Learning the Narrative

                When thinking about narratives I am reminded of my grandmother. She has a gift for taking an everyday event, such as an afternoon walk, and turning it into a beautifully descriptive and captivating story. That’s the cool thing about narratives, they give you the opportunity to reflect on an event of meaning to you.

                While writing a narrative, the writer must keep in mind that although they probably know this story like the back of their hand, it is brand new to the reader. This gives you the opportunity to expand on the characters and setting of your story. Another important thing to pay attention to is the language and writing style used. I found this extremely interesting, the book says that your language is where your story gets its energy and texture. This made me consider even if using dialog, or a characters thoughts in the story, that it can change and shape the character completely.

                In the section “Trust your experiences,” it states that most people underestimate the quality of their own experiences. This is a good reminder to myself to not let that happen, but to think of all my experiences as if it’s the first time they happened. This is part of the beauty of narratives too, that you can take a story that might not seem so exciting and liven it up and tell it from a different perspective.

                I look forward to choosing an event and taking it step by step to bring it to life through words. It will be interesting to see how my perspective on my story might even change as I go through the writing process. Narratives are a great way to reflect back on events in your life, or to pass down stories to family and friends.