26 Narrative Techniques for Writers (With Examples)
Indeed Editorial Team
What are narrative techniques?
Narrative
techniques are methods and literary devices a writer uses to craft the
elements of a story. They involve different narrative elements,
including plot, perspective, style, character, theme and genre. You can
apply different narrative techniques to most forms of writing, including
literature, poetry, film and theater.
26 narrative techniques for writers
Here's a list of 26 narrative techniques for writers to consider:
1. Use the setting
Many writers create settings that reflect a character's mood or circumstances. You can also use a setting to impact a character's decision-making process, making it an active component of a story's conflict. Consider novels in the gothic genre, which sometimes describe gloomy castles and characters with a corresponding dour personality. By defining certain traits of the castle setting, like a hallway that's always cold, you can reveal many aspects of a character's defining traits.
2. Create foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a way to provide hints about events in a story before they happen. Writers often use foreshadowing to add an element of tension and emotion to their stories, as readers may recognize the event and continue reading to see if they're correct. You can also include foreshadowing to give a story an ominous tone, depending on its genre.
3. Include sensory imagery
Writers often use sensory imagery to create all the visuals of a scene using only words. This technique can help a reader understand a scene's varied elements, allowing them to understand a physical environment. For instance, a scene that takes place in a grocery store might include details about voices a character hears on the loudspeaker or the food they smell, taste, see and touch while they shop.
4. Provide a "cliffhanger"
A cliffhanger describes an ending of a story that withholds information about how a narrative resolves. It often suggests multiple ways a story could resolve, which allows readers to speculate about their preferred ending. Writers sometimes include cliffhangers to generate excitement about the next installment of a story. For instance, a television season might end before a character decides who to marry.
5. Change the chronology
Some writers use a flashback or flash-forward to include relevant experiences from a character's past or future. Adding a scene about a past event can reveal why a character takes certain actions in the present timeline of a story. Incorporating a future event can provide dramatic irony, which occurs when a reader learns how a story ends before the characters do.
6. Choose a point of view
Point of view typically describes who narrates a story's events. Writers typically choose a perspective that best conveys the information they prefer readers to know versus what they prefer to obscure. For example, a first-person narrative only reveals the motivations of one character. A third-person point of view uses she, he or they pronouns, revealing the observations of many characters while the narrator exists outside of the story entirely.
7. Incorporate character voice
Character voice is the particular way a character expresses themselves in their inner monologue or to others in a story. You can reveal a character's voice through their personality traits, dialogue and narration. Writers often develop a character's voice to affect how a reader interprets their actions and to give the story a tone. They may also include this technique to help readers distinguish one character from another.
8. Use symbolism
Symbolism is the use of objects or words to represent an abstract concept or mood. Writers often incorporate symbols in a story to develop its core themes and add another emotional element. For instance, a character might see a certain type of weather pattern whenever they process their relationship with another character. As a result, you could describe that weather pattern as a symbol for the relationship overall.
9. Create an unreliable narrator
Unreliable narrators are typically characters who deliberately omit information from a reader. They may conceal information, unconsciously hide elements because of circumstances in their character arc or lack knowledge of certain details. Writers often use an unreliable narrator to create tension and suspense in a story.
10. Involve readers in the story
Some writers incorporate readers in the narrative of a text. For instance, characters may know they're in a work of fiction or display an understanding that readers are currently observing their actions. As a result, they can address readers directly in narration or dialogue as an invisible character in a text. Depending on your preferences, you can have a reader's involvement affect the plot's overall arc.
11. Record a stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a method of conveying the immediate thoughts and perceptions of a central character moving through a scene. It typically involves long sentences and focuses more heavily on a character's emotions than a sequence of plot points. Writers often use stream-of-consciousness descriptions to explore how a character processes sensory information. You can also use this method to write nonlinear stories, as a person's immediate thoughts often involve memory recall.
12. Personify an animal character
Personification is a technique for applying the qualities of one entity to another. Writers often personify animals by giving them the attributes of humans, allowing them to have human motivations and language abilities. Many fable and fairy tale writers personify animals to give the story a fantastic style and tone. You can also personify animals to encourage readers to connect with them emotionally.
