This is the first of a series of exercises designed by Melinda Morris and me for WordForge, our local writers’ group.
Introduction
This exercise focuses on narrative flow.
People use the term narrative flow to mean lots of different things. For the purpose of this exercise, we’re focused on a specific meaning: the connections among words, sentences, and paragraphs.
For more information, see the references section, below.
The Exercise
The prompt. Start your piece with this: I stepped out of my front door and walked down to the street. I looked around and saw everything I knew about the world
First draft. Write the first draft in your usual way. Write it as long as you need it to be.
Revise for narrative flow. Revise what you’ve written, focusing on one goal: Improve the narrative flow, the connections among words, sentences, and paragraphs. Rewrite sentences, restructure them, rearrange them so that each follows naturally from the one before and each leads naturally to the next. Add, remove, or change words. Reorganize paragraphs. And don’t limit yourself to these suggestions. Change anything you can think of to improve the narrative flow.
Maximum word count. 500 words.
Guidelines
Give yourself plenty of time for this exercise. Our writer’s group found it more challenging than we had expected, some requiring five or more hours of work, and as many as eight drafts. Each of the writers who did the exercise found the rewards to be worth the effort.
As you revise, notice the choices you make, and how each choice affects narrative flow. Notice what enhances narrative flow and what interferes. Make notes about what you notice.
When you’ve finished revising, consider:
- What challenges did you experience? What was difficult? How did you solve the problems?
- What surprised you? What meaning do you make of your surprise?
- What kinds of connections did you use in your writing? What kinds of connections can you identify in others’ writing? What effects do these connections create?
- How did focusing on narrative flow affect other elements of your writing?
Discuss what you’ve learned with other people who have completed the exercise. Use these guidelines to guide the conversation.
References
Elisabeth George describes narrative flow in her marvelous book Write Away. The relevant section, available online via Google books, runs from bottom of page 159 through the middle of page 162. Particularly instructive is the excerpt from one of George’s novels, and her analysis of the connections from one paragraph to the next.
In “Creating Narrative Flow,” Sam Reeves describes one way to achieve narrative flow:
One sentence introduces part of a picture that baits the reader into subconsciously asking a question about the idea or action. The writer, in turn, answers that question in the next sentence while simultaneously expanding information that prompts the reader into asking additional questions. And then the process repeats itself.
Reeves also shows a nice example of how he used this technique to improve the narrative flow of a bumpy paragraph.
Invitation
Melinda and I would love to know how you use this exercise and what you learn from it.
If you have questions, suggestions, or anything else you’d like to say, please comment.