YOUR WORDS CREATE

NEW WORLD
. AN
INTRODUCTION TO
NARRATIVE WRITING
Lesson 2:
Your Words Create a World (An Introduction to Narrative Writing)
“What’s your story? It’s all in the telling. Stories are compasses and architecture; we
navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be
without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions
like arctic tundra or sea ice. To love someone is to put yourself in their place, we say,
which is to put yourself in their story, or figure out how to tell yourself their story.”
 -Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
INTRODUCTION
What was the last remarkable event that happened to you
today? Maybe you had a delicious and sumptuous breakfast
before going to school, which may have contributed much
to your good performance in class. For the first period,
during recitation, you had given such an insightful answer
that both your teacher and classmates were clearly
impressed. In another class, a few hours later, you learn that
you had scored high in your last long exam and your crush
congratulated you for it. Wouldn’t you want to share these
stories, if someone would ask you how your day went?
 The Day the Dancers Came
 BIENVENIDO N. SANTOS
 Fil and Tony were both old Filipino men living in Chicago ever since
World War II ended. Fil describe itself as an ugly old man and
described Tony as a good-looking gentleman that than he really was.
The story was basically about how a group of Philippine dancers were
arriving in Chicago that day and Fil thought that it would be an
excellent idea if he took the dancers around the city, showed them the
sights and invite them back to his place for some adobo and chicken
relleno. For the first part of the story, Fil constantly talked about the
dancers to his friend and roommate Tony. Fil and Tony have been
friends pretty much ever since they moved to the US and the entire
time, Tony had been suffering from a disease that frustrated many
doctors in which caused gradual peeling all over his body.
 When Tony left for the doctor, Fil left a little later to
meet the dancers at the hotel. When he got there and
saw all the dancers, he completely forgot what he
wanted to say and lost all train of thought. So when
he finally managed to gather up all the confidence he
had left to invite them to his house, they would just
move away or say, “No, thanks, we’re too busy.”
Later that night, he ended up going to the show alone
since Tony hadn’ t yet returned from the doctor.
Despite the disappointment he had earlier that day,
Fil contemplated that if he would just record the
show on his tape recorder, he would have the sounds
with him to help him remember the dancers, the show
and bring back past memories.
 When he got home, he noticed that Tony was back. Tony
commented that the dancers weren’t with him and that he knew
they never would became home him in the first place. Fil then
started to listen to his tape recorder and his failure from earlier that
day no longer mattered to him because his recording had brought
him a certain feeling and it just filled him up with different
memories and emotions. While he listened, Tony was yelling from
his room telling him to shut his recorder off. When he asked Tony
what the doctors had to say, Tony wouldn’t answer. Tony then
asked what the dancers were like and Fil told him that they were
really beautiful, young and graceful. He heard Tony let out a sigh
but as he looked down to the tape recorder he held in his hands, he
noticed that the spools were spinning and he finally realized that he
had pressed erase. When he tried to play it back, there was nothing
except for a screaming part of the finale with drums and the tolling
of the bell. When he looked outside, it was already morning.
Discussion Questions
A. Why are Fil and Tony in Chicago? Why can’t
they just go back to the Philippines?
 B. Compare and contrast Fil and Tony. Why is
Fil excited to meet the dancers from the
Philippines? Is Tony just as excited as Fil? How
do their views on the performer arrival in
Chicago reflect their personalities as Filipinos
living for such a long time in the United States?
C. Fil can be associated with the symbol of the fetus, as evidenced by
the following quotation from the story: Fil once”…took charge of a
row of bottles on a shelf each bottle containing a stage of the human
embryo in preservatives, from the lizard-like fetus of a few days,
through the newly born infant, with its position unchanged, cold and
cowering and afraid. He had nightmares through the years of himself
inside a bottle.” What is the significance of the fetus in symbolizing
Fil’s situation in Chicago?
D. Why do the dancers avoid Fil when he approaches them?
E. What does the magic sound mirror represent?
Narrative Writing
 Narration, in its basest definition, is storytelling. It is a
sequence of events, not necessarily arranged in
chronological order, told by a narrator, happening in a
particular place at a particular time. Narration is
creating a world based on the writer’s [Link] is
also revisiting a world based on the author’s memory.
In either case, the reader is aimed to be transported
from one’s real world to the reality of the story being
read.
 An effective narrative is that which
makes the reader think and compel him/her to
read the narrative again. To achieve this
effectiveness, writers should make sure that
their narratives have a vivid description of
details, a consistent point of view and verb
tense, and a well-defined point or
significance.
Vivid Description of Details