13. Include big surprises in a plot
Often referred to as a plot twist, some writers introduce an unforeseen event in a story that dramatically alters the narrative. Writers often include plot twists to add a dramatic element and adjust a reader's expectations. For example, consider a character trying to find their family. At a climactic moment, they learn that a supporting character they've known since the beginning of the plot is secretly their relative, which changes the focus of their narrative arc.
14. Make a satire or parody
Satire uses humor to make social commentary. You can use literary devices such as exaggeration and irony to make commentary about a person or a situation. Parody is a similar technique that involves imitation of a writer's style or a genre that exaggerates features for a comedic effect. For instance, a parody of a popular celebrity may involve exaggerating their mannerisms.
15. Compose a metaphor
Metaphors are a type of figurative language that describes s omething by referring to something else. When writing a metaphor, you typically describe one emotion, object or concept as another to create a connection between them and add imagery. For instance, consider the phrase, "Love is an ocean." Equating these terms can allow readers to consider their similarities in new ways.
16. Include a simile
Similes are another type of figurative language that makes direct comparisons between objects or concepts. You can usually differentiate a similar from a metaphor by observing whether it uses the words like or as to describe a comparison. Using the elements from the metaphor above, an example of a simile might be, "Love is like an ocean."
17. Resolve your plot neatly
Writers sometimes resolve conflicts in a plot using an unanticipated event, object or character technique. This technique helps you provide a simple, clarified ending to a story. For instance, consider a play with a conflict between two siblings about who should inherit land from a relative. An ending using this technique might involve that relative appearing in the last scene to decide for them.
18. Write a narrative-within-a-narrative
Some writers have a character tell a story within a larger, encompassing one. Writers often use this technique to comment on storytelling as a practice. For instance, you might have characters introduce a narrative-within-a-narrative at the beginning of a story, write this full narrative in the middle, then bring the original characters back to discuss it at the end.
19. Start in the middle of a story
Some writers begin their story in the middle of the plot's events, meaning the reader knows very little about the central conflict before it starts. To reveal a backstory, they often include hints through dialogue and narration. You can use this technique to add urgency to a story, which may increase a reader's sense of suspense.
20. Use a hyperbole
Hyperbole is a style technique involving an intense exaggeration to convey a fact. Writers often include hyperbole to emphasize these statements to readers, offering them more clarity about a situation or its emotional relevance. Consider the hyperbole, "I walked a thousand miles" spoken by a character who lacks this capability. Including it may help readers comprehend how this character reacted to this situation.
21. Design an author surrogate
Some writers include a character to represent themselves. They're typically the narrator, which allows a writer to comment on a story's events. You can also use this technique to write a fictional character whose traits and backstory directly parallel events from your life. Another option involves giving yourself alternate traits to learn how you might behave in certain situations, like a setting from science fiction.
22. Construct an allegory
An allegory is a story that represents a larger idea or event from a society that actually exists. Writers sometimes use an allegory to share their perspective on that larger idea or event covertly instead of directly stating their opinion. For example, consider a story about a child looking for a lost item by talking to their neighbors. This might be an allegory for humans who look for a purpose in life through other people.
23. Use alliteration
Alliteration is a technique for grouping similar letters or sounds in one sentence. Writers use alliteration to emphasize a particular phrase or to create memorable lines. An example of alliteration is "Damien dared Julia to stand on the river dam." The words "Damien" and "dared "begin with the same letter, while the words "stand" and "dam" have the same beginning consonant sound.
24. Involve a "Red herring"
A red herring is a technique for presenting misleading information that directs a character away from an important concept or fact. Writers often use red herrings in mystery novels to frame one character as a likely suspect while another character is the actual culprit. You can also use them to mislead readers about a certain aspect of a plot or character to add an element of surprise to a story.
25. Try the cut-up method
The cut-up method is a technique where you remove individual words or sentences from a written text to create something new. You can use it to comment on an original piece or alter its context. For instance, you use scissors to separate words from a newspaper article and reuse them in a poem about the content of that article.
26. Add defamiliarization
Defamiliarization is a technique where a writer describes a common situation using uncommon descriptions. You can use this technique to examine aspects of daily life in a particular society to help readers develop a new perspective. For example, you could describe a character who observes pet one day and thinks about what it means to share a life with a non-human creature who communicates in different ways.
