Author: Shelley-Ann

Why We Need Conflict 1

Narrative writing must have conflict.

When I first had to explain that concept about narrative writing, I didn’t really understand why it wasn’t obvious. But after the third, fourth, and fifth time I had to explain it, I realized there was an issue here. Why do young writers have such a challenge with conflict in narrative essays? The short answer is that they don’t fully understand what conflict is.

Here’s a slightly longer answer. Young writers have a limited understanding of conflict. To them, conflict is a fight or something exploding or anything involving pain and carnage. I blame it on the movies and computer games, but this isn’t really the issue that causes the problem they have with conflict. The main problem with young writers understanding conflict is that they think conflict is bad. In their short lives, conflict is something they want to avoid. Conflict is hurtful, painful, and not what makes life fulfilling or happy. In fact, it’s the opposite – conflict is a problem that makes life unhappy.

So, those who include conflict in their narrative have challenges reconciling the conflict in their climax and showing the value in the resolution. They can’t really see the connection between the conflict and their lessons learned. And others simply avoid conflict because it doesn’t make for a nice story. Why can’t characters have a good time camping or at the amusement part or during vacation? Isn’t that what we want in life?

The first step in dealing with this writing issue is getting young writers to see conflict as the driving force of the plot. Without conflict there will be no rising action. All the events of the story will happen on the same level and there will be no climax or falling action either. Ask them about the games they play. What if in their games winning was super easy. Everybody reaches the finish line at the same time. All you had to do was go pick up the prize and game over, you won. No objective? No quest? Nothing more to do? How long would they keep playing that game?

What makes a game fun, interesting, and exciting is that it’s not easy. If everybody could do it without any effort, then what’s the point? There must be something to aim for and challenges along the way. Players must develop skills to overcome their challenges and they get bragging rights for that. Even going on a water slide has these elements. You have to climb up to the top and the process of coming back down has twists and turns or it’s very high and at a steep angle.

Nothing truly fun and exciting is completely void of challenges. This is why conflict is necessary for a story. This is how it adds excitement and makes the story more fun for readers. It’s all about seeing how the character will overcome the challenges. Will they do what I would do in that situation? Would they choose something different? Will their actions be interesting to observe? These are the questions readers want answered.

In the next post, I’ll explain more about how conflict is connected to characters, theme, and plot.

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3 Tricks For Writing About Setting

Effectively writing about setting is one of those skills that takes students from “meets standard” to “exceeds standard”. That’s basically the difference between 14 and 18. The SEA holistic marking scheme actually has this as the second line of description in the 9-10 mark range: “Setting is effectively developed with both time AND place vividly established.”

So what does that mean, exactly? Well, for one thing, it means that readers should be shown time and place. They need to know when things are happening, and where they are happening. And all of this should be shown and not simply told to readers.

For more information on setting, check out our other blog post 5 Ways Young Writers Can Write About Setting (Like A Boss.

The trouble is that even when young writers know what to do, sometimes they have a challenging time getting it done. How exactly do you get time and place “developed” and “vividly established”? There are actually three tricks to getting that done.

TIP ONE: Have characters notice things about setting. This means that characters could observe the weather, objects in their environment, or special features that impact on them and the story. So, a child walking home from school might notice the trees, wind, sky, or whatever they may see along the path. The key to making this work is to ensure that whatever is observed is relevant to the story in some way. So the sky is relevant if it looks like it’s going to rain because that will affect the journey. Trees might be important if they look scary or beautiful or remind the main character of something.

TIP TWO: Have characters interact with the setting. We mentioned this in the first article, but it’s so important it’s worth mentioning again.So, that child walking home could pick some flowers, stumble over a rock, or have to fight through thick bushes in order to discover something.The interaction gives writers an opportunity to add details about the setting. That way, writers don’t have to dump all the details about setting in one place.

TIP THREE: Keep an eye on time, and don’t just tell time, describe it. Ok, so maybe this one is a two-for one special, but these are connected so we grouped the ideas together. Knowing when events are happening in a story helps readers relate to the circumstances in a more effective way. The situation becomes instantly more realistic when readers can envision the time actions are taking place because time affects everything we do.

We engage in certain activities at certain times, the time of day affects what happens in the sky (sun movement, stars etc.), and those changes affect what we do and say. But it’s not enough to tell readers, “It was 9 a.m.”. Think about what happens at 9 a.m. and describe it so readers can get a better understanding of the significance of the time.

NOTE: If young writers pay attention to these tips, what they will find is that they’re not able to give all the description in one place, in one paragraph. They will have to spread out the description over the entire essay as characters will interact with different aspects of the setting in each paragraph. And THAT is how setting is developed throughout an essay.

#CreativeWritingforPrimary#NarrativeWriting#WritingTips#WERDCoachYouth#BetterWriters

First Person vs Third Person Writing

Young writers preparing for SEA usually work with the first person perspective. They are asked to put themselves in the position of the main character. However, that’s not the only way prompts are written. In fact, for 2020, two of the three SEA narrative prompts were third person. It’s a good idea to get your young writer familiar with both styles of writing so they will be comfortable regardless of which type of prompt comes their way. When writers use the first person perspective in writing, the author of the story is the main character. The author can use “I” and “we” and “my” freely because the story is written from the author’s point of view.

Here are three tips to keep in mind when writing first person narratives.

