personal narrative
Elements of a story
Submitted by ggevalt on July 24, 2007 - 16:11.By Geoffrey Gevalt
YWP Editor
All of us are storytellers. We tell stories in the halls to our friends in the morning after a long weekend. We tell our teachers great yarns as to why the assignment wasn't completed. We tell our parents or their friends something memorable to keep them from asking so many darned questions.
But for some reason many of us have trouble putting those stories onto paper; somehow we never think they're good enough, or we can't find that conversational tone or we just don't feel like it.
This piece is aimed at offering you some guideposts for writing a short story that is both memorable AND fun to write.
Conquering the personal essay
Submitted by aanderson on June 26, 2007 - 10:35.Excerpted and edited from a 2005 YWP article
By Natalie Brennan
Outreach Counselor,
Vermont Student Assistance Corporation
- Don't be intimidated by the personal essay; everybody has a story to share.
- Can't choose a topic? Write a list of your interests and what is important to you, then try to tell a story about one of those items.
- Develop a strong hook; you want to draw the reader in without revealing the entire topic of the essay.
- Keep your audience in mind; is this a college application essay? A school assignment? What is being asked?
- Get feedback!
- Revise and edit your work. Is your opening paragraph clear? Have you checked spelling and grammar?
Art of the interview: Stories take shape from Q & A
Submitted by ggevalt on September 6, 2006 - 20:00.
By Heidi Ringer, The Warren School and
Ed Darling, South Burlington High School
Good interviewing is a lifelong skill that is essential to good writing. Practiced - and prepared - interviewers can get their subjects to talk and to reveal things that are fascinating and help a writer explain a topic or narrate a character or tell a story. Interviewing allows writers of all ages the opportunity to expand their experience by connecting with others.
Narrative writing
Submitted by ggevalt on August 27, 2006 - 11:26.
By Geoffrey Gevalt
The old man reached for the doorknob without an inkling as to what he was about to experience …
Now that I've got your attention, it's time to talk about writing a narrative.
Narrative writing is fun; it's the act of telling a story, having a conversation with your reader. You can find good narrative writing in newspapers, magazines and books; it is used in letters or short stories, news stories or novels.
