Everyone who can write, can also tell a story. However, not everyone knows how to do that properly. The most interesting story can bore the reader if it’s not told correctly, just like the tale of an apparently banal event can fascinate them, when certain basic narratology techniques are used.
When we read a story or a novel that moves us, we tend to think: “Wow, it doesn’t seem so difficult, I’m going to write my own fictional story”. However, even if it seems like an easy task at first sight, it’s quite easy to ignore all the techniques that lay behind the text and that the author has wisely used to cause that effect on us.
In this manual, I teach you the main techniques of narrative theory so you can considerably enhance the quality of your fictional stories, in a way that they capture the reader’s attention from beginning to end.
In the first part we’ll see the two main strategies when telling your story, as well as the three main elements to build the scenes in your narrative. In the second part we'll focus on the narrative point of view, meaning, the options there are when answering the question «who’s telling the story?». In the third section we’ll analyze everything concerning the timing of the story; we’ll see techniques to give the impression of speed in fast-paced scenes, or, on the other hand, strategies to slow down the rhythm of the story in those scenes that require it. In the fourth chapter we’ll see some tricks to hook the reader by creating intrigue and suspense in the story, as well as a very effective technique to conceive interesting and attractive stories that you can start working with. The fifth part of this book is dedicated to identifying some of the common mistakes when narrating a story. Finally, in the “Annexes” section, I share the valuable advice of three of the most famous writers of our time: Anton Chéjov, Ernest Hemingway and Horacio Quiroga.
It’s worth mentioning that some of these techniques are not only useful for better writing, you can also apply them to your everyday conversation so that your chats gain interest and attractiveness. After all, the human being is essentially a narrator. Applying these narrative techniques to your writing as to your conversation, you’ll get the attention of readers and listeners in general.
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