Notes on Narrative fiction writing

(A)   Overview
1. There are 2 parts to Paper 1 and Section One is a free writing section that requires you to write an essay of between 350 to 500 words.

(B)   Preparation - Months before

1. FW book/file: Have a free-writing preparations booklet or file. Choose several story lines you wish to write on. These should be sufficiently flexible to adapt to most stories. Draft these story lines into your free-writing book/file and share them with your teacher.

2. Practice & structure: Practise writing your essays from your 10-year series or workbook. Use the fiction structures taught to you as the skeleton to craft your story lines. [See later]

3. Word banks: Prepare vocabulary that will support your writing. This means looking at your various story-lines and building up the depth of vocabulary needed for each stage of writing. For instance if your story line contains description of places or people for the introduction, make sure you build up vocabulary to do describe this. Your characters or settings can always be similar despite different story titles. If your plot involves an accident or medical procedure then your vocabulary must be built up in these areas. All in all you would have to build 8 or more word banks of between 40 to 50 idioms, phrases and words each.

4. How to begin: Decide on a setting and theme for your writing. If you are passionate about outdoor adventure, then you can always set your story in the context of trekking, fishing or kayaking. If you wish to write about love and romance, then look up and learn words linked to these areas such as how you would describe the emotions associated with being in love.

5. Read with a purpose: When you read you may encounter words and phrases of two types, those that you know and those that you do not. For those which you are uncertain of, check up the meanings. Then decide amongst all that you have read, what you would like to use in your essays based on whether it helps support your story line ideas.

6. Have a thesaurus ready: A thesaurus helps you to uncover different ways of saying something. This will help you to uncover

(C)   Types of questions
1. Single word

a.       Fiction or non-fiction is possible.

b.      For fiction, the issue must permeate all aspects of the story or must be central to the storyline.

c.       Think broadly for the single word essay as to how you would weave the single word into the storyline to make it central. Someone who reads the story must get the sense of the usage of the single word as the main lynchpin of the essay.

d.      For example: Power [ 2009 O Levels]
A story line about a character who abuses power and this leads to the suffering of others and to his/her eventual downfall is a possible storyline but there are so many other possibilities. For instance, power can be written as stories woven around how powerful love can be or how powerful a kind act was because it changed the lives of others in a positive way.

2. Recount

a. An occasion/situation when one’s actions (Cause) à led to a situational change (Complication) à Sequence of events (Consequences)

b. Be very clear that the cause in question will be the complication of the story and the consequence is the sequence of events that will lead to the climax which is resolved at the resolution.

c. Examples
Write about how a serious accident [Complication and sequence of events] led to an area being made safer for those who work or live there.[Resolution]

Write about a time when your late arrival for a particular meeting or event [Complication] led to serious trouble [Sequence of events/climax/resolution].

(D) Structures for fiction writing
(i) Introduction

Types of introductions	Example	Language feature /grammar
Character [Taken from Catherine Lim’s short story collection “Little Ironies”]	Half-uncle was someone the bondmaids hated, for his utterly repulsive appearance and his sly ways. He was a thin, dry man with dirty teeth that he was continually picking and sucking on.	Adjectives for describing physical attributes
Action An introduction with an action sequence for a story entitled “Power”. The rest of the story tells of how a young man meets his eventual end because of his association with gangs OR how he chose a different path in “Heroes”.	Kim Seng ran as fast as his legs could carry him through the dark and dingy alley. His heart was thumping hard he sped past bags of garbage and trash cans strewn across his path. His pursuers were relentless and hot on his heels. He could hear the heavy pounding of their feet behind him. Less than a few metres ahead of him was a high fence. He realised that he had run into a dead end – a cul de sac. He felt for the dagger strapped to his chest, whipped it out and spun round in anticipation for a fight to the death. There was no one. His pursuers had disappeared into the night as quickly as they had appeared.	Verbs/ Adverbs
Dialogue A story which revolves round 2 down and out house mates who strike it rich at a lottery and how it changed their lives. “Power” “Flight” “Dreams”	“Ah Seng, look at this!” exclaimed Boon Hui as he tugged at Kimmy Tan Ah Seng’s T-shirt excitedly, “We’ve….we’ve…” “What are you muttering about? I’m trying to sleep. You know I was on night shift! Go bother someone else!” Protested Ah Seng as he pushed his house mate away and covered his head with his pillow. “We’ve won….we’ve won!” cried Boon Hui who was unable to contain his happiness any further, “We’ve won the lottery!”	Speech Marks/ Punctuation for dialogue/Different ways of expressing “say”.
Flash back A flashback style introduction for the essay “Marriage”.	Coco’s fingers trembled as she typed in the website address and hesitated for a moment before hitting the enter key. As the website loaded, she gazed blankly at the computer screen that starting filling up with a multitude of photos. The strains of Pachelbel’s Canon in D could soon be hear and tears started to well in her eyes as her gaze fell on pictures of herself and her then fiancée, Abel. These images caused a flood of memories to return and transported her back to the events of that fateful weekend 3 years ago.	Adjectives/verbs/adverbs
Setting/Scene An opening scene for an essay entitled “Heroes” and “Power”.	A lazy breeze caressed Ebenezer’s sunburnt face as he looked keenly across the horizon. The sea shimmered like diamonds as light danced and skipped across the tranquil sea in the late afternoon sun, reflecting off Ebenezer’s sunglasses. In the distance, a lone sea eagle hovered majestically overhead, drifting effortlessly in the shifting wind. “What a quiet afternoon.” Ebenezer thought to himself as he looked at his watch to see if his shift was over for lifeguard duty.	Adjectives focusing on places to create atmosphere and lighting. e.g. Seaside, busy mall or commercial area, performance area for a concert.

