A recurring pattern in this blog series seems to be that we do a lot of things instinctively when we are learning how to write fiction, without having a clear understanding of what they are and how they work. Instinct will only carry you so far. It is my hope that writers reading about my own trials and errors will be able to add information to instinct and take greater control of their writing process.
In no facet of writing is this more prevalent than the Modes of Narration. Let’s start by laying down some definitions to make this term less jargony.
A narrative is any account of connected events, presented to a reader or listener in a sequence of written or spoken words. You can use narrative synonymously with “story.”
So far so good.
The definition of modes of narration is a little more tricky. The basic definition is “the methods writers use to tell a story.” Well, that could be so many things that it’s basically a throw-away definition. What are the methods?
If you do a Google search on the term, you’ll find that there are as many differences of opinion on this little phrase as there are writing blogs. So, allow me to add my opinion to the chaos.
When I talk about modes of narration, I’m going to call them “methods of storytelling,” because “modes of narration” sounds like a hold-over from the times when only the privileged were allowed an education, and they came up with fancy words to deter the rif-raf. Let’s just call it what it is, shall we?
In my experience of writing over the last couple decades, I’ve encountered four methods of telling a story: Exposition, Description, Action and Dialog. Every word you write will fall into one of these four categories. I’ll define them today, and then talk about what I’ve learned about using each one over the next four days.
1. Exposition: According to the dictionary, one of the meanings of exposition is “the act of explaining something : clear explanation.” And that is what exposition does in fiction, it clarifies and explains the things that are demonstrated by the other methods of storytelling.Exposition is the “telling” in storytelling. Carefully used, it is crucial to the reader understanding and appreciating the story. Consider this passage from Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice:
“And so I came to Buckkeep, sole child and bastard of the man I’d never know. If all I’d ever done was to be born and discovered, I would have left a mark across all the land for all time. I grew up fatherless and motherless in a court where all recognized me as a catalyst. And a catalyst I became.”
This entire paragraph is exposition. It comes at the end of the first chapter, where the narrator, a prince’s bastard, is abandoned by his mother’s family and left on the royal family’s doorstep. All of that is shown, with some exposition here and there, but the summary at the end of the chapter is essential both to reader understanding, and to convey that something larger is at work here than the abandonment of one royal bastard.
2. Description: This one is a little easier to grasp than exposition. If you are familiar with the parts of speech, it is easy to identify description simply by the adjectives. Here is another passage from the first chapter of Assassin’s Apprentice, with the description bolded:
“One last time she called. I can still hear the words perfectly, the desperation in a voice that now would sound young to my ears. “Father, please, I beg you!” A tremor shook the hand that gripped mine, but whether of anger or some other emotion, I shall never know. As swift as a black crow seizes a bit of dropped bread, the old man stooped and snatched up a frozen chunk of dirty ice.”
3. Action: One of the things you might notice in the paragraph above is that nearly every time Hobb uses description, she also uses action. Here is the same paragraph with the action bolded instead:
“One last time she called. I can still hear the words perfectly, the desperation in a voice that now would sound young to my ears. “Father, please, I beg you!” A tremor shook the hand that gripped mine, but whether of anger or some other emotion, I shall never know. As swift as a black crow seizes a bit of dropped bread, the old man stooped and snatched up a frozen chunk of dirty ice.”
The action is nearly indistinguishable from the description, and in several places they overlap. This is because Hobb is an excellent writer. She doesn’t drag down her story with paragraphs of description, but rather combines description with action to keep the story moving forward in every single sentence.
4. Dialog: The final method of storytelling is dialog. It is the easiest to identify and probably the very hardest to do well. Here’s another passage from Assassin’s Apprentice:
“‘Who’d Chivalry get him on?’ a man at the other end of the table asked incautiously.
Burrich swung his gaze to the man as he set his mug down. For a moment he didn’t speak, and I sensed that silence hovering again. ‘I’d say it was Prince Chivalry’s business who the mother was, and not for kitchen talk,’ Burrich said mildly.
‘Even so, even so,’ the guard agreed abruptly, and Jason nodded like courting bird in agreement. Young as I was, I still wondered what kind of man this was who, with one leg bandaged, could quell a room full of rough men with a look or a word.
‘Boy doesn’t have a name,’ Jason volunteered into the silence. ‘Just goes by “boy”.’
This statement seemed to put everyone, even Burrich, at a loss for words.”
While this brief exchange reveals volumes about character, there is one important thing it doesn’t do, and that is dump information directly into the dialog. A less experience writer (me, several years ago) might have seen the spoken question at the beginning as an opportunity to answer that question through dialog. Perhaps another guard would have chimed in with his own gossip about it. But Hobb doesn’t take that bait, and what we do learn about the characters in this scene, particularly Burrich, is far more important than anything we might have learned about the mother.
So that’s the quick and dirty version of my four methods of storytelling. Every word you write will be either exposition, description, action or dialog. The next step: learning how to use these four tools in the right amounts in your story. It’s kind of like mixing colors. Too much yellow, you get chartreuse. Too much blue, you get teal.
Tomorrow: 101 TIWIK #6: Exposition: Exposing the Show Don’t Tell Myth
This post is part of a series of 101 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Wrote My First Book. Start reading the series at the beginning.
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