Tess Barron
- Jun 4, 2023
- 10 min read

Part 3: The Components of Narrative Storytelling

Series Contents:

Why Show, Don't Tell Advice Might Be Holding You Back

Level 2: The Plumbing & Electrical of Show, Don't Tell—The Components of Narrative Storytelling

In the last part, we talked about how POV sets the stage for everything that is to come and how to get your story to hit the right primal emotional cord from the very first paragraph.

That was the foundation, but now we move onto the plumbing and electrical. Things that every building needs, but few people rarely consider once the walls are up.

So, on here on level two, be make sure that our basic necessities are properly functioning before we start putting the "walls" up over our story.

This time we discuss:

The Components of Narrative Storytelling

Or if you prefer, the components of fiction. I will be using the terms interchangeably.

Once you've nailed your POV, it's time to start thinking about how you are going to write your scenes. You have hopefully structured and outlined your story, and now you've begun plucking away at the scenes you planned.

As you're writing them, whether you are aware of it or not, you are constantly making decisions about the components of narrative storytelling—namely, whether to write in immediate scene, narrative summary, or description.

Let's break down some definition so we can all get on the same page.

What is a component of fiction?

The components of fiction are not to be confused with the elements of fiction often described in books and blogs. The elements of fiction (depending on who you ask) are usually 5-7 aspects of a story, such as character, plot, setting, and so on.

That's what is in a story.

The components of fiction involve how a narrative is formed. For instance, if we were discussing poetry, these might be rhythm, sound, or density (or maybe not, I'm no poet). In fiction, and on the most basic level, these are:

Immediate scene, narrative summary, and description.

Immediate Scene

Sol Stein, in Stein on Writing—a great resource for any writer or editor—explains immediate scene as what happens "on stage." We are moved along through the story with the characters.

Since the advent of movies and television, readers have wanted to be able to "see" what is happening before their eyes.

But modern writers usually can't get away with writing stories how the greats used to and manage to keep their social-media-addicted reader's attention.

Immediate scene at this level is always Showing (though you can wreck it later on higher levels). Rarely, but often enough I feel this needs saying, immediate scene is referred to simply as "narrative," though I find this distinction confusing because technically, the narrative is just a story, a telling of connected events, and includes all three components.

Just be on the lookout for such a thing, because I have come across it. Anyway.

Your story should be 90 percent immediate scene. However, that is less of a rule than a modern preference. One of these days, someone will write a modern story that is 99.9 percent narrative summary like Dostoevsky and blow us all away….but that time has not come yet, and I'm sorry to say, that person probably isn't you.

Narrative Summary

Writers back in the day used to love narrative summary. It's a style akin to the essay but more personal. It was used frequently for telling stories with heavy morals, such as Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Many of the classics like The Karamazov Brothers or The Death of Ivan Ilyich were told in mostly narrative summary. Or even the more commonly known example....

....the Bible.

An Illustrated Treasury of Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova

Nowadays, we think of narrative summary as the parts of our stories that happen "offstage"—to continue with our metaphor.

The line:

"He had told her that he loved her and kissed her goodbye before she left that morning..."

...is an example of a narrative summary. It gets to the point without having to go through the scene of said "her" leaving the house and getting kissed goodbye.

A narrative summary on its own is always Telling at this level. However, in the levels above, you can still Show in your narrative summary and make it beautiful images with it.

(Remember that for our purposes, Show=Strong Image and Tell=Weak Image)

If you find narrative summary getting out of hand, chances are you are trying to put in more information than the reader needs. If it is relevant to the story, it can fit 9/10 times into an immediate scene.

Writers have a tendency to add more information than needed because they think the readers won't grasp something, or they are merely so excited about the worlds they have created that they just want to include every little detail.

Unfortunately, it quickly becomes boring to the reader.

