standing in the corner, the light reflecting off her soft brown
hair. Her eyes were beckoning for attention. As I approached her, a
gentleman asked me if I need some assistance, and so inquired about her.
He said “She is 10 percent off this evening”. After asking if she was
clean and in good health and being assured she was, I walked over to
her. I held her in my arms, and she gave me a kiss. She looked longingly
into my eyes, and I caressed her face. I asked how much she would cost,
and the man said, “$55″. I paid at once and took the cuddly rabbit home.
Rabbits are lovable and inexpensive pets.
Chapter Two. Major Functions of Narration
Narration has two major functions: informing (nonfiction) and
entertaining (fiction) by narrating.
2.1 Informing by Narrating
Narrating is telling a story. Usually, you think of telling a story, you
think of fiction – of novels and short stories. But fiction is only one
kind of narrative. There are narratives that are true – accounts of real
incidents and events. Because narration can be based on fact as well as
on imagination, it can be used to inform as well as to entertain. For
example, you can use narration to tell your reader about personal
experiences – your first day on a new job – or historical events – the
Apollo 13 space flight. You can use it to explain a process – how the
body digests food – or the way to do something – how to play chess. If
description is like a photograph, then narration is like a motion
picture. Narration follows events through time. (Kharatyan M. /
Vardanyan L.55)
There are singled out two types of narratives:
Personal narratives
Objective narratives
Personal Narratives
If you are going to write about something that happened to you, you will
probably write a first – person narrative. You will say things like “I
did this” and “We did that”. This is your experience, so you will
include your reactions to events, your feelings about them. But there is
an important limitation to this approach. To be consistent, you can
relate only what you know and feel or what others report to you – your
point of view is restricted to your own thoughts, feelings, and
observations. And since what happened has already occurred, you will
probably do you are telling in the past tense. This is what the actress
Shirley McLain has done in her autobiography. Here is an excerpt from it
describing how she commuted to dancing class while she was in high
school.
Rehearsals ended at midnight. I would rush for the bus, which it seemed,
was always either late or early, but never on schedule. I’d stumble
groggily from the bus an hour and a half later, and make my way down the
quiet street to a dark and silent house. My dinner usually was saltine
crackers smothered in ketchup and Tabasco and with them a quart of
ginger ale. I always ate standing up, and then I’d stagger to bed,
rarely before two o’clock…
It was a lonely life, for a teenager especially, but I had a purpose – a
good reason for being. And I learned something about myself that still
holds true: I cannot enjoy anything unless I work hard at it.
Sometimes, in a personal narrative, you will want to give the reader a
special feeling of immediacy. You will want your reader to have a
feeling of being there and experiencing what is happening along with
you. Often you can covey this feeling by using the present tense. Here
is a writer narrating an event that he experienced thirty years ago. But
he uses the present tense. The event was the Allied invasion of German –
occupied France. He was on one of the thousands of ships that crossed
the Channel from England to Normandy. (Brown 61-62)
It is three am, it is four am. We are six miles off shore… By now the
enemy must know what’s up. Bombers roar overhead. Flares drop inland. I
am so wrought up I do knee bends. A thousand youngsters are on board
almost as inexperienced as I. It is pathetic to hear them ask my
opinion. Everything’s fine I say. Now we wait three miles off shore. All
nine guns point at the beach.5: 30 am. There are yellow streaks in the
cloud cover. Now! The guns go off and our ship the Quincy bounces. Down
finds us on Germany’s doormat like the morning milk bottle.
2.2 Objective Narratives
When someone else – not you – is the centre of your narrative, you will
probably write in the third person. That is you will write “She did
this” and “They did that”. And since you are not the focus of the
narrative, your feelings and reactions will be kept in the background or
omitted entirely. This is what meant by objective narrative because
objective narrative does not require a restricted, first-person
viewpoint, you have an advantage. You can describe events going on in
several different places, even when you are not a witness to them. Also,
if you want to suggest a habitual action, an action that repeats itself,
you may want to use the present tense in an objective narration.
Here is part of an objective narrative. The writer is explaining how a
pioneer couple located their homestead on the Nebraska prairie in 1873.
