Oh what a lovely structure!

1. Oh what a lovely structure! I will learn to structure my narratives for optimum effect. I will be able to: Delay the reader Use flashbacks Use foreshadowing Build up to a deliberate ending: link your first paragraph to the last Use sub-texts

2. This is your timer • You have one minute to structure your paper into something spectacular.

3. Terminology Quiz! • What is grandiloquence? • What is florid writing? • What is the name given to writing that attacks something? • What is juxtaposition? • What is foreshadowing?

4. Mark Scheme • The narrative is complex and sophisticated and may contain devices such as sub-texts, flashbacks and time lapses. Cogent details are provided where necessary or appropriate. • Different parts of the story are balanced and the climax carefully managed. Sentence sequences are sometimes arranged to produce effects such as the building up of tension or providing a sudden turn of events.

5. Sub-texts: what’s really going on in this conversation? Wife: Here, have some lettuce. Husband: I don’t want lettuce! Give me that cheese. Wife: No, I really think you ought to eat the lettuce. It’s yummy. Husband: Cheese beats lettuce. Wife: True but you ate a lot of cheese yesterday. Why don’t you try this? Then we could make it into a salad for your lunch.

6. …and this one? Man: I’m so excited we’re moving in together. I love you. Woman: Me too. Is that the wardrobe? Man: Yes. I’ve cleared all this space for you. Woman: It doesn’t seem a lot. I don’t know if I’ll fit everything in. Man: Don’t worry, I can make more space. Woman: Where? Everywhere is cluttered. Man: I’ll find a way. Woman: Well what if you can’t and I move all my stuff and it won’t fit in? Then what will happen?

7. Have a go! • The skills: • Have your character say one thing but imply another OR • Create a SYMBOL/METAPHOR which represents something else. In pairs, try to create a conversation using sub-text in answer to the following question: Write a story entitled ‘Into the Wilderness’.

8. Build up to a deliberate ending • ‘That’s going to be important’. • What do these beginning/endings highlight?

9. Skills: • Set up your character to learn something/change their mind. • Link the ending to the beginning via juxtaposition or reflecting back to it: highlighting to the reader how far (or not) the character has come.

10. Foreshadowing • When a minor event at the start of the story symbolises or prepares the reader for a major event at the end of the story. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cq8V0HzJZY • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9irH7ruetdo • The skills: • Give the reader information at the beginning which will shape their reaction to a later event. • Actually show the event happening in a different way/different circumstance. • Exaggerate something as being so perfect the reader can guess it won’t last.

11. Flashbacks: where should we add one and what should it explain? • Man is sitting on a park bench. • A woman comes and sits next to him: she is pregnant. • The woman begins to cry because she doesn’t want to be pregnant. • The man hits the woman. • The woman is shocked but isn’t hurt. • The man apologises and explains what happened to him. • The woman realises she is happy to be pregnant. • The part happily.

12. Delay the Reader • Don’t tell them a key bit of information. • Where you are • Something terrible you’ve just done • Something unusual about your situation • Something you’re about to do • A secret • Your relationships aren’t what they seem

13. Write a story about a survivor. • November 2011. • Use the war narrative structure as a starting point. • Due in: Thursday 18th April 2013

14. Dramatising Structure • Watch the play • Note down examples of each structural technique • Make up your own!