Narrative & Description

Chapter 8 of The Confident Writer is titled "Narration," but deals with description within the chapter. I completely agree with this set-up, as I personally think it's absurd to ask a student to write a "Narrative" without also talking about description.

We spent the first few minutes of class discussing what a "narrative" is, what "dialogue" is and how it can strengthen a narrative, and sensory details (details invoking the five senses--although I include the emotions in this as well). I asked students to write down two or three events in their lives that they thought might make good stories. Then, to illustrate "significance" (why a story matters, both to the writer and to her audience), I asked each student to consider why the story is important.

In my 10:00am section, one student's example was getting lost in a local strip mall. I prodded him for more detail, asking how old he was when this happened (six years old), where he went (an arcade), how he felt (terrified) and if he learned anything from the experience (yes: do not wander away from his mom!). As a class, we then agreed that this story had "significance," as we could all relate to having lost our parents at some point as children.

We continued to use his story while we discussed point-of-view. Now, when I teach point-of-view, I do not just discuss first and third person points-of-view; I also point out that even in the first person, we are able to choose a "voice." For example, the student who got lost could tell his story in the first person as himself now, an eighteen-year-old young man, or as a frightened six-year-old boy.

I then opened a Conceptual Photography site and asked the class as a whole to pick an image. My 10:00am class was uncharacteristically quiet, so I chose for it, but my 1:00pm class was very vocal about its choice.

10:00am

"Toksik Love" by George Granidaru.

1:00pm

"Mr. Finger Plays Dead" by Olivia House.

The students got into groups and then had to develop a narrative to go along with the photo, including as many sensory details as possible. All the groups shared their narratives before the end of class. Not every group actually used sensory details, and some of the narratives were, shall we say, sparse, but I think the point sunk in fairly well. In order to make them include the auditory sense, I tasked all the students with finding a song they thought would be a good soundtrack for the image(s). They will post a link to a file or video in their blogs and we'll listen to some in class on Friday.

Some of the best feedback I've had from students thus far this semester:

"This class goes by so fast!" (Good! That means you aren't bored!)
"Professor, I really enjoy your class." (This warms my heart...)