George Cather hired a man with team and wagon, measured the
circumference of one of the back wheels, tied a rag on the rim so they
could more easily count the revolutions and started across the prairie.
George had a compass to keep him going in the right direction. His wife
sat in the back of the wagon, counted revolutions and computed mileage…
When they had according to calculations, reached their homestead, they
drove on a bit to what they judged to be the center of their property,
just to make sure they were really on their own land – and pitched a
tent for the night. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.115)
2.3 Anecdotes and Illustrations
Sometimes you’ll find that you need to support a general statement with
a specific example to fully express what you mean. One way you can do
this is with a brief story – an anecdote. Thus, you may include a small
– scale narrative, or perhaps several, in a larger composition.
Here is an anecdote told about Jackie Robinson after his retirement from
major league baseball. The writer uses it as an example to support his
general statement about the character and strength of Jackie Robinson
even in ill health.
He accepted the blindness and the limping with a courage born of beauty.
At an old – timers’ game last season in Los Angeles, someone threw a
baseball at him from the grandstands, ordering, “Hey, Robinson. Sign
this”. The unseen baseball struck his forehead. He signed it.
An anecdote is a vivid way to back up a general statement. But you can’t
count on always having one handy. And sometimes an anecdote just doesn’t
seem to fit in. Then, rather than have your reader hang in the air with
only a general statement, you should specify. You should back up your
statement with an illustration. For instance, it isn’t enough to state;
you need to go on from such a statement to illustrate what you mean, as
this writer has done. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.120)
It happens all around us … It happened to me personally. My mother was
from Poughkeepsie, New York, my mother from Marietta, Ohio, my
stepmother from Washington, Pennsylvania. I was born in Wheeling, West
Virginia, raised in Athens, Georgia, educated in Pottstown,
Pennsylvania, Ithaca, New York, and Baltimore, Maryland, and I know work
in Rabun Gap, Georgia. I’ve learned a lot from all of that, but still I
have no more idea of where I fit in space and time and community than if
I had just landed inside a meteor from Pluto. I make my home where I am.
2.4 Narrating a Process
Narratives which are directions and explanations not only answer the
questions “What happens? ” but also “How does it happen? ” These kinds
of narratives follow the movement of the process from one stage to the
next. You may narrate a how-to-do-it process in the first person or in
the second person. For example, you may write, “I begin with a few
simple breathing exercises” or “You should begin with a few simple
breathing exercises”. Using the second person has the advantage of
sounding as though you were talking directly to your reader, having a
face-to-face conversation.
But whether you choose the first or second person, you should “walk
through” the steps of your directions in your mind to make sure that
they are in the right order and that nothing has been left out. You may
even want to number the steps, as this writer has done in explaining how
to replace a fuse.
When the fuse blows, grope your way over to the flash-light and unplug
the offending appliance (usually the last one turned on before the
blow).
Get your spare fuses and open the fuse box door.
When you shine the flash on the fuses you will see one with its little
glass window all black and burned looking. Replace this fuse…
Numbering the steps this way works well with brief, fairly simple
directions, however, you may want to use transitional words like first,
then, next, and finally as you move from step to step in the process.
Also, you can use words like if, when and after to introduce the
conditions required from the next step, as in “After the paint has
dried, apply the second coat”. (Karls J. / Szmanski R.124)
You may feel it necessary to illustrate your directions with diagrams or
pictures. In that case, a word of warning. Do not depend on an
illustration to make the meaning of your words clear. Write so that your
reader can understand you even if there are not pictures or diagrams.
Make sure your directions can stand alone.
Not every explanation of a process is a how-to-do-it. Often, you will
need to tell how something happens – for example, how plants make food
from sunshine. Such explanations are usually told in the third person.
Sometimes, especially in explaining a process that is habitual, you will
want to use the present tense, as this writer has done.
In warm weather the local thunderstorm takes its place as an important
water producer. It comes chiefly as a result of temperature differences
on the earth’s surface. There may be many causes for these differences.