1. Understand the perspective. The key aspect of first person is that the audience gets to see events through the eyes of someone who is directly experiencing the highs and lows. That means the audience gets a front seat view of thoughts and ideas.

Because of that, an immediate emotional connection happens as audiences feel like it’s a friend they know who is telling them the story.

2. Use the perspective to your advantage. When the first person draws the reader into the situation, readers can be easily misled to create wonderful suspense and mystery. That’s because first person perspectives give only a limited view of the action, only from the main character’s perspective.

What the main character doesn’t see or hear or experience is not told to the reader.

3. Beware of the overused “I”. When writers participate in their own stories, it’s often a challenge to avoid beginning sentences with the word “I”. Because everything is told with the writer involved, the word “I” can overwhelm readers.

To work around that, young writers can focus on what is observed as the action takes place. Readers already know who is observing the situation, so that bit can be left out. Doing that requires crafty use of vivid imagery, which audiences will love. Here’s an example.

ORIGINAL: I heard the trickling of water and it gave me the chills.

REVISED: The trickling of water echoed down the corridor, giving me the chills.

When writers use the third person perspective in writing, the author is not the main character. In fact, the author isn’t a character anywhere in the story. Instead, the author uses “He”, “She” and “It” to talk about characters.

Below are three tips to keep in mind when writing third person narratives.

1. Understand the perspective. The key aspect of third person is that the audience gets a more complete view of the action. That means readers learn about what’s happening from the narrator, not directly from a character in the story.

Writers can move from one character to another, giving details and reactions more freely than with first person. Just be careful not to hop from character to character too often. The story should still be told from one main perspective – the main character’s.

2. Use the perspective to your advantage. Because the writer and the main character are separate people, the writer can freely observe the main character. Character descriptions are much easier to present in third person writing.

Take the opportunity to give each character a distinct voice and unique characteristics so that readers can come to their own opinions.

3. Beware of internal thoughts. Unlike first person, third person makes it challenging to include the main character’s thoughts. How characters feel and react to situations should be demonstrated through what they do and say.

While writers can say things like, “Elizabeth thought…” it’s much more engaging to write about what Elizabeth did and said so that readers can determine for themselves what might have caused her to behave that way. This is one way to keep the mystery and suspense in third person writing.

ORIGINAL – Elizabeth thought Andy was crazy. That was definitely another one of his mad scientist ideas.

REVISED – “Are you crazy?” Elizabeth squinted at Andy, slowly nodding her head from side to side. That was definitely another one of his mad scientist ideas.

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters

21 Things Young Writers Should Know

Have you ever wondered what skills young writers need to write short stories well?It’s one of those areas that can be overwhelming. Many of us think specifically about grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation when it comes to writing, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Here’s a list of 21 Things Young Writers Should Know to Respond Well to SEA Prompts:

  1. How to interpret prompts effectively.
  2. How to recognize/choose the type of story and fiction subgenre they’re writing.
  3. How to select and name characters, keeping the number to a minimum.
  4. How to plot stories within 10 minutes.
  5. How to engage readers with an effective hook.
  6. How to introduce the main character in the introduction.
  7. How to express what the main character wants.
  8. How to give background information in the introduction to establish context.
  9. How to describe setting in the introduction.
  10. How to introduce the conflict and show the main character’s reaction to it.
  11. How to escalate the conflict over two or three incidents while showing how the character responds to the escalating drama.
  12. How to make the conflict significant and relevant to the story and the character’s situation.
  13. How to describe setting as part of the story, gradually through the perspective and experience of the main character.
  14. How to describe the main character throughout the story, gradually as the readers learn more about who the person is, what they want, their reactions, and emotions.
  15. How to explain the climax as the main character gives the final push to achieve their goals.
  16. How to resolve the story through the falling action and the lessons the main character has learned from the experience.
  17. How to use imagery to show readers what’s happening.
  18. How to focus on the story and the relevant details.
  19. How to move the action of the story forward, transitioning between ideas.
  20. How to include dialogue in appropriate ways.
  21. How to review and edit their own writing.

What would you add to the list?

(NOTE: This list does not highlight grammar and other skills for general writing proficiency. It focuses specifically on the abilities required for creating great stories. The assumption is that writers have a good grasp of the English language, even if not a perfect one. Grammar, punctuation, sentence construction, and spelling should be taught in separate lessons.)

What’s The Issue?

Climax is touted as the most exciting part of the story. It’s also a main focus as it features prominently in the plot diagram. There’s a reason for this, of course. The climax is the point when challenges are overcome, solutions are implemented, and heroes are made.

The climax is the part audiences anticipate and some writers dread. Young writers, especially, can encounter some difficulty with writing the climax of their stories. What many don’t quite understand is that a great climax is the result of a compelling goal and engaging conflict. The entire story is a journey toward the climax.

So, how do you write a great climax? Here are five steps young writers should follow:

  1. Give the main character a strong desire for something, then spend the beginning of the story making them fight for it.
  2. Build the tension to the point where they feel like they will never get what they want.
  3. Introduce a last minute hope, motivation, or tool that can help the main character achieve their desire.
  4. Make the main character work for their desire. Even with the last minute help, finally achieving the goal cannot be easy, and should never be convenient.
  5. Ensure the main character’s feelings are absolutely clear. Feelings should move from hopeful to distressed to desperate, before becoming determined and finally triumphant.

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