I call it the Tom Bombadil Effect. I don't know if you have read Lord of the Rings, but if you have, you will most likely remember the huge chunk of the first book dedicated to Tom Bombadil and his wife—characters that never again grace the pages and have zero effect on the overall plot. But Tolkien was so obsessed with the world he'd built that he didn't care if his book was filled with superfluous storylines.

That's an extreme example, but most readers will not put up with it at all nowadays.

Lord of the Rings Trilogy - collectable edition

Description

If immediate scene is what happens on stage, and the narrative summary is the summation of what happens off stage, then description is the set and props. They should always be seen but rarely talked about….unless they are being used directly by the actors (characters) or are necessary to the story.

You can't get away with not using description in your story, but you should also not overdo it.

That is called an info dump, and readers hate it.

Dumping the Info-Dump

It takes some skill to incorporate your descriptions seamlessly into your narrative, but it can almost always be done in conjunction with immediate scenes to soften the landing of information.

What affects the decision to use either component?

POV

A big factor in making these decisions will be the POV you choose (level one). What mood are you going for, and how will each component lend or detract from the emotion you are trying to convey?

In the last post, I used the example of mood in a mystery:

... does the POV keep them at a distance and make them merely "watch" a murder unfold. A technique that is common in the genre to create a sense of foreboding and ominousness.

Here, immediate scene is going to help you a lot.

To create a sense of suspense, the reader should be going along for the ride with the characters.

However, that's not always the case. In our historical mystery, No Straight Thing, by F. Nelson Smith, the emotion is strengthened in a passage near the beginning by using narrative summary to lead us down a path toward a bad omen and then the inciting event.

Take a look:

The second Tuesday in August started out as expected that summer of 1936, hot and airless. As the day wore on, the heat radiating off roads and sidewalks dissolved into watery illusions. The occasional breeze wafted heat-laden air against people and buildings as if to suck out the last bit of moisture. Near four o'clock in the afternoon, a few wilting citizens remarked on the large ring around the sun, but experienced people sprang into action. Proprietors shut up stores, housewives slammed windows closed, and stuffed rags or mats around thresholds. Mothers with shrill voices urged children into shelter while whipping the washing off clotheslines.

In the distance along the horizon to the east, a huge black cloud, roiling in on itself, tossed in silent fury as it moved toward the city. It covered the entire width of the horizon, growing larger with frightening speed. Sound arrived first, like the moan of a distant train, then small swirls of dirt, tumbleweeds, and other debris danced along the streets.

The wall of dirt hit the city, twisting and blowing the ground from under feet, stealing breath and loose items away, roaring against everything in its path. In minutes, the tall, dense cloud covered the sky, and day became night.

No Straight Thing by F. Nelson Smith 2nd Edition

On the edge of town, the whine of the storm smothered the sound of cracking glass in the rows of greenhouses. Sucking winds scooped up loose wheat and detritus around the flour mills, firing the missiles against the warehouses. Fine grit found its way into every nook and cranny, affecting rich and poor alike on both sides of the tracks. In the downtown business core, drivers blinded by the black clouds parked helter-skelter on the street. Shoppers caught outside groped their way to the doors of Eaton's, Woolworth, or any handy hiding place.

Fergus Muir later remarked to his father, Malcolm, if these storms kept on any longer, the whole of Saskatchewan would pass through Cypress Landing. Years later, people remembered the lamenting howl and grime of a black blizzard, the worst they'd seen.

When it was over, folk came out of their houses and did as they had done before; scraped away the drifts from the doors and windows, hosed down the vegetable gardens, and inspected the remains of the bounty that was to keep them in food during the winter. Housewives or servants swept, cleaned, and polished inside. City crews were out doing the same maintenance on the streets, parks, and boulevards. Industry owners inspected inventory in the open, awaiting shipment.

And early the next morning, a pottery worker approached a kiln scheduled for the first load of pottery. Grumbling to himself, he would first have to sweep up the usual detritus left by transients who had sheltered inside.

