Question

3.1.9 Write: Prepare a Narrative Write a narrative about a humorous situation. Whether you focus on a real event or make up a fictional one, you must use comedic techniques and rich description to bring the experience to life. You'll start with a narrator who has a clear perspective, even if the narrator is you. Then you'll build the scene from the ground up: You'll describe the setting using imagery that appeals to the senses, you'll bring out characters' personalities with realistic dialogue, and you'll use certain comedic techniques, like the ones Mark Twain uses, to introduce some humor. 1. Write a brief bio for your essay's narrator. Who is your narrator? What kind of attitude does this narrator take toward the story he or she is telling? What kind of relationship — if any — does the narrator have with the people in the essay? 2. Write three to five sentences describing the moment that you want to be the basis of your story. 3. Develop your story by adding details about the plot: What happens? In what order does the narrator discuss events? Who's involved? 4. Write a sentence or two of your own, hyperbolizing a part of your story. What about your story or your narrator's tone would make readers chuckle if you made it much more extreme than it really is? 5. Write a sentence or two understating part of your story. What was something major or important that you could understate to make your audience smile? 6. In two to three sentences, describe something ironic or unexpected about your story and/or characters — or use a bit of verbal irony, saying something and meaning the opposite. 7. Describe the setting of your story. Incorporate all of the senses: What does your narrator see, hear, smell, feel, and taste? How does the air feel? How light or dark is it? Consider all of the senses and make sure they're each addressed in your description. 8. Describe the characters of your story. Who are they? Where are they from? What do you hear them saying in your mind as you imagine them? How do you hear them speaking? 9. Write a few lines of dialogue using these characters' dialects, figures of speech, and idioms to help your narrative feel real. 10. Start drafting the narrative and write the first paragraph. How will your narrator begin the story? This is where your narrator should set the tone for the rest of the essay, so think about how you can show off the narrator's attitude and point of view. 11. Narrate the body of the story. Try to keep the attitude that you established in the first paragraph going throughout this narrative. Explain what's happening simply and briefly, and include dialogue where it's needed. (As you're drafting, you don't need to make the dialogue sound realistic, but you can if it comes easily to you.) 12. Write the end of your narrative. How does this story conclude? 13. Go back and read your answers to questions 4, 5, and 6 see what comedic elements you considered. Next, review the draft of your essay from questions 10, 11, and 12 and add in any hyperbole, understatement, or irony that would make your readers laugh. 14. Review any dialogue in your draft and compare it with your character bios from question 8. Spruce up the dialogue with dialect, idioms, and other figures of speech so that the dialogue really shows off who these people are. 15. Finally, review your answers to question 7 and find any places that could use more imagery. 16. Now write a full draft of your narrative.