Writing the Introductionto a Narrative

In groups of 2-3, read the example introductions and

discuss:

Which one is the BEST? Why do you think it is the best?

Activity:

How did you determine which one is the best?

Activity:

What is good? What is bad?

How do you know that one thing is better than

another thing?

The only way to know if something is good

or bad is to define its purpose!

Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Born in 384BC

How do you know if this is a good cup?

What is the purpose of a cup?

How do you know if this is a good thief?

What is the purpose of a thief?

How do you know if you wrote a good personal narrative?

What is the purpose of a personal narrative?

How do you know if you wrote a good introduction?

What is the purpose of a narrative introduction?

In your table groups, make a brainstorm web.

Purpose of a Personal Narrative

In your table groups, make a brainstorm web about the purpose of a personal narrative (what does a good

personal narrative do?)

To entertain and interest the reader To show something true about the author’s life and experiences To help the reader clearly envision the story & connect to the story To show something unique or meaningful about you, the author

What makes a good personal narrative?

To entertain and interest the reader To show something true about the author’s life and experiences To help the reader clearly envision the story & connect to the story To show something unique or meaningful about you, the author To display your strengths: make you look good! To show something that application forms and resumes cannot To be short (so the admissions committee can read lots of stories)

What makes a good personal narrative?(for an application)

Purpose of an Introduction

In your table groups, make a brainstorm web about the purpose of an introduction (what does a good

introduction do?)

Catches reader’s attention!!! (Creates enough interest that the reader will want to continue) Introduces the reader to the narrator. Establishes the tone of the story & point of view. Introduces or leads into the conflict you plan on addressing in your story. Is short in length

What makes a good intro?

Catches reader’s attention!!! (Creates enough interest that the reader will want to continue) Introduces the reader to the narrator. Establishes the tone of the story & point of view. Introduces or leads into the conflict you plan on addressing in your story. Is short in length

What makes a good intro?

Strategies:(1) Start in the middle of the action:“‘Breathe in and breathe out. Clear your mind by thinking of something pleasant.' For five minutes, all of us found ourselves sitting cross-legged on the floor with a soft, sleepy look on our faces as we subconsciously nodded to the soothing rhythmic voice of our French teacher. It felt like my head was wafting in the swirls of dreamland. Time moved by swiftly and as class ended, we were forced to tend to the grueling task of untangling our aching frames, stiffened from prolonged yoga positions."

Strategies:(2) Start with something shocking:"When I was four years old I decided to challenge conventional notions of the human limit by flying through a glass window. My role-model was Superman, whose exploits on television had induced my experiment. Nine stitches and thirteen years later, while I no longer attempt to be stronger than steel or faster than a speeding bullet, I still find myself testing my limits, mental and physical."

Strategies:(3) Start with something misleading:"I am an addict. I tell people I could stop anytime, but deep inside, I know I am lying. I need to listen to music, to write music, to play music every day. I can't go a whole day without, at the very least, humming or whistling the tunes that crowd my head. I sing myself hoarse each morning in the shower, and playing the trumpet leaves a red mouthpiece-shaped badge of courage on my lips all day. I suspect that if someone were to look at my blood under a microscope, they would see, between the platelets and t-cells, little black musical notes coursing through my body."

Strategies:(4) Withhold information. Create mystery:"I had a mental image of them standing there, wearing ragged clothes, hot and depressed, looking upon us as intruders in their world. They would sneer at our audacity. We would invade their territory only to take pictures and observe them like tourists.

We climbed out of the van and faced eleven men assembled in the shade. My class, consisting of twelve primarily white, middle-class students, felt out of place. Our class at the Governor's School summer environmental program included an interview with migrant workers.”

Strategies:(5) Introduce a problem:

"I have often wondered whether the United States has an obligation to get involved in the internal conflicts of other countries. When does the power to intervene become an obligation to act? I gained some insight into this dilemma when a small part of the Bosnian war spilled into my home last year."

Strategies:

“I hate clowns. I hate vines. I hate fuzzy caterpillars. But most of all, I hate leeches. They are full harbors of evil on Earth. Their zombie-like way of crawling, as if their life is turned on for one second to create that signature hump of a worm, and then quickly turned off, instantly flattening out, dead, brings me to tears. Before long they are up again, repeating this pattern; their black covering sparkling, creating the most shocking juxtaposition of attempted beauty on a creature so wicked. They are shown falling from leaves, free as children on monkey bars, their intentions seemingly unknown to the deranged cameraman filming them. When they find that next prey they are spellbound, burrowing their fang-rimmed faces into the leg of an unsuspecting hiker… Despite my aversion to the leech, I am still planning on joining the Peace Corps.”

(6) Use vivid imagery and description:

Strategies:

“In college, I dated a guy named George. When he friend requested me on Facebook many years later, I accepted. Eager to find out what he'd been up to, if he got married, had kids, if he was still single and if he ever found himself, I checked his Facebook wall, only to discover that he was maybe, kind of, sort of... dead. I wasn't sure, so I emailed and asked.

Hey, George, Thanks for the friend request. Quick question, are you dead? I'm asking because your wall is littered in posts from friends alluding to your demise. Hit me back in spirit or via email. —Katie"

(7) Use humor:

The First Line:

Even just the first line of your introduction should catch a reader’s attention! Read the following list of famous first lines, and vote on the ones that make you want to continue reading the most…

There will be two rounds.

1. A screaming comes across the sky. —(Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow)

2. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —(Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude)

3. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —(Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina)

4. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —(George Orwell, 1984)

5. I am an invisible man. —(Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man)

6. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. —(Franz Kafka, The Trial)

7. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. —(Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler)

1. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. —(J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye)

2. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —(Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier)

3. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. —(Charles Dickens, David Copperfield)

4. Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. —(Ha Jin, Waiting)

5. The moment one learns English, complications set in. —(Felipe Alfau, Chromos)

6. I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. —(Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome)

Good or bad first lines?

“This is the story of the time I went on a hero’s journey and learned that friendship is more

powerful than sadness.”

“One day, a conjectural anecdote resulted in a most calamitous insurrection directed at my

nostrils.”

“Do you have a hobby so important to your life that you feel you can’t live without it?”

Good or bad first lines?

Don’t re-state the prompt. Don’t directly tell the reader what the story is going to be about.

Use your own natural language: don’t use “big words” that you don’t understand as a way of

making your writing sound smarter.

Avoid boring, simple questions.

What NOT to do:

Don’t summarize what you plan on talking about in the rest of your story.

Don’t include any form of the phrase, “I am going to write about”…

Don’t use slang.

Don’t start with a definition (this is cliche)

Trade your story introduction with someone at your table group. (Do a 3-way trade if necessary). Read your partner’s introduction, and decide whether or not it is catchy. Does it make you want to read on? Share your opinions with your partner.

Activity