Questions tagged [narrative]
A narrative is an account of events. This tag should be used for anything related to story-telling, including elements and principles or structure.
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How to avoid wasting reader investment with a thematically disappointing ending?
I'm drafting a story around chasing dreams and facing the possibility of said dreams being a lie in the end. For this, I have a main character doggedly chasing a goal that's extremely hard to achieve ...
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Ramifications of having each chapter be a different 'episode' in a novel?
I was thinking about how readers would feel about reading an episodic story that instead of having a different story per book, having a different story per chapter. Not an anthology, but like same MCs,...
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How to handle narrative perspective in a musical text
I am writing the text of a significant musical work that will be sung by a chorus. I will also be composing the music, but this question is specific to the lyrics that the chorus will sing. Note that ...
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A poker game description that does not feel gimmicky
I'm writing a scene in which four characters play a high-stakes poker game. So far my narrator has been an omniscient third person, who just does not wish to enter into the characters' heads.
I ...
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Which option would best fit my episodic series?
So I have this base idea of this story about a vampiric, tentacled monster(s) that put people into a dreamworld/illusion/matrix called Reveries so they can feed on their blood. It also follows a man ...
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Portraying synesthesia in prose
How can an author effectively portray a character with synesthesia, where their sensory perceptions are intertwined, without confusing the reader or disrupting the narrative flow? What techniques and ...
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Narrative arc in erotica?
Usually a story will have a narrative arc of increasing suspense: obstacles become more and more difficult to overcome, setbacks more painful, complications more confusing, the stakes are raised ...
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Is it necessary to add "had" in past tense narration when it's clear we're talking about the past?
Example:
Standing in front of the sliding glass door, he began to sweat. The
last time he had stepped into a convenience store was a year ago.
This is past tense narration. The bolded part is ...
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How to write an event in a story with a memory gap (Repressed memory)?
Scenario: The protagonist goes to a party, gets drugged, and is assaulted. This event is not in the characters history. It happens during the course of the story.
Perspective: First Person
Genre: ...
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How to plot a memoir?
I have a fair amount of material (incidents, characters, places) that would perhaps amount to a memoir or Bildungsroman. But readers, including myself, seem most attracted to narratives with a plot. ...
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How to Write an Involuntary Secret Reveal
I am trying to have my character's secret discovered, they are currently in a hospital, and hiding injuries under their clothes, a couple of which have reopened. They are underaged so they are at ...
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Are there any theories as to what makes a story's premise good or compelling?
John Truby, in Anatomy of Story, says you shouldn't write a story that doesn't have an exciting premise.
But what makes a premise good, bad, boring, compelling, or exciting?
This is what Truby says ...
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'This time' vs 'that time' in past tense narrative
I am writing a past-tense personal narrative and I'm having a hard time distinguishing which term would be best in this instance. Quote for context:
My parents always told me not to lie because lying ...
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What counts as exposition dump and is it possible to do exposition dumps without affecting pacing?
One effective technique I was told to use is to integrate the exposition within the narrative, rather than presenting it as a separate block of information. This can be accomplished through various ...
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How/when do you reveal a big secret to the reader using first person or third person viewpoint?
How and more importantly when do you reveal a major secret about the character?
My character is a mythical species, highly valuable for both intel and magical properties, however she is humanoid and ...
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How do you show the audience that the 3rd person limited narrator is deluded/wrong?
My character's home, both her family and society, are toxic, but in a way that she doesn't realise. They manipulate and essentially brainwash the inhabitants. It's not an evil place just a little ...
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How to make a fiction more visualizable by readers?
I was reading through Agatha Christie's novels and I found that she literally made me visualize everything in the plot.
How does she do that?
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How do I keep a villain's menace after they've suffered so many defeats?
I've noticed in many long-running stories that it's common to have a villain who's a genuine menace to the heroes become impossible to take seriously after they've gotten defeated or died so many ...
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I need help writing a scene or experience about air being knocked out of you
How would you write a scene of someone trying to breath again after getting the wind knocked out of them?
I am trying to describe the experience and how your body reacts physically while your brain ...
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How do I write a screenplay with three protagonists?
I'm an aspiring screenwriter. I'm in the process of writing my third script. But I'm stuck in a quandary. I don't know how to effectively write a screenplay with three protagonists!
The story revolves ...
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Can I write a story based in a world without humans?
I have this world I'm building that I want to write a story on, but there's absolutely nothing human in the world.
It's entirely built around elemental creatures including the protagonist.
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How do I maintain interesting prose outside of the introduction/hook when I start getting into my anecdotes?
This is a personal narrative where I want to narrate my creative side. I start off strong with figurative language, descriptions, and metaphors. But as I get into my anecdote and what I learned from ...
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Language of other countries
I write the little girl calls her grandmother Bunica Rose. The father calls her Bunica Rose also. In the narrative, I use the words, Grandmother Rose. Is this appropriate to do?Will my reading get ...
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Is a self-introduction of the main character speaking to the reader appropriate to start a novel?
I'm authoring a horror/corruption/murder novel. The book starts off with the Main Character telling the reader about who he is and his physical appearance (now in his 60s), how he got to be ...
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Should I flesh out the start of my fictional story?
The plot I’m thinking of goes from very normal, with fleshed out characters, to surreal towards the end. I want to wrap it around to have strange foreshadowing at the very beginning of the book to ...
