26 narrative techniques for writers

1. Use the setting

- create settings that reflect a character's mood or circumstances. You can also use a setting to impact a
character's decision-making process, making it an active component of a story's conflict.
2. Create foreshadowing
- way to provide hints about events in a story before they happen. Writers often use foreshadowing to add an
element of tension and emotion to their stories, as readers may recognize the event and continue reading to
see if they're correct.
3. Include sensory image
- create all the visuals of a scene using only words
4. Provide a “cliffhanger”
- describes an ending of a story that withholds information about how a narrative resolves. It often suggests
multiple ways a story could resolve, which allows readers to speculate about their preferred ending.
5. Change the chronology
- use a flashback or flash-forward to include relevant experiences from a character's past or future.
6. Choose a point of view
- typically describes who narrates a story's events. Writers typically choose a perspective that best conveys the
information they prefer readers to know versus what they prefer to obscure.
7. Incorporate character voice
- particular way a character expresses themselves in their inner monologue or to others in a story
8. Use symbolism
- use of objects or words to represent an abstract concept or mood. Writers often incorporate symbols in a
story to develop its core themes and add another emotional element.
9. Create an unreliable narrator
- typically characters who deliberately omit information from a reader.
10. Involve readers in the story
- Some writers incorporate readers in the narrative of a text. For instance, characters may know they're in a
work of fiction or display an understanding that readers are currently observing their actions.
11. Record a stream of consciousness
- Stream of consciousness is a method of conveying the immediate thoughts and perceptions of a central
character moving through a scene. It typically involves long sentences and focuses more heavily on a
character's emotions than a sequence of plot points.
12. Personify an animal character
- Writers often personify animals by giving them the attributes of humans, allowing them to have human
motivations and language abilities. Many fable and fairy tale writers personify animals to give the story a
fantastical style and tone.
13. Include big surprises in a plot
- some writers introduce an unforeseen event in a story that dramatically alters the narrative.
14. Make a satire or parody (comedy)
15. Compose a metaphor
- Metaphors are a type of figurative language that describes s omething by referring to something else.
16. Include a simile
- Using the elements from the metaphor above, an example of a simile might be, "Love is like an ocean."
17. Resolve your plot neatly
- helps you provide a simple, clarified ending to a story. For instance, consider a play with a conflict between
two siblings about who should inherit land from a relative.
18. Write a narrative-within-a-narrative
- Writers often use this technique to comment on storytelling as a practice. For instance, you might have
characters introduce a narrative-within-a-narrative at the beginning of a story, write this full narrative in the
middle, then bring the original characters back to discuss it at the end.
19. Start in the middle of a story
- To reveal a backstory, they often include hints through dialogue and narration. You can use this technique to
add urgency to a story, which may increase a reader's sense of suspense.
20. Use a hyperbole
- involving an intense exaggeration to convey a fact. Writers often include hyperbole to emphasize these
statements to readers, offering them more clarity about a situation or its emotional relevance. Consider the
hyperbole, "I walked a thousand miles" spoken by a character who lacks this capability.
21. Design an author surrogate
- Some writers include a character to represent themselves.
22. Construct an allegory
- represents a larger idea or event from a society that actually exists.
23. Use alliteration
- Writers use alliteration to emphasize a particular phrase or to create memorable lines.
24. Involve a "Red herring"
- A red herring is a technique for presenting misleading information that directs a character away from an
important concept or fact.
25. Try the cut-up method
- you remove individual words or sentences from a written text to create something new. You can use it to
comment on an original piece or alter its context.
26. Add defamiliarization
- writer describes a common situation using uncommon descriptions. You can use this technique to examine
aspects of daily life in a particular society to help readers develop a new perspective.