For example, the dark earth of a plowed field will absorb more heat than
the surrounding forest, and over this warm field the air will rise. As
it goes higher the moisture in the air begins to condense into water
droplets, producing the towering cumulus clouds whose contours outline
the movements of the rising air. Given the proper combination of heat,
moisture and subsequent chilling, the cloud will at last build up to
produce a thunderstorm.
Whether you are giving directions or providing an explanation, you may
need to do some research to be sure of your facts – of the exact
sequence of events, for example, and their cause-and-effect
relationship, if any. And we must not forget the audience. If you are
writing for someone completely unfamiliar with the process you are
explaining, do not leave out a step assuming your reader can figure it
out. Put it in, in the right place. You will also want to use the kind
of detail and vocabulary appropriate for your audience. (Kharatyan M. /
Vardanyan L.57)
2.5 Entertaining by Narrating
One major purpose of writing is to entertain – to bring insight,
surprise, or delight to the reader. Language as art – literature – can
inform and persuade, but its real purpose is to entertain, to bring
enjoyment by a simulating the imagination. Literature, like informative
and persuasive writing, stresses what is said. But literature also
places great emphasis on how something is said. It demands that the
writer find just the right words and express them in just the right
order.
Much of literature – stories, plays, and poetry – is fiction. It
includes facts about real people and actual experiences but really
depends upon the writer’s unique imagination. Fiction also uses special
devices, such as figurative language and dialogue. Some literature –
like the future article – is nonfiction. Such literature demands that
the writer present real-life situations in an interesting, entertaining
way. Whether fiction or nonfiction, each literary form is unique. But
all literary forms have the same basic goal – to entertain the reader
through the artistic, creative use of language.
2.6 The Story
Writing a good story either in first and third person means describing a
sequence of events in an interesting, lively way. A good story should
consist of:
An interesting beginning to catch the reader’s attention and make
him/her want to go on reading your story.
Good development in the main body. To develop your story you should use
appropriate tenses, especially past ones, e. g. Past Simple to describe
the main events, Past Continuous to set the scene, Past Perfect to talk
about events which happened before the main events, etc.
A good ending, if possible an unexpected or unpredictable one, to
surprise the reader and create a long-lasting impression of your peace.
(Evans V. /Dooley J.43-44)
There were stories even before there was writing. And they were
preserved orally and passed from one generation to the next. Even though
there was fiction, they sprang from the experiences of the people who
told them and listened to them. They reflected the people’s lives and
values. Over the years many of the stories were lost.
The term function is applied to stories that tell about invented
happening and people, not real ones. The problem with this term is that
for many people it implies that such stories deal in the false and the
untrue, that they have no connection with real life. But fiction, good
fiction, while not a factual record of real life, is grounded in real
life. Similarly, the stories you invent should grow out of your life –
your experience, observations, the people and things you value. This is
not to say that you can take an incident directly from life and record
it without change. You have to let your imagination reshape your
experiences. Change some details, add some detail, and subtract others.
Rework your ideas until your story says exactly what you want it to say.
What is a story? Without attempting a formal definition we may say that
a story is a coherent account of a significant emotional experience, or
a series of related experiences organized into a perfect whole. The
fiction writer re-creates human events, which might be external or
mental, imagined or real, and are emotional experiences for the people
involved in them. In more dramatic terms, a story is the imitation of an
action – an action, complete in itself. By a complete action – at least
in fiction – we do not necessarily mean the final answer to the
emotional problem or the resolution of a conflict. But the action should
be complete enough to reveal the underlying truth in the story, and what
is important is this revelation. When we look upon fiction, as an art of
revelations we may readily admit that the real story is the meaning of
the event.
The disorder of life may be part of some supreme order and in a novel
and short story, and in a play or poem too, it does become order: thus
the writer overcomes in a measure the imperfections and limitations of
mortality. The reader imaginatively enjoys these re-created events,
which may have actually happened, and in this sense a story is a
history, though not necessarily in its historic order. Or they might
happen, and it is the pretended history, though not an improbable one,
it should be convincing. Or the story may be a mixture of the two, the
actual and the possible, or the probable, as it so often even in the
most realistic fiction today. The perceptive writer searches for hidden
meaning in human events and builds the stories around them. This freedom
of imagination enjoyed by the writer is one of the characteristics of
fiction – as distinguished from history – but in a good story
imagination does no violence to reality and is based on reality. It is
not reckless invention. (Surmelian 21)
From disorder to order (plot), from multiplicity to unity, from the
particular to the general (theme), and back to the particular (through
concrete correlates), from matter to form – this, briefly, seems to be
the creative process in fiction. A good story represents a larger
reality than itself, if it is, for instance, the struggle of a man and
woman for happiness, or for sheer survival, the writer finds universal
meaning in their struggle, and the moment he does that he has a story.
