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ELA 5: What's a Narrative Outline? 53 Views


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Description:

Step one: find the story's narrator. Step two: wait until they fall asleep. Step three: carefully trace their outline. Boom. Done. Or you could do it less literally in a way that would actually help your writing...yeah maybe just watch the video.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

Every once in a while in life, it’s a good idea to stop and smell the roses. [Girl smells bunch of roses]

00:17

To slow down and take it easy.

00:19

The same thing goes for writing.

00:20

Except instead of smelling the roses, you’re smelling an outline. [Man smells a piece of paper]

00:24

Er…we meant, "writing" an outline. Don't smell it.

00:27

An outline is a basic plan for what you're going to write. It’s like a map of your

00:30

story from beginning to end. [Finger pints to start point on a map]

00:32

You may not end up following it exactly, but it’s a good idea to know where you’re

00:36

going before you leave the house. [Man with a map and taxi arrives]

00:38

So when we're writing narratives, it's a good idea to use an outline based on Freytag's Pyramid.

00:42

Like most stories, ours are likely going to end up following that same general structure, [Freytag's pyramid structure]

00:46

so why not make sure you're hitting each mark before you get writing?

00:49

One outlining strategy that’s kind of fun is taking a blank sheet of paper and writing

00:53

out each part of Freytag's Pyramid from the top of the page to the bottom: exposition, [Freytag's pyramid on a smartphone screen]

00:58

inciting incident, so on and so forth.

01:00

…What? We said it was kind of fun. Keep your expectations low.

01:04

Then you can think about your own story, and make little notes of what'll be happening

01:08

at each point on the pyramid.

01:09

It might not look like a pyramid, but that’s okay. It’s a lot cheaper to build, and doesn't [Egyptian pyramid and egyptian coffin]

01:13

have any creepy mummies inside of it… An outline based around Freytag's Pyramid

01:16

can even give you some insight into how your story works.

01:20

You might have a super strong climax and want to build the rest of your story around it. [Girl points and laughs at another girl]

01:23

Or you might think you know everything that’s going to happen, but you write it out and

01:27

realize you’re missing an inciting incident.

01:28

You can use what comes before and after to help figure it all out.

01:32

Because a story without an inciting incident doesn’t go anywhere at all. [Girls in school hallway]

01:36

And neither will you if you get grounded for getting a D on this assignment.

01:39

A good outline will help you organize your ideas and give you a reliable map for the [Dino teaching about outline of writing]

01:43

writing adventure ahead.

01:44

Which is good, because that spares you the inevitable argument about whether or not to [Taxi drives up hill]

01:48

stop and ask for directions.

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