Narrative Techniques

Each author has his own way of writing, this is because of the Narrative Technique they use, each narrative technique is different and makes an author who he is. Each component (4 of them) answers to a question.

Point of View: The point of view is the relation to who is telling the story, we have the narrator of the story, which corresponds to the first person point of view. The reader of the story, which is known as second person point of view. And someone else, and outsider looking in, which is what we call third person narration or point of view.

Narration: This answers to the question Who is the narrator talking to? It can be Direct narration, the narrator can talk directly to the reader, frame narration, a form of direct narration, this is where the narrator tells us someone else's story (although the story is technically told in the first person, we see more of the third person), and Indirect narration, the narrator may not be talking to us. The narrator may be talking to a nebulous or absent audience, telling for the sake of telling a story.

Speech: This answers to the question How does the narrator speak?, How does the narrator have character's speak? Direct speech, the characters speak for themselves. Direct speech includes the use of dialogue and quotations. We hear the character's speak directly. Nothing is summarized for us. Reported speech, opposite of direct speech. Here the narrator summarizes what others have said and done. We are retold a story. Free indirect speech, this is a clever device typical of third person limited narration, where the narrator slips from telling us about the character's thoughts to simple writing the character's thoughts.

Tense: This answers to the question When does the story take place? Past, the story is told in the past tense. Since events are already over, the narrator can decide in which order to tell them and which events are most important. Present, in the present tense, event unfold before the reader's eyes. The narrator is just as surprised by the events as the reader and has no knowledge of where the story is going. Sometimes the story really took place in the past but is told in the present for dramatic effect. This is called the historical present tense. Future, sometimes entire narratives are about events that will happen in the future. These take the form of predictions or instructions.