The meaning of a story varies for each reader; it does not wholly lie in
the story itself. Probably no work of fiction is exactly the same story
for two readers. Each sees something different in it, what he himself is
capable of seeing. These variations in reader response may be so great
that a story becomes meaningless for one person, and highly significant
for another. (Surmelian 1-4)
There are two ways of writing a story: scene and summary. Scene is the
dramatic and summary the narrative method. Fiction is dramatic
narration, neither wholly scene nor wholly summary, but
scene-and-summary. If it were all scene, it would be a play, if all
summary, more of a synopsis than a story.
2.7 The Setting
A story must happen somewhere – it must have a setting. Perhaps your
idea for a story will start with an interesting place you know. What
stories of interesting incidents could occur in such a place? Perhaps,
instead, your story idea concerns some exciting action. In that case,
you will have to supply a setting completely appropriate to and
supportive of that action. In describing your setting, you should do so
as quickly and vividly as you can. Long-winded place descriptions tend
to clog the flow of a story and bore readers.
How you select the details will depend partly on your purpose. If you
are trying to convey the feeling that a city apartment is a wonderful
place to live, you might use such details as “a panoramic view of sleek
gray skyscrapers,” “the cheerful laughter of children playing below,”
“parsley and rosemary growing in small red pots in a sunny kitchen
window.” If the feeling you are trying to convey is that city apartments
are unpleasant, you might use such negative details as “a view of dirty
brick building,” “children wailing and screaming in the next apartment,”
“a small, cramped kitchen with a stained sink and a dripping faucet.”
Details of setting create a specific atmosphere in which the characters
and their actions appear convincing and realistic. (Karls J. / Szmanski
R.171-172)
2.8 The Plot
Something must happen in the story – a story must have a plot. But plot
is more than a string of events. For example, a new article about a
hotel fire deals with a string of events, but it has not plot because
there is no conflict. To have a plot there must be conflict, problems
that the characters must face and solve or fail to solve. Thus, the
sequence of events making up the plot must be planned and arranged to
present incidents that
introduce the conflict
build toward a climax – the point where a solution to the conflict is
unavoidable
present the solution or resolution, of the conflict
There are many types of conflict you could use as plot starters. One
type of conflict is the physical opposition of two characters – for
example, the cowboy hero in a shoot-out with the villain. Does the hero
win or lose? Why? On a more realistic level, you might have two students
as finalists for a scholarship that only one could win. What happens?
Another type of conflict involves making an important decision. For
example, a girl sees her best friend shoplifting – she must decide
between loyalty and honesty. What does she do? Or a boy’s has been
rejected by a group they both belong to, for a reason he consider
unfair. He must decide if he should support his friend at the risk of
also being rejected by the group.
Another kind of conflict involves solving a problem or overcoming a
handicap. For example, a boy whose parents are very poor needs to buy
new clothes for a job interview. Or a young athlete has been crippled in
an accident and must learn how to live a meaningful life. Real life is
full of conflicts that can form the bases for story plots. It provides
writers with a never-ending supply of material. You might also get ideas
for conflict from magazine and newspaper stories. But remember to keep
the conflict – and the plot – reasonably close to your own experience.
(Karls J. / Szmanski R.172-173)
2.9 The Scene
The scene is a specific act, a single event that occurs at a certain
time and place and lasts as long as there is no charge of place and no
break in the continuity of time. It is an incident acted out by the
characters, a single episode or situation, vivid and immediate. The
scene is the dramatic or plays element in fiction and a continuous of a
present action while it lasts. The scene reproduces the movement of
life, and life is action, motion. As a moving picture the scene is a
closer imitation of what of what happens in life than a summary of it
would be. The pictorial quality of a story and its authority depends
partly on scene, and the reader’s participation is greater in the scene.
