Video: Creative Writing: Narrative structure

﻿Hello everyone. My name's Mister Pryke, and welcome to this lesson on narrative structure. All you'll need today to complete this lesson is a pen and paper or something to write on and with, and if you can try and move yourself away from any distractions. When you're ready, we'll begin. In today's lesson, we're going to look at narrative structure. We'll begin by thinking about Gustav Freytag, and his theory that the majority of stories follow a particular dramatic structure. We'll follow that by applying well-known stories to Freytag's theory before moving onto narrative hooks, and considering why narrative hooks are so important. If you don't know what any of this means yet, please don't worry as that's what this lesson is going to cover. This lesson is on narrative structure. So before we begin, we need to think about what is meant by the term narrative. A narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events. In other words, a story. Narratives have long been studied by lots of different people, not just in terms of the events narratives contain, but also in terms of how they are structured. In other words, how they are put together. Today, were going to look at two people who studied the structure of a story. The first person we're looking at lived a very long time ago in ancient Greece. A Greek philosopher and writer, Aristotle, born 384 BC believed that the events in a story or plot all followed a similar pattern. He believed writers structured their stories like a basic triangle. The lower left point of the triangle, the beginning of the story was termed by the Greeks as Protasis, also known as The introduction. The highest point of the triangle represents the middle of the story, and is known as the Epitasis. The Epitasis contains the conflict. The crisis of the story. This is the moment where the story is at its highest point of tension. The last part is called the Catastrophe, which contains the resolution of the conflict. Usually we would associate the word catastrophe with the disaster, and you'd be right to do so. The ancient Greeks loved a tragedy, and tragedy usually ends in disaster and death. Now a catastrophe didn't always have to end like this. Aristotle's theory is called The Unified Prop Structure. In simpler terms, Aristotle believed that every story has a beginning, middle, and end, and that they are all linked together. Gustav Freytag, however, believed there were more points to a narrative. And it's his theory that we're going to focus on today. Gustav Freitag was a German novelist and playwright. Freytag's study of narratives led him to believe that most stories contain a five act dramatic structure. Stories, he argued, can be broken down into five parts. They are The Introduction, the Rising Action, the Climax, the Falling Action, and the Resolution. But what do each of these mean? The introduction introduces the setting and characters. The atmosphere is established, and a crisis or conflict is introduced. During the rising action the crisis or conflict begins to develop. The main character may try and fix the crisis or resolve the conflict, but ultimately ends up failing. The tension rises. The climax is the height of the tension. This is the moment where the main character is changed forever. The falling action is the place where the conflict or crisis begins to resolve. The falling action may contain a final moment of suspense, and the story is heading towards its end. The resolution then is the end of the story. The conflict or crisis is usually resolved, and the characters in the story, try and resume their normal lives. So here's your first task. I would like you to pause the video, copy the diagram of the pyramid, and assign the correct terms to the correct places. See what you can remember and when you're done, press play. So we can go through the answers. Well done. Let's take a look at the answers. Give yourself a tick for each of these you put in the correct order. Please, don't worry if you get some wrong, but it might be an idea to go back over the explanation again, to help you understand. Freytag's pyramid begins with The Introduction. Next, we have the Rising Action. At the top of the pyramid, we have the Climax. As the story heads towards its end, We have the Falling Action. And then the resolution, the end of the story. Let's see how much we've remembered then. I'm going to give you five multiple choice questions. If you need to, pause the video after each question, so you can make your choice of answer, and then press play to find out if you are right. Question one. Which part of a narrative structure shows the story is heading towards the end? Pause the video here and make your choice. Fantastic. If you chose Falling Action, you are correct. The falling action shows the story is heading towards the end. Question two. Which part of a narrative structure contains the highest moment of tension? Pause the video here and make your choice. Fantastic. The highest moment of tension is called the Climax. Question three. Which part of a narrative structure shows the end of a crisis or conflict? Pause the video if you need to, and make your choice. Well done. The Resolution shows the end of a crisis or conflict. Question four. Which moment marks the very beginning of a narrative structure? Pause the video if you need to, and make your choice. Brilliant. The Introduction marks the very beginning of a narrative structure. And finally, question five. At which point in the narrative structure does the crisis in the story, begin to develop? Pause the video here, and make your last choice. Well done. The Rising Action is the point in the narrative structure where the crisis begins to develop. Fantastic work. So now that we know the purpose of each step in Freytag's narrative structure pyramid, I'm going to have a go at applying a story to it. I'm going to use Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, just because it's one