A narrative develops a real or imagined experience or event. When you develop your narrative, use effective writing techniques, descriptive details, and clear event sequence.
Topic: You have a choice in writing your narrative essay:
Write a narrative essay following the guidelines below. You may choose one of the following prompts:
1. Write a personal narrative essay about a time that something frightening, unusual, or difficult happened to you and how you grew from the experience.
2. Write an original suspenseful short story that either addresses Stephen King's paradox of horror by keeping your monster as unknown as possible OR follow Edgar Allan Poe's single-effect theory to elicit one single emotional response (dread, alarm, unease, fear, shock).
3. Use this line from another American writer and build your own story from it:
"...he took what he considered a short cut homewards through the swamp. Like most short cuts, it was an ill-chosen route… It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveller into a gulf of black, smothering mud."
Prompt:
Write your own narrative following one of the three options provided. Your narrative must use narrative techniques such as dialogue, characterization, setting, 1st or 3rd point of view, description, and plot sequencing/story arc.
Audience: As you write your narrative, reveal your writing voice by choosing a narrator and point of view that allow your readers to experience the story and relate to the characters in a meaningful way.
