Guidelines to Execute a Narrative

A narrative is different to write in comparison to other forms of writing. A narrative tells a story, and as stated in the Norton Field Guide, "A good narrative can lend support to most kinds of writing." In essence, there really isn't a wrong way to write a narrative just as long as certain guidelines and grammatical rules are followed. These guidelines include being descriptive and using as much detail within reason, properly using dialogue, and telling your story in some type of chronological order.

The book talks about how to include detail in your paper. They mention that it should cause the reader to have images in their head, but not to be over done to where they feel overwhelmed and they story loses its main focus. As far as detail, it's a balancing act to get just the right amount. They also talk about using dialogue, which is still confusing to some people. When writing using dialogue, a new paragraph has to be started at the beginning of every new person talking. Their dialogue also has to be closed with quotations and proper punctuation. To have an easy to read narrative, the reader must be able to follow the sequence in which it is written. The sequence can be chronological or it can even start from the end and work its way back.

Personally, I see a narrative as a simple paper to write. As long as you have a good topic that is easy to write about, the paper should fall into place. One thing that I really like about narratives is that they tend to give a lot of freedom as to how the writer can write it. As long as the paper is told using a descriptive story with detail, proper dialogue, and in some type of chronological order, the narrative won't have many flaws left.