Seeing is more realistic and convincing. It shows the action. The reader
can share an emotional experience more readily. We live “scenically”.
Life itself is dramatic in method. (Surmelian 1-2)
Ernest Hemingway in “The Sun Also Rises” introduces Robert Cohn with a
few paragraphs of summary, followed by a scene.
Robert Cohn was a member, through his father, of one of the richest
Jewish families in New York, and through his mother of one of the
oldest. At the military school where he prepped for Princeton, and
played a very good end on the football team, no one had made him
race-conscious. No one had ever made him feel he was a Jew, and hence
any different from anybody else, until he went to Princeton. He was a
nice boy, a friendly boy, and very shy, and it made him bitter. He took
it out in boxing, and he came out of Princeton with painful
self-consciousness and the flattened nose, and was married by the first
girl who was nice to him. He was married five years, had three children,
lost most of the fifty thousand dollars his father left him, the balance
of the estate having gone to his mother, hardened into a rather
unattractive mould under domestic unhappiness with a rich wife, and just
when he had made up his mind to leave his wife she left him and went off
with a miniature-painter… We had several fines after the coffee, and I
said I must be going. Cohn had been talking about the two of us going
off somewhere on a weekend trip. He wanted to get out of town and get in
a good walk. I suggested we fly to Strasbourg and walk up to Saint
Audile, or somewhere or other in Alsace. “I know a girl in Strasbourg
who can show us the town,” I said. Somebody kicked me under the table. I
thought it was accidental and went on: “She’s been there three years and
knows everything there is to know about the town. She’s a swell girl”.
(Surmelian 25)
I was kicked again under the table and, looking, saw Frances, Robert’s
lady, her chin lifting and her face hardening…
The scene reproduces realistically the very process of living, and each
individual scene gives us a close-up of a particular act. It is a single
specific moment in the plot, a single dramatic picture, and these single
acts together give us the movement of the whole action. The modern
tendency is to write the story as a series of single acts, scene by
scene, and to give a dramatic or cinematographic imitation of life. The
scene shows us the actors in action, but some narration is usually mixed
up in it, and we hear the narrator’s voice also as he describes the
gestures of the speakers and gives other stage directions which in a
play would guide and inform the actors and not form part of the
dialogue. In its pure form, with no stage directions, no commentary, the
scene eliminates the narrator’s voice and is, as in an acted play, only
character voice, and this heightens the illusion of reality. In the
scene the burden of narration is shifted to the characters themselves
and they do the work, they carry the ball.
In the scene the reader is taken through the process by which the result
is obtained. The scene gives the story recentness or immediacy. We
cannot narrate events that have not taken place, but the writer can give
the impression that it is happening now, as though for the first time,
and it is a unique event that means that you can start your story at a
specified time, then go back in time and set the previous scene using
the Past Perfect. Continue your story using normal past tenses, leading
your readers up to the specified time, then go on to the end of your
story. Using the flashback technique makes your story more exciting.
(Surmelian 5-10)
The scene shouldn’t be cluttered with information, comment, biography,
psychological analysis, description of the setting – the author
introducing in third person. At its best it is somewhat stark,
unfurnished. Ideally and by its nature the scene is action pure and
simple, and should be freed of those elements in the story that do not
quite belong to it, though necessary for the total picture. Much may be
smuggled into a scene, especially if it is a long one, in small doses, a
little there, and the reader will take it in with the action without
pausing to distinguish the narrator’s voice from the character voices.
There are few pure scenes in fiction, but the writer should clear the
decks before he gets to the action and make it carry, if possible, the
final punch. A good scene requires preparation and is the crest of the
waves in the story line.
