The Sunday News
Charles Dube
LEARNERS need to pay equal attention to all parts of the syllabus. This week’s issue is a follow up to the previous ones where we looked at the writing of paragraphs and narrative compositions. For learners to pass the English Language examination they should do well in all parts starting with the free composition, situational or guided essays through to comprehension. Enough practice should be given in all the stated parts. All this might appear as repetition, but it is necessary repetition.
Remember we said for you to write a good composition, you start with a good introduction where you introduce the overall point that your essay is making and do so clearly. The introduction gives a brief answer to the question while the rest of the essay expands on your answer and gives evidence to it. Many learners as stated before prefer writing narrative compositions to other types of essays.
They opt for narratives in the belief that they are generally easy and they relate stories from the beginning to the end without adding any creativity to them. They forget that narrative compositions are more than just relating events. Short story writing is found in this category. Narrative writing gives a learner a chance to let his or her imagination run wild, learners should use what they know to get ideas. The starting point for a piece of narrative could be a title or the first or last sentence of the story.
You are likely to find narrative composition titles reading as follows: Food, Write a story which begins with some words or write a story which ends with something like, “I will never trust you again!” Learners are encouraged about something they are interested in. The advantage with this is that if you already know a lot of stuff about it, your story will be more convincing and it will be easier to give lots of detail. Write about something that has happened to you, it will be easier for you, and your story will seem more life-like and genuine to the reader.
If you won a national essay writing competition, write about that. Get your story straight before you start writing. It is dangerous to get attracted to a topic and then start writing on it because you might get stuck along the way having spent considerable time on it. Restarting will result in mediocre work. Think before plunging into writing as you might drown. If time permits you can write yourself a brief synopsis of your story — a breakdown of the plot. Plot is story itself.
Plot is a series of related events, each event connected to the next, like links in a chain. “Each event in a plot ‘hooks’ our curiosity and pulls us forward to the next event.” This is a key quality in story writing whereby each event in a story draws the curiosity of the reader and makes her or him to want to read on. You do not want to stop reading the story before you get to the end. Start by introducing your key characters in a story. But remember you should not have too many characters as they tend to affect the flow of the story and confuse readers.
Show what your characters want to achieve and what obstacles stand in their way. A general observation is that a lot of stories are about conflict or the struggle to achieve something. Characters have different motives — they have to compete or clash to get what they want. In the build-up of your story, think about what is going to happen, and how will you build up to the climax (peak, crux) of your story? To achieve this, give your characters a challenge. There has to be uncertainty or an element of risk to make it exciting.
The climax should come in now. The main event or turning point should happen now. For your story to be interesting, you need to build up the suspense and keep readers guessing up until the point of the climax. Failure to do this will lead to a boring story. Be sure that your conclusion makes some kind of point. Avoid an abrupt end to your story. Expert advice says, you could give the story a moral, or end it with an unexpected twist.
Experience shows that such endings give your story a different dimension from the rest of the learners. Make sure that all you write is relevant to the topic. A story that runs from the beginning to the end without the stated elements and dialogue will be just flat and unworthy of good marks.
The gist of the matter is that you keep your stories focused and to the point, no room for rambling. Almost all narratives need characters. Show that you understand what makes them tick. Think about a character’s thoughts and feelings. One writer says a good story gets inside the characters’ heads. Use your own thoughts and feelings to be sure of what a character’s thoughts and feelings are. In this case you are writing from your own view point.
Try not to be shy about expressing emotion, warmth or pain. If you feel strongly about something, let it come across in your writing — it will probably make your piece a lot more powerful. Make the important parts really stand out. Give details and try to vary your style and vocabulary. For example, instead of just saying that a character is fiery, explain why they are like that and how other people react to them. As indicated earlier, make sure you write a good ending to your narrative.
You could aim for the unexpected by finishing your story with a twist. It should not be too much exaggerated — drop some hints earlier on in the plot, then you can refer back to them later. The very last line in your narrative is important. It needs to be written clearly, so that it sums up the story for the reader and leaves them satisfied. Learners, you will not have wasted your valuable time to read this article and extract suggestions for better narrative writing so as to score good grades in the examinations.
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