The document discusses various narrative techniques used in storytelling such as plot structure, climaxes from Star Wars films, falling action and resolution. It also provides tips on writing effective flashbacks including triggers to ignite or return from a flashback, keeping them brief, and using them to advance the story or reveal character traits. Additional topics covered include foreshadowing, showing versus telling, choosing a story tense, point of view, dialogue rules, and more.

1. Narrative Techniques

2. Plot Structure

3. Plot Structure
Exposition: Introducing the setting, & characters.
Rising Action: The events that introduce and build up the
conflict.
Climax: The highest point of the story. The conflict may be
resolved.
Falling Action: The impacts of the climax are shown.
Resolution: Providing a sense of ending.

4. Star Wars Climaxes
A New Hope: Luke destroys the Death Star. (External
conflict)
Empire Strikes Back: Luke learns that DarthVader is his
Father (Internal Conflict…needs more resolution later).
Return of the Jedi: Vader kills the Emperor and returns to
the Light Side (External & Internal Resolution)

5. Falling Action & Resolution
Falling Action:
Luke cremates Vader
Luke meets with his friends
Resolution:
Luke sees Anakin’s Force Ghost at the Ewok party
(NubWUB!)

6. Flashbacks
Moments when your character returns to a memory from earlier
in their life. This should shed light on their character or the story.
5 Tips in Writing Effective Flashbacks:
Find a trigger to ignite a flashback. Think about when you are
suddenly pulled into a memory...
Find a trigger to propel a return to the present...
Keep it brief... (1-2 paragraphs for our story)
Make sure the flashback advances the story or to reveal
something important about your character...
Use flashbacks sparingly.

7. Flashback Analysis
What was the trigger that pulled Bruce into his flashback?
What triggers Bruce’s return to the present?
What does this flashback reveal about the character and
story?

8. The platoon of twenty-six soldiers moved slowly in the dark, single file, not talking.
One by one, like sheep in a dream, they passed through the hedgerow, crossed
quietly over a meadow and came down to the rice paddy. There they stopped. Their
leader knelt down, motioning with his hand, and one by one the other soldiers
squatted in the shadows, vanishing in the primitive stealth of warfare. For a long
time they did not move. Except for the sounds of their breathing, ...the twenty-six
men were very quiet: some of them excited by the adventure, some of them afraid,
some of them exhausted from the long night march, some of them looking forward
to reaching the sea where they would be safe. At the rear of the column, Private
First Class Paul Berlin lay quietly with his forehead resting on the black plastic stock
of his rifle, his eyes closed. He was pretending he was not in the war, pretending he
had not watched Billy Boy Watkins die of a heart attack that afternoon. He was
pretending he was a boy again, camping with his father in the midnight summer
along the Des Moines River. In the dark, with his eyes pinched shut, he pretended.
He pretended that when he opened his eyes, his father would be there by the
campfire and they would talk softly about whatever came to mind and then roll into
their sleeping bags, and that later they’d wake up and it would not be a war and that
Billy Boy Watkins had not died of a heart attack that afternoon. He pretended he
was not a soldier.
In the morning, when they reached the sea, it would be better. The hot afternoon
would be over, he would bathe in the sea and he would forget how frightened he
had been on his first day at the war. The second day would not be so bad. He would
learn.
There was a sound beside him, a movement and then a breathed: "Hey!"

9. Foreshadowing
Providing information on what will come later in the story.
This can set the stage and create tension for the reader.
Example: Her car sped down the street and away from me
forever. At the time, I could not fathom how it all came to
be. But looking back on it now, I can’t say that it should
have come as much of a surprise.

10. Show, Don’t Tell
Telling: Telling your reader a detail or characteristic
Showing: Painting a picture in the reader’s mind that
makes the action come alive.
Telling: James woke up suddenly.
Showing: With his heart pounding so hard that it felt like it
would burst out of his chest, James sat up suddenly from
his sleep and frantically looked around his room.

11. Show, Don’t Tell Practice
Turn these examples of telling into showing.
Telling: James loved Betty.
Telling: It was hot and I was thirsty.
Telling: Gunther was nervous.

12. Choosing a Tense
Present Tense
Example: I run as fast as
I can.
Pros: Immediacy &
voice. Good for action.
Con: Too many details to
cover.
Past Tense
Example: I ran as fast as
I could.
Pros: Moving around in
Time. Less mistakes.
Cons: Can reveal
Outcomes.

13. Point of View: First Person
Example: I heard bullets whistling overhead.
Pros:
Greater intimacy between the reader and narrator
Only see what the narrator sees…build suspense
Gains access into the character’s thinking and perspective on
situataions
Cons:
We only know what the narrator knows.
We cannot learn about something that the narrator does not
know about. (What is the true intention of the other soldier?)
Reader assumes that the narrator survives the story (If past
tense)

14. Point of View:
Third Person Omniscient
All knowing Narrator.
Pros
Can know the motives of other characters
Can travel between characters and time periods
Can provide context and build on the setting besides what
the character sees
Can reveal information that the main character does not
know.
Cons
Less intimate
Narrator must be reliable.

15. Point of View:
Third Person, Limited
The narrator only knows what the main character knows.
Pros
More intimate than 3rd Person Omniscient but less than first
person.
Can’t know if the main character will survive.
Cons
Limited to only what the narrator knows.
Narrator is reliable.

16. Rules of Writing Dialogue
http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/write-like-a-pro-
master-the-rules-of-dialogue-in-writing
"Hey!" a shadow whispered. "We're moving… Get up.”
"Okay.”
"You sleepin', or something?"
"No." He could not make out the soldier's face. With clumsy,
concrete hands he clawed for his rifle, found it, found his helmet.
The soldier-shadow grunted. "You got a lot to learn, buddy. I'd
shoot you if I thought you was sleepin'. Let's go."