of my favourite stories. During the introduction, Harry is left on his aunt and uncle's doorstep as a baby. We are told he is the sole survivor of an attack by an evil wizard. He grows up having to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs. During the rising action, the point in a story where a crisis begins to develop, Harry is told he is a wizard himself. He goes to Wizarding school, and finds out about the philosopher's stone. He worries Oone of his teachers is trying to get the stones for evil purposes. Then we reach the climax. The highest moment of tension. Harry finds out the teacher he suspected was not the person trying to steal the stone. Instead, it was Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard who killed Harry's parents, and who disguised himself to infiltrate Harry's Wizarding school. Harry fights, Voldemort, who is defeated until we reached the next book of course. The falling action, the moment where the crisis begins to resolve itself sees Harry asking lots of questions to his head teacher when he wakes up in a hospital bed. The stone is destroyed. At the end, we have the Resolution. Harry wins the House Cup, and he celebrates with his friends before leaving school for the summer. Now it's your turn to complete an activity. Using the multiple choice questions and the Harry Potter example to help you add labels to your diagram of the narrative pyramid explaining what each of Freytag's terms mean. You can write in full sentences or as notes, pause the video to complete the task and press play when you're ready to hear the answers. Well done. Let's go through the answers. You may not have everything on the screen, but that's okay. If you have at least one point for each term, give yourself a tick, but feel free to pause the video, so you can copy down any information you may have missed off your pyramid. For the introduction you should have, that it introduces the setting and characters. The atmosphere is set up, and a crisis or conflict is introduced. During the rising action. The crisis or conflict begins to develop. The main character may try and fix the crisis or resolve the conflict, but fails. The tension begins to rise. The climax is the height of the tension. This is the moment where the main character is changed forever. During the falling action, the conflict and crisis begins to resolve The falling action may contain a final moment of suspense, but we know that the story is heading towards the end. Finally, we have the resolution, the end of the story, the conflict or crisis is usually resolved, and the characters try and resume their normal lives. Remember if you got at least one point for each of those terms, give yourself a tick. Now that we've strengthened our knowledge of what each term means, tt's time for you to have a go at applying a story to the pyramid. Just like I did with my Harry Potter example. Think of a story you know well. It may be from a book you've read, a film you've seen, or a game you have played. See if you can split the plot into the five categories of Freytag's pyramid. If you're unsure of how to go about this, rewind the video and watch my Harry Potter example again, to help you. Pause the video to complete your task and press play again when you're ready. Well done. We now going to look at narrative hooks, and why they're important structural device. A narrative hook makes a writer consider how they're going to structure their opening. It's a technique used to grab the reader's attention during the introduction of the story. And that's why they're important. If a reader is not interested, they'll simply stop reading, and no writer wants that to happen. There are different examples of narrative hooks and each one has a unique effect, and are used for different types of genres and readers. Narrative hooks sometimes merge together. And writers will use more than one to engage a reader. Here, though, I'm presenting them to you separately to help you understand. The first type of hook is a puzzling hook. A puzzling hook immediately makes a reader ask questions of the story. In a puzzling hook things are not very clear, and the reader wants to find out the answers to the questions the writer has posed. A direct address hook is one of my favourite hooks. Here, the writer talks to a reader directly, which is why the image shows a hand pointing at you on the screen. I like this type of hook, because it really gets a reader involved in the story. It's like the writer is reaching through the pages of the book to talk to you, to pull you in, to involve you in the events which are about to take place. Next is the subtle hook. This is a really interesting hook, because it drops hints as to what is happening at the beginning of a story, without telling a reader outright. The reader has to piece the information they are given together by themself. It makes a reader curious as to what's going on. Writers don't want to give all the answers to their readers straight away. And so a subtle hook that makes the reader do most of the work in trying to figure out what is happening. That's why I've chosen a question mark to represent a subtle hook. The atmospheric hook will tell you what kind of mood a writer is hoping to create in their story. An atmospheric hook is likely to be descriptive. It's where a writer will reveal whether their story is going to be funny, scary, sad, or thrilling, to name but a few examples. The atmospheric hook aims to make you, a reader feel a certain way. The writer may want to terrify you or make you nervous. They may want to make you feel happy or excited. Once the atmosphere of the story is established, the writer will push forward with their plot and introduce the rising action. To accompany the atmospheric hook, we have the visual hook. This is likely to appeal to what we can see. The writer will usually describe lots of things about the characters of setting, so that we, as readers can visualise them. Finally, we have the comedic hook