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WRITING A NARRA TIVE

Heroes and villains adjectives to describe
good characters
A good story needs to have cunning arrogant
interesting characters that the moody nasty
reader cares about. Usually, there is selfish
a main character, or hero. There are quick-tempered stubborn honest
also villains, who stop the hero from enthusiastic
reaching his or her goals, and allies, rude kind
who help the hero. Each character humorous caring
should be distinctive, with unique adjectives to describe patient
physical or personality traits. bad characters helpful
modest

The perfect setting Dramatic dialogue
The setting is the time, place, and situation where the Using dialogue in a story can reveal more about the
action happens. The right setting will give the story mood characters and advance the plot. It should be concise
and atmosphere. For example, a pirate story could be set and dramatic—overly long or pointless pieces of
on a deserted tropical island in the seventeenth century. dialogue should be avoided. Choosing phrases such
Describing a setting in detail will enable the reader to as he grumbled, he screamed, or he gasped instead
imagine what it is like. of he said also adds more drama.

Pieces of dialogue need to
go in quotation marks.

“Is that you, Captain?”
shouted the first mate.

The island was deserted, “Of course it is. Now, hurry
except for the multicolored up and lower a boat to fetch

birds circling overhead. me,” bellowed the captain.
The golden sandy beach

was fringed with coconut A new speaker’s dialogue Use more interesting
trees and tropical plants. needs to go on a new line. words as an alternative
to said.
A ghostly shipwreck in the
distance was being pounded
• Use a mixture of long and short sentences to build up
against the craggy rocks by tension and suspense.
crashing waves. • Figurative language such as the simile as fast as
a cheetah can enrich the description in a narrative.
However, use it sparingly—too much description
Words that contain description, can distract the reader from the action.
such as sounds, paint a vivid
picture of the scene.