What he didn't expect to find when he opened the door was a body.

This amount of narrative summary works here because the author is trying to keep as much distance as possible. Almost like a news article found in a paper from the 1930s. Setting the scene while keeping the distance would have been difficult in immediate scene.

Again. Every story is different and requires a thoughtful approach to understand what will work and what will not.

Style

Your style will be an influence on what choices you make at this level. Some styles call for more of a narrative summary approach or immediate scene, or a balance of both.

Neither is wrong. And neither is going to make or break your novel. The idea is to write how you want to and in a way that fits your story while staying true to the emotional impression you are looking to make, and keeping your focus on that.

Audience.

Some audiences will prefer stories with more immediate scene, and others are more forgiving of larger chunks of narrative summary and description, such as historical fiction readers, cozy mystery readers, and older demographics.

It's always interesting to see the response from readers of different ages. To use F. Nelson Smith's book as an example once again, younger readers tend to mention that the book is "telling" in their reviews (almost always young aspiring writers), and the older reviewers, who her book is actually geared toward, love the way the story is told.

Knowing your audience is important not only to market your book effectively, but, in a way your book is not finished until it is read by the person it was written for and common meaning is shared between you and them.

All this talk about Showing and Telling isn't worth a damn if you don't have that.

Purpose of writing.

Why are you writing your story?

If you are writing to entertain, then immediate scene is your friend, and you will probably want to keep narrative summary to a minimum. If your purpose is to educate or shed light on some issue, then perhaps a bit more narrative summary is in order.

Or maybe your purpose goes deeper than that, then it is important the story also resonates with you. Do you like writing in narrative summary? Is that the better way you are able to express yourself?

Ask yourself these questions honestly, don't just decide you like the easier one to write just because the other seems too hard to accomplish.

Why Write? Finding Purpose in Writing

"Showing" on the 2nd level

Showing through the components of narrative storytelling is not an exact science (gosh, I say that a lot, but nothing in fiction writing is). All three of the components can lend to showing your story, but the art is in what you choose, at what time, and what you build on top of it.

I really just want you to be aware of the decisions you're making and when you are using each of the components in your writing rather than just doing it without a thought, as most of us do.

And for some reason that usually ends up with very narrative summary and description heavy stories. Imagine that...

We will get into this further in the next few posts when we discuss Narrative Types. This will be where things start to get complicated and varied. If the components of fiction are the macro choices you make about how to tell your story, then narrative type refers to the micro choices you will make.

Ginger Striped Cat Paw - Animal Sticker

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When we continue, I will break down the many ways to Show through Narrative Type and some of the limitations of each, starting with how to build on top of immediate scene and working our way through to description.

Let me know what you think of this level and how those choices affect your writing? How much do you think your style dictates those choices?

Or are you just confused? Please, let me know if I can clarify anything for you. I'm more than happy to answer your writing questions in the comments.

Next Steps

Here is what you need to do for your novel right now:

Write down who the perfect audience member is for your book. List everything about them—get very detailed. What kinds of shows do they like, what job do they do? Etc.
Ask yourself why you are writing to and for them. What do you have to add to their lives, what will that add to your life, and what is it that you must communicate to them.
Decide what kind of book your perfect audience member is looking for.
1. Do they want a fast-paced, high-entertainment value story with lots of forward momentum?
2. Do they want you to slow down and carefully paint a picture for them?
Compare your ideal reader to the "single emotional impression" you outlined last time. Brainstorm how you might get that person to feel that particular emotion.
1. What past experiences might they have had that you can tap into? Trouble getting women? Daddy issues? Fought in a war?
2. What shared meaning can you find between them and yourself that you can express through your book?
3. How can you relate to them? Figure that out and you will be on your way to discovering how they can relate to your story.
Remember, every other reader who is not this person doesn't matter. Writing on a deeper emotional level means your book will not be universally liked, so get over it.