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When does a story benefit from or is made better by not having a central theme?
On online forums, I often see the argument that not every story needs a theme. This is the flip side version of the question of when a story needs a theme. I felt that those arguing that some stories ...
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How to include multiple rare events in a story without it feeling contrived?
I'm working on a detailed plot outline for a fantasy story that revolves around three main characters, Liana, Celia, and Ander. Here's a brief overview:
Celia suffers from a condition called "...
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I'm trying to find enough sensory description for my book
How do I describe when a person falls unconscious with enough sensory details?
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How to pad the pages in a murder mystery
I have arrived at a plot point that I would rather be later. If one were to say that a page is 250 words, then the murderer has scapegoated someone else at page 8. As far as I can recall, Agatha ...
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What if the narrator forgets the names of the characters?
My writing project involves flashbacks and explanations that may already be hard to follow to the reader. But the most important point in it, is that in the end, no one remembers what ever happened. ...
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What is the proper formatting of type and quote marks when the main character talks aloud to himself, to someone else, or has internal dialogue?
I am authoring a novel. The main character interacts with others in oral conversation and will also have internal dialogue with himself, during the same conversation. Or he will talk aloud to an ...
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What is the name for a narrative structure where the story starts with an exposition or summary before recounting the plot in more detail?
I can't find the name for this online and I am an engineer, so don't socialise with people that would know.
Consider the Aeneid, which begins:
Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And ...
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What is the difference between the 5-Act structure and the 6-Act structure of storytelling?
There is a YouTube channel called 6-Act Structure, which I will be citing as a reference, run by an Marshall Dotson who wrote The Story Structure Secret: Actions and Goals. The author argues in favor ...
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Is 'infodumping' the important parts of a story via an in-universe lesson in school/documentary/the news/other educational medium bad storytelling?
I have done this twice at the beginning of 2 of my stories (IIRC.) The first was a lecture on the Dust Dragon, an extinct creature in this world. The second was a schoolteacher giving a lesson on the ...
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How can I have characters have very little to no communications with outside world without it sounding too contrived?
This will be like 1 of 3 posts about this story.
I am writing (or plan to at least) a story about these folks that are shrunk and sent out to make 'first' contact with a civilization of cockroaches. ...
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Is omniscient observer POV really dead?
I am in the midst of reworking my latest manuscript into a shape that someone might be inclined to publish. To help me along I hired a professional editor and writer, whose comments and suggestions, ...
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Novel begins with a number of chapters concerning the father of the main character, but does not include the main character
Table of Contents:
Prologue
24 Years Ago: Omissions of the Past
A number of chapters of backstory (life) of father of main character, but son, who is the main character for rest of book is not in it, ...
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Making the story's change in tone feel natural
I am writing an epic fantasy story for a videogame I will make in the future. In the first half, it has a lot of edgy and dark humor, but the tone feels arcadey when it comes to killing random npcs.
...
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Should I make the gender of the narrator more obvious?
This is the opening of a short story I'm writing:
1996 was the year I became obsessed with animal suicide. I guess you
can say it became my reason to live—the sun in my sky, the very air I
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I want to write a short story without naming the places the characters visit
How can I write a short story without naming the places characters visit?
Example: If the main character visits a restaurant then I want to show it to the the reader without naming the restaurant.
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When your main character is a misogynist or a racist, how do you tell your readers that you don't subscribe to his racist views by merely showing?
When your main character is a misogynist or a racist, how do you tell your readers that you don't subscribe to his racist views by merely showing? The only way to kinda do this in my opinion is to ...
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Types of stories across cultures?
After watching some of Dan Brown's masterclass on thriller storytelling, it paints a narrow view on what generally a good story is to be. It must have a singular sentence to describe the plot, and ...
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How can we use ChatGPT to write stories? [closed]
If I have an idea for the plot of the story, what is the best way that I can use ChatGPT to make it write stories for me?
Edit. To everyone who has spent time answering with few assumptions (including ...
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What determines the value or worthiness of an autobiography?
To make an otherwise long winded story short, I have an uncommon tale of survivorship.
Context: From child runaway, to kidnapping victim, to an escape ten years, ten months, and 23 days later.
For the ...
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When writing a story with a fragmented narrative, do you need story beats?
When writing a story with a fragmented narrative, do you need story beats? I was told that writing a story using fragmented narratives is like writing several short stories, so I was wondering if ...
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How do I balance a strong narrative and the option of multiple choices?
I am currently writing a story for an RPG I will make. For this RPG, it is supposed to be a sandbox and open-world game. It also gives the player multiple choices and pathways as they play, giving it ...
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Is the environment in a video game part of the narrative?
Is the environment in a video game part of the narrative? The Elden Ring won the award for the best narrative in the Game Awards Show, and some people were outraged, because most of the storytelling ...
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How do you write alternative endings to a novel, comics or movies?
How do you write alternative endings to a novel, comics or movies? Video games do this, because they allow players to take decisions, but movies, comics and novels don't really allow for that, so ...
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How do you introduce several metanarratives into a story, especially conflicting ones?
How do you introduce several metanarratives into a story, especially conflicting ones?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYdwAulpWqw
I watched this video and then I was wondering how to add the two ...
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How do I blur the line between dream and reality?
I intend to write a science fantasy where dream world plays as important role as reality. The dream world stated has quite a distinct feel from the real world, and it is integral to the plot.
The ...
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