and the direct speech hook. The comedic hook is really difficult to get right, because it's only going to work if you, as a reader, share the same sense of humour as the writer. Its aim is to make the reader laugh. If they find something funny, they're likely to continue reading. Of course, if a reader's sense of humour does not match the writer's, they're probably not going to find the comedic hook funny, and as such will stop reading. Then we have the direct speech hook. This means the story opens with speech, and suggests it's going to be a fast paced narrative, keeping readers invested in the story, because it means they don't have time to get bored. Let's see how much you can remember. I'm going to describe a certain narrative hook to you. And I want you to identify which one I'm talking about. Pause the video to select the narrative hook you wish to choose if you need to, and then press play to find out the answers. So for our first narrative hook, this type of narrative hook appeals to what a reader can see. Pause the video here, and make your choice. Well done. Of course, we're talking about the visual hook. This type of narrative hook makes readers ask questions about what they are reading. Pause the video here if you need to, and make your choice. Well done. We're talking about the puzzling hook. This type of narrative hook means a reader is addressed by a writer. Pause the video here, and make your selection. Brilliant. We're talking about the direct address hook here. This type of narrative hook only works if it appeals to your sense of humour. Pause the video, and make your selection. Well done. We're talking about the comedic hook. This type of narrative hook usually contains description to help the writer make the reader feel a certain way, or experience a certain mood. It sets the tone of the story. Pause the video and make your choice. Well done. We're talking about the atmospheric hook. You're working really hard today. Well done. We're not going to stop there though, because here is your next task. You're about to see three examples of narrative hooks. I want you to choose which hook you think you're reading, and then explain why you've chosen that particular hook. Although I'm only going to show you one sentence. It's really important to realise that narrative hooks are usually far longer. They can last for multiple paragraphs. Today, though, we're just going to focus on single sentences. Here's your first hook. Shimmering pools of light glistened on the pavement, the puddles reflecting the glow of the streetlamps. Is it a visual hook, a direct address hook, or a comedic hook? Pause the video to make your choice, and write down in full sentences why you've made that particular choice. When you're ready, press play. And we'll go through the answers. Now, as always, if your explanation differs from what you see on the screen, please don't worry. See if there are any similarities between the answer and give yourself a tick if you spot some. So this hook was a visual hook, and it's an example of a visual hook because it appeals to our sense of sight. The writer is describing things we can see. So we understand a little more about the setting. It helps us to visualise what the writer is describing. Here's your next hook. When he saw the police officer staring at him, he knew he had been discovered. Is it a comedic hook, a direct address hook, or a puzzling hook? Pause the video to make your choice, and explain why you've made that particular choice. When you're ready, press play, and we'll go through the answers. Well done. This was a puzzling hook. This is an example of a puzzling hook, because it raises lots of questions that need to be answered. Firstly, we wonder who he is. Secondly, we wonder what he has done wrong. Seeing as a policeman is looking for him. Here's your final hook? The tall house stood, looming, clearly abandoned but menacing in its appearance. Is it a visual hook, an atmospheric hook, or a direct speech hook? Pause the video, make your choice, write down your explanation and then press play when you're ready for the answer. This was an atmospheric hook. This is an example of an atmospheric hook because the writer is creating a serious tone. We are meant to feel scared. Perhaps even frightened. The writer creates these feelings of fear through the description of the creepy house. Here then is your final task. Using everything we've gone through today, write the opening paragraph to a story using one of the narrative hooks. Think about which hook would be best to help engage your reader. It can be any hook and any story. This is a free writing task. So it's a chance for your imagination to run wild. If you're struggling to think of a story or hook to my atmospheric hook from the previous slide. My first sentence was, the tall house stood, looming, clearly abandoned, but menacing in its appearance. Think about what might come next. Pause the video here to complete your task, and press play when you're finished. Fantastic. That brings us to the end of today's lesson. Today we looked at Freytag's pyramid, and thought about how narratives are usually structured. We've applied story examples to the pyramid, as well as looking at narrative hooks. And thinking about why they're structurally important. You've worked really hard today, and I'm incredibly impressed with all of your efforts. Very well done. As always, don't forget to complete the exit quiz. Well done for everything you've achieved today. Take care and I hope you'll join me next time when we'll be looking at creating our own characters.

Exit Quiz: Creative Writing: Narrative structure

Completed: Creative Writing: Narrative structure

In this lesson, we will be thinking about the narrative structure of short stories. We will learn all about Freytag's 'narrative pyramid' and the hooks writers use to engage their readers.

English

Creative Writing: Narrative structure

Video

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete