Planning Narratives
Plan narrative writing by considering how authors have developed characters and settings, drawing on techniques observed in texts read, heard, or performed
What a learner can do afterwards
- Identify specific authorial techniques for character development from a mentor text
- Plan a character using techniques such as showing through action borrowed from a studied author
- Analyse how an author builds setting and apply similar techniques in planning own narrative
1 · Read
Before authors write a story, they plan so the story holds together and the reader wants to keep reading. They think about what their character is like and where the story happens. You can plan the same way, by noticing what authors already do in books, shows, or plays you know. Name the technique exactly, and borrow the technique, not the exact words.
Writers show a feeling through what a character does. A student used that move to plan a scared character: shaking hands, a dropped ball, and refusing to look up. Authors also build settings with sounds, smells, and textures you can sense.
Keep the book you are studying nearby while you plan. Name the technique exactly, like 'shows fear through shaking hands,' instead of just saying the author was good at writing.
Look at how authors build character and setting, then plan your own story using the same techniques.
Rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.