 Narration banks so much on how the details of a

story are told. Description is appealing to the five
senses of the human body (for a more in-depth
discussion on Description, please refer to the
previous unit). Take the reader into the narrative
by letting him/her feel how it is like in the world
of your story
Consistent Point of View (POV)
 The three most commonly used points of
view are the first, second, and third points
of view. Generally speaking, one would
know that the third person point of view is
being used in a story when the pronouns he,
she, it, him, her, they, him, her, its, their
and them consistently appear in the
narration. In the sample text of The Day the
Dancers Came, the third person point of
view is used:
 Naturally. Who says you won’t? Fil argued,
thinking how wonderful it would be if he
could join the company of dancers from the
Philippines, show them around walk with
them in the snow, watch their eyes as they
stared about them, answer their questions,
tell them everything they wanted to know
about the changing seasons in this strange
land. They would pick up fistfuls of snow,
crunch it in their fingers or shove it into
their mouths…..
 The third person POV is generally used to convey the
narrator as an omniscient and dispassionate observer.
The narrator is all-knowing; this trait enables the
reader to see not only the dialogue that happens
between or among the characters, but also the
characters’ innermost thoughts and desires. Through
internal monologue, the reader is able to penetrate the
characters’ mind to be able to understand what the
characters are not blatantly saying. Dispassion, on the
other hand, presents a relatively objective story to the
reader, one without much bias and opinion. The
narrator tells the story as it happens, with no
commentary and partiality.
Well-Defined Point or Significance
 A writer chooses a story that he/she would weave
into a narrative. The vivid details are there, and
the consistent POV and verb tense, as well. But so
what? None of these would matter if there is no
point in them. As a writer, how do you want your
narrative to be remembered? What is it about
human nature and human experience your
narrative wishes to tell your readers? The answer
to these questions will lead you to the significance
of your narrative.
 A well-defined point or significance in any narrative is
something akin to the literary element we call theme. The
theme is the unifying thought or idea born out of all the
other elements of the story. It is a universal human truth
that is not usually blatantly said in a story: rather,
unravelled as the reader reads. In the case of The Day the
Dancers Came, a reader would most likely find it strange
how a fifty year old man such as Fil act like a young child
eager to watch the dancers from the Philippines. Why
does he want to show them around? Why does he want to
entertain them in his and Tony’s apartment?
 Why does he record the dancers performance
in his magic sound mirror? Why does he
dream of Tony teaching him “how to keep
afloat?” All these questions will lead you to
one of the themes of the story which is
longing for the homeland. It is that longing
that excites Fil to watch the dancers perform-
the same longing that left him in disarray
when he accidentally erased all recordings in
his magic sound mirror. And if presented
with the chance to reunite with anyone or
anything that has anything to do with his
motherland, Fil would jump right into it.
 The human emotion of longing can be viewed
as a significance of The Day the Dancers
Came as it clearly explains the reasons behind
Fil, Tony, and the dancers’ actions throughout
the story.
 Narrative Devices
 The use of narrative devices is a technique
writers utilize to add flavour and enrich the
meaning of their stories. With these devices,
an author can shorten, lengthen, and/or focus
on a particular event in the story.
Anecdote
Anecdotes are brief narratives that are
written from the writer’s memory. It can be
used as an introduction to an essay, as an
example to illustrate a point, or as a closing
statement that caps things off nicely in your
essay or as a memento to your reader that
will make him/ her remember your narrative.
FLASHBACK

A flashback is an event that happened in the

past. As the word itself suggests, you are
“flashing back” or quickly looking at
something that had already happened. It is
not necessarily the focus of a story; rather,
more of an addition to explain or to
elaborate on a point made by the writer in
the narrative.
 TIME STRETCH
A time stretch is a single event in the story that the
author focuses writing about. In The Day the
Dancers Came, the scene in which Fil is in the
Hamilton Hotel to greet the dancers can be
considered as an example of a time stretch. Santos
dedicated at least a page to describe how Fil felt
like an outsider-an outcast, an alien, a lonely old-
timer amidst fellow countrymen-in a single scene.
There was not only a narration of events, but also
dialogue.
TIME SUMMARY
characterized to a time stretch in which a single
event is prolonged, a time summary by jamming
together multiple events and/or shortening a
relatively long period of time. Time summaries can
be determined with expression such as “In a single
day …,”Overnight…,” determinedts and/or
shortening a relatively long After the winter
season… After around a week such as a singles
after…etc.

Flashforward
Flashforward

As opposed to a flashback, a flashforward is an event that has yet to

happen in the story. It is “flashing forward” or quickly looking at
something that will happen in the future. Similar to the primary purpose
of a flashback, a flashforward is included in a narrative to add meaning
to the story.
Dialogue
 A narrative does not only have a narrator who tells a story in
accordance to how he/she observes a sequence of events. Writers
also include dialogues, a word or a series of words enclosed in a pair
of quotation marks, which signal the characters’ spoken language
Analyzing of the Author’s Craft
A. The setting dictates when and where the story is happening. In The Day the
Dancers Came, in which paragraph is the setting placed? What are the details
used to describe the setting? Which human senses do the descriptions appeal to
the most?
B. How would you describe Tony’s sickness? How does it appear on Tony’s
body?
C. Which narrative devices are used in the story? Cite examples to support your
answer.
D. Why do you think the author used the third POV in the story? Is it effective?
If the author used the first or the second POV, would it still have the same
effect?
E. Is the author’s use of verb tenses consistent in the story? Does it help you
understand the sequence of events?
 F. What is the tone of the story? How does it affect your overall
understanding of the story?