(ii) The body [Complication + sequence of events + climax]
1. Made up of 4 or more paragraphs and consisting of:
- Complication (1 paragraph)
- Sequence of events (3 paragraphs)
- The climax is woven into the last body paragraph

v  Complication/problem: what caused the series of actions to take place.
a. For example: In a story about how one pulled through a serious medical problem, the complication is when the illness was first diagnosed.
b. The complication can be signalled using language features like “Without warning” and “Suddenly”, “In a cruel twist”.
c. Spend a paragraph explaining how the complication came about.
d. The complication should be closely tied to the essay title. For instance, in the story entitled “Dreams”, the complication could be the opening of the integrated resorts which the main character who is a gambling addict had been looking forward to.

v  Sequence of events
a. This tells us how the story progresses from the start of the complication.

b. Elaboration should be based on asking the 5 Ws and 1 H. To elaborate simply building complex sentences out of simple SV structure sentences by adding time, place adverbials and adjectival phrases.
E.g. The cars drove down the road.
The red cars, which were owned by Mr Sim(Adjectival), raced down the narrow winding (What?) road that snaked through the city’s backstreets(Where?) at top speed(How?).

Climax
The climax is the point of highest tension in the story and the story can end differently depending on how the climax ends:

iii) The resolution & conclusion
Suggested approaches to end a story. 

1. A happy /uplifting ending with a moral or proverb

The sun was setting across Singapore’s Central Business District as Xue Ting gazed out of the window of her new 60^th floor office. As she looked across the Singapore River, she realised the weight of responsibility resting on her shoulders. She heard a voice from behind her and turned around. “With great power comes great responsibility,” It was Mr Kim her mentor. She smiled and could not agree more. It would now be a new dawn of change at Kim Seng Corporation. 

2. Painful/sad ending/Relief from pain
John’s body was riddled with needle marks from his years of drug abuse. He no longer had the strength to move a muscle as he lay on the ground in a heap.  He thought of his mother and the happier moments of his childhood. He could feel that lightness of being returning to him as he slowly drifted away in a deep slumber.

3. Last words of the character
Jill cradled Jun Eng in her arms as he gasped for breath. Her tears trickled down her cheeks and mixed with the warm blood which covered his crimson lips. Jun Eng struggled to speak, “Jill…I love you.” In his death, he had given life to the one he loved the most.

 (E) Analysis of a sample essay
Read the essay below and the following:
1. Identify the grammatical features such as
- tenses used
- subject-verb agreements
- punctuation for dialogue

Take note of wider range of verbs and adverbs used as well as idioms. Look at the sentence structures and identify the subject in each sentence. Can you recognise the various SV structures?

2. Take note of various parts of the narrative – the type of introduction, the complication, sequence of events, the climax and the resolution by highlighting them in the passage.

3. Can you think of several single word essay titles that may be suitable for the above story? How could the story be appropriately adjusted to ensure that the story matches the title?

Notice that you cannot use this story line in its entirety for all essays but the themes of “the military”, “punishment and suffering” and “anger” can be used to answer a wider array of questions.

