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    The Five Narrative Modes

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    Shai Reen
    The document discusses the five narrative modes used in novels and stories: dialogue, thought, action, description, and exposition. It describes dialogue and thought as the largest "bins" used to reveal character, build tension, and advance the story. Action is likened to the "big-block V8 engine" that drives the narrative forward while revealing character. Description sets the mood through sensory images and should be brief. Exposition refers to narrator details about characters and is best used for incidental information to avoid telling instead of showing. Examples are provided to illustrate each narrative mode.

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    The Five Narrative Modes

    Uploaded by

    Shai Reen
    33 views1 page
    The document discusses the five narrative modes used in novels and stories: dialogue, thought, action, description, and exposition. It describes dialogue and thought as the largest "bins" used to reveal character, build tension, and advance the story. Action is likened to the "big-block V8 engine" that drives the narrative forward while revealing character. Description sets the mood through sensory images and should be brief. Exposition refers to narrator details about characters and is best used for incidental information to avoid telling instead of showing. Examples are provided to illustrate each narrative mode.

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    The document discusses the five narrative modes used in novels and stories: dialogue, thought, action, description, and exposition. It describes dialogue and thought as the largest "bins" used to reveal character, build tension, and advance the story. Action is likened to the "big-block V8 engine" that drives the narrative forward while revealing character. Description sets the mood through sensory images and should be brief. Exposition refers to narrator details about characters and is best used for incidental information to avoid telling instead of showing. Examples are provided to illustrate each narrative mode.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    33 views1 page

    The Five Narrative Modes

    Uploaded by

    Shai Reen
    The document discusses the five narrative modes used in novels and stories: dialogue, thought, action, description, and exposition. It describes dialogue and thought as the largest "bins" used to reveal character, build tension, and advance the story. Action is likened to the "big-block V8 engine" that drives the narrative forward while revealing character. Description sets the mood through sensory images and should be brief. Exposition refers to narrator details about characters and is best used for incidental information to avoid telling instead of showing. Examples are provided to illustrate each narrative mode.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    The Five Narrative Modes

    Every novel or story consists of five parts, narrative modes if you prefer the term. They are dialogue, thought, action,
    description and exposition. I like to think of these parts as storage bins, with dialogue, thought and action being the
    largest bins, and description and exposition being the smallest. Every tool you use to write – all that figurative stuff,
    all those thematic elements – goes into these bins, and the stronger your bins are, that is, the better you understand
    them, the more weight they can hold.
    Dialogue and Thought
    Dialogue and thought serve three purposes: first, they reveal something about the character. Second, they build
    tension. Third, they help advance the story. The difference between the two is that dialogue is spoken aloud, while
    thought is internal monologue. Often, the two can play off each other to create interesting effects.
    For instance, in a conversation between John and girlfriend Marie, John might say—
    “I can’t wait to see you at dinner.”
    So I can rip the tongue out of that pretty little mouth of yours, he thought.
    Action
    Action is that big-block V8 engine under the hood of your story. This is not to say that every scene need be
    explosive, but action is the driving force of your narrative, used not only to advance the story, but also to reveal
    information about your characters.
    For example, John reached underneath his car seat and felt around for the butcher knife. It was still there, ready and
    waiting.
    John is doing something, however minor, and we learn a little about his motives while moving the story forward.
    Description
    Description is all those deep sensory images you want your reader to experience. At its best, it should invoke an
    emotional response by setting the mood of your story. One of the cardinal rules when working with description is not
    to over describe. Easier said then done, I know, but always remember that your story comes first, and if your
    description is not serving the story, then it’s got to go.
    Let’s check back with our pal Johnny, who has his heart set on murdering Marie after dinner. To create the proper
    mood you might describe the scene at the restaurant something like:
    He was assaulted by the smells of burnt onions and body odor as he entered. The place was bursting with people
    wanting to “feel like family,” as the slogan on TV suggests, and the floor was sticky with spilled drinks from the
    children scurrying around like an infestation, waiting to be pressed into the ground by a careless foot.
    Not something I would open my wallet for, but you can see the description is brief and there is a definite mood
    created here, one that is obviously not happy.
    Exposition
    Exposition is the most dangerous of the narrative modes. It refers to the details the narrator gives about a character.
    This can be sometimes a flashback or flashforward, or just a piece of background information or commentary. The
    problem with exposition is that readers like to draw their own conclusions about the characters, and exposition,
    because of its very nature, forces you to tell instead of show. A good rule is to limit exposition to incidental
    information, like a character’s age, or the fact that the character prefers apples to oranges, or, in good ol’ Johnny’s
    case …
    To dash out this bitch’s brains while the family next to him stuffed yet another bowl of the free salad and bread into
    their faces. Now that would make him smile.
    So now that you have your storage bins ready, go forth and fill them up with whatever you want. Me? Looks like I’ll
    be busy filling mine up with poor Marie’s body parts.

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