2.10 The Summary
Not everything can, or need, be shown in fiction. The writer can also
tell a story. Summary needs a teller and this is admittedly a weakness,
it does not have the seemingly spontaneous movement of the scene, it is
not something acted out before the eyes of the reader, who is listening
to somebody tell him about it. But summary has its rightful place in the
structure of the story and can be extremely useful. Summary brings in
the author, or his alter ego, his spokesman, unless it is summary by
character, in which case it becomes dramatic. There is a change in voice
from scene to summary and from summary to scene, and the reader
unconsciously prefers a character voice, because it means more mimetic
writing. When the writer speaks through his own voice the all-important
element of mimesis is definitely less and the reader’s interest
decreases. Hearing is substituted for seeing and the ear is weaker than
the eye in the creation in mental images. Nevertheless, no matter how
scenic, a story requires a narrator. Omniscience may be eliminated, but
not the narrator’s voice. We still hear it.
Summary, unlike scene, does not individualize characters through their
actions and speech. It throws the whole burden of narration on the
shoulders of the author or his narrator. It gives us experience
secondhand. Scene is self-explanatory, in summary the narrator explains.
Summary tends to be abstract, discursive, with something fanciful and
“literary” clinging to it, in contrast to the concrete specific act of
the scene. Scene at its best has the impact of life. In it, the
characters are on their own; in summary they lack this independence. In
scene, the reader also is on his own, judging the action for himself and
interpreting it in his own way, in summary, the reader is guided by the
narrator, who speaks in his own voice, whether or not the reader is
directly addressed. Something is happening in the scene, in summary it
has already happened. (Surmelian 16-18)
Summary makes for distance. It does not give us a close-up of the action
as it occurs, it is along short. We no longer have the words spoken by
the characters to others or to themselves. Summary may reveal the
characters, describe their actions and thoughts and feelings, but it is
not a close re-creation as in the scene. It does not have the power of
dramatic imitation, and the reader is deprived of the pleasure of
viewing the event for himself. Summary lacks the vividness of the scene,
the immediacy, the recentness of the action acted out by the actors.
Yet summary does many important things in a story. It links the scenes
together and gives the story continuity and unity. If we consider scenes
the main building blocks, summaries are the cement in creative
construction. The summaries that link scenes also disconnect them.
Summary means a break in the action, a lapse in the continuity of time,
or a change of place, but if it does not happen too often, the story
keeps moving despite, and because of, these breaks. An extended summary,
as when the author inserts an essay or biography or a long description
in the story, would break the continuity of the action. It may be done
in a novel.
Conclusion
Having studied the recent achievements of the theory of narration, its
point of types and functions we have come to the following conclusions.
Narration is an act of telling a story. It is not just telling a story,
but it also telling a story of a sequence of real or fictional events –
which seems to be more natural activity for most people than, say,
giving directions or describing a scene. Narration is the kind of
writing that answers the question, “What happened? ”
Some narratives are based on actual experience, some are entirely
fictitious and others use a mixture of truth and fiction. Some
narratives are meant to amuse, others inform or convey a message to
readers.
The using techniques of narrative writing:
Select and refine the topic so that a main idea is stated clearly in the
topic sentence. In narratives, the main idea will probably deal with
conflict or emotional response to conflict.
Select appropriate, vivid supporting details. In narratives, the details
will tell about time, place, actions, and people’s motives and
reactions.
Organize the information so that readers will be able to understand and
follow the story. In narratives, chronological arrangement is normal.
Any shifts in time or place must be read clear to the reader.
There are two major functions of narrative writing: informing by
narrating (fiction) and informing by entertaining (non-fiction). In the
case of informing by narrating two types of narratives are singled out:
personal narratives and objective narratives. The story is used as a
main subtype, when applying informing by entertaining. The story
consists of the setting, the plot, the scene and the summary.
Bibliography
1. Brown and others. English. Boston, 1990
2. Evans V. / Dooley J. Course Book Enterprise. Longman, 2001
3. Karls J. / Szmanski R. The Writer’s Handbook, Laidlaw Brothers,
Publishers A Division of Doubleday and Company, Inc. USA, 1975
4. Kharatyan M. / Vardanyan L. Develop your writing skills. Yerevan,
2006
5. Soars S. / Headway L. Student’s Book, Advanced. Oxford, 1995
6. Surmelian L. Techniques of Fiction Writing Doubleday and Company,
Inc. Garden City. New York, 1988.
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