Structure and approach	Write about a time when your late arrival for a particular meeting or event led to serious trouble. (GCE O Level Nov 2006 Paper 1 Section One)	Language used
Setting/Scene	Introduction The sun shone brightly overhead and I could hear nothing except for the drone of insects as I lay in the tall grass with my rifle next to me. This was yet another day at Officer Cadet School where I had already spent the last six months and was soon moving onto the last phase of my military training to become an army officer. I flicked the safety catch of my M-16 to the “fire” mode and strained my eyes to see if there was any movement ahead of me. The sun had suddenly hid behind a thick blanket of cloud and this gave me some reprieve from the searing afternoon heat. I peered at my wrist watch which showed that it was just after two in the afternoon. Suddenly, I saw my platoon leader give the signal for us to charge forward. In a flash, twelve men in camouflage uniforms poured forward with their rifles blazing, accompanied by the familiar “rat-tat-tat” of multi-purpose machine gun fire from the adjacent hill.	Tenses: Past tense Verbs/imperatives Adverbs Complex sentences Subject-verb agreements
Introduction of  a key character Complication	“Exercise cut!” shouted our instructors and it wasn’t long before we were picking up all the loose bullet cartridges that had fallen amongst the grass and dirt. Following this, we were to be head back to camp for an important lecture by our company commander, Major Tan Swa Kow who was also known by his nickname ‘Mountain Dog’ because of his ruggedness and uncanny ability to march long distances with little food or water. He was also a man with little patience and he had an extremely short fuse. On a previous occasion, he had woken the entire rifle company at three o’clock in the morning to share with us his marital woes. That evening, he was drunk and had just had a serious quarrel with his wife. As he apparently needed someone to talk to, he decided to assemble us at the parade square for this purpose. Perhaps he was disappointed with our gradual loss of interest in his plight and so we were soon made to run around the obstacle course till we collapsed from exhaustion for not showing him the necessary “care and concern” when he most needed it. Suddenly, I heard Jin Kiang, my buddy’s desperate voice, “Frank…Frank… I think I’ve lost my rifle magazine!” The frantic look at Jing Kiang’s face said it all. A lost rifle magazine meant at least a month in the military lock-up and probably an end to Jin Kiang’s dreams of becoming an officer. As the rest of the platoon was packing up and preparing to trudge back to camp, I informed the instructors of Jin Kiang’s situation and I was asked to search the area with him till the magazine was found. “Don’t even think of coming back to camp if you don’t find it!”My instructor reminded me sternly. The rest of the platoon began to trudge back to base for their meeting with the company commander while we continued to desperately look for the lost magazine. We were certainly going to be late for the lecture and we knew that the consequences would be dire for us.
Sequence of events Late for event/meeting Serious trouble	After half and hour of scouring the entire hill-top, we fortuitously found the rifle magazine partially hidden near a tree which Jin Kiang had been lying near. The magazine must have slipped out of his Skeleton Battle Order as he lay there for cover. Immediately, we ran as fast as our legs could carry us back to the camp gate. By the time we reached the sprawling parade square where the company commander’s lecture was held, we were completely out of breath. I glanced at my wrist watch. We were already forty-five minutes late! As we turned the corner into the parade square, Jin Kiang and I were greeted by the sight of the entire rifle company in a push-up position. Then the usual refrain from our company commander came as he muttered sarcastically, “Gentlemen. What can I say?” This was followed by a string of expletives in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect commonly spoken in Singapore. Later, he announced to the entire Company that Jin Kiang’s carelessness and the fact that we were late for his lecture had brought this terrible misfortune upon the entire company. I was to later learn that my Company mates had been in the push-up position for the last thirty minutes! The burning surface of the parade square’s rough tarmac were causing excruciating pain to the men’s palms. We were initially disallowed to join in the punishment that was being meted out as Major Tan wanted us to watch the process of the punishment and to reflect upon our mistakes.
Sequence of events   Serious trouble Climax	However, the real punishment was soon to begin. There were eight lamp-posts at the perimeter of the parade square which were numbered one to eight and one of our instructors explained in a booming voice that when he called out a sequence of eight numbers, we were to run with our rifles over our heads from where we were to the appropriate lamp-post and then back to the centre of the parade square before running to the next lamp-post in the correct sequence till all eight numbers were completed. The entire company did this several times and every time we got the sequence wrong, we had to repeat it from the beginning again. Jin Kiang and I were soon ordered to join in and I could not recall how many times we had to run from lamp-post to lamp-post as my mind was swirling after an hour of non-stop exertion. When our Company Commander was finally satisfied that he had inflicted the appropriate punishment for our misdemeanours, we got back into our rank and file. By then, we were drenched with sweat and completely drained by the heat that seemed to envelop us from all round. “Two weeks ago, some of you were disinterested in listening to me share about the problems I was having with my wife!” Major Tan barked. He then smiled sadistically to himself before continuing, “Today, I finally have your full attention.” His smile then melted away as he began sharing with us his personal woes that included his marital and financial problems and his disdain for most things in life – in particular for people who are late. His tone then changed when he spoke about the army. It was a tone filled with pride and words laced with praise rolled off his tongue easily. He waxed lyrical about the first time he fired a rifle and how the was felt intoxicated by the smell of fresh gunpowder. He shared of his first overseas training in the jungles of South-east Asia and how the sound of live ammunition buzzing in the air around him made his adrenalin pump. He spoke of the pomp and pageantry of military parades and of bygone days when military uniforms had to be starched till they could stand on their own. Like a man possessed, he rattled on, while the searing heat began to take its toll. Several of my Company mates promptly collapsed in a heap and were duly taken away by a waiting military ambulance for medical attention. Major Tan appeared to be oblivious to all this as he rattled on.
Resolution Conclusion	After what seemed like eternity, Major Tan finally concluded his “lecture” and he informed us that he felt much better after sharing with us his problems and about his fervent, if not fanatical love for the armed forces. In an almost fatherly voice, he left instructions with the platoon commanders to dismiss us immediately for dinner before he drove off hurriedly in his military jeep, apparently comforted by our willingness to offer our “undivided” attention this time around. Suddenly, the bugle sounded for day’s flag-lowering and everyone turned to face the flag-posts. As the last bugle note echoed across the parade square, we heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that our day’s ordeal had finally come to a close.