1. TW3: Structure
[Included in this presentation: how
the structure of your narrative
focuses attention on particular lines +
how to use this to your benefit]

2. Introduction material: justifying the
narrative approach
• burden of truth
• postmodernism/liquid modernity
(Bauman)/high modernity (Giddens)  rejection
of transcendental signified, purality in
language, meaning + truth/s, rejection of
absolutes + metanarratives
• verisimilitude > validity
• narrative analysis- Polkinhorne + paradigmatic
analysis

3. Saying a lot with a little
Ernest Hemmingway’s ‘6 word novel’:

4. Saying a lot with a little
Selected other ‘6 word novels’. These are from sci-fi
writers, authors who found their careers on short stories.
I’m your future, child, don’t cry
Stephen Baxter
Please, this is everything, I swear
Orson Scott Card
Dorothy: Fuck it, I’ll stay here
Steven Meretzy

5. Poignancy: doesn’t have to be ‘fancy’
Bukowski’s ‘The Post Office’:
• Semiautobiographical
• Full of body-centred experiences (drinking, sex
etc)
• Sometimes written in stream of consciousness
(more on this later)
“..combed my hair. If only I could comb [my] face, I
thought, but I can’t”
“How will I get this poor mad bastard to shut up? I
went home each night dizzy and sick. He was
murdering me with the sound of his voice”

6. Poignancy: when and how
Roald Dahl’s ‘Someone Like You’, a collection of
short scary stories
Each story ends with exceptionally creepy, evocative
last line/s 
Elicits reader response at a different time in the
narrative, and using a different structural
method, than Bukowski
Will you always want to ‘ham up’ your writing and
overtly bring about a strong, emotive response?

7. Coursework layout
• 1000-1300 words of narrative..
..roughly equates to: 1 ¾ sides of A4
• How might your preferred story fall into this
space? How many paragraphs? Free-floating
lines..?