Page 137 - 2023-bfw-FLL-2e

Characterization activity
Think about yourself at the time of the story you chose in the previous activity as the writing workshop
subject for your narrative. Imagine that you have to describe yourself to someone who
has never met you. Use the following prompts to help you freewrite a paragraph about
yourself at the time. These details may not end up in the final version of your narrative, /
but they will help you consider what is most important for the reader to know about
you at the time of the event. Think about the following:

1. Physical traits: age, height, eye color, other relevant physical characteristics Writing a Narrative
2. Personality traits: outgoing, reserved, funny, and so on
3. Interests: sports, favorite movies, games, toys, other activities
4. Other details of yourself at the time

Step 3. Your Narrative — Conflict
While a narrative is a retelling of an event that happened to you in real life, the most
effective narratives actually focus on the event as a conflict between you — the
narrator — and some other force. Earlier in this chapter (p. 136), you might have learned
that most conflicts in a narrative can be classified as one or more of the following:

• Self v. someone else
• Self v. nature
• Self v. society
• Self v. self
Most important in a narrative is a self v. self conflict. Ultimately, a narrative should
describe how you recognize and perhaps overcome some kind of inner conflict. For
example, in Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? she has a conflict
between two sets of friends, but she also has a conflict with herself in determining what
it really means to have and be a friend. And even though much of David Attenborough’s
narrative A Life on Our Planet is about overcoming a grueling hike in a remote area of New
Guinea, it’s also a story about his own growing understanding about how people can live
in balance with nature. Look at this section from “Learning to Love My Brown Skin” by
Erika L. Sánchez, in which she recounts her internal conflict about her self-identity.

Still, I wondered about this throughout my young life. Did the world think I was ugly?
What did it mean to be pretty? Who got to decide? The thin white girls on the ’90s
sitcoms I loved — Full House, Saved by the Bell, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch — were
always lavished with so much attention, and I didn’t look like them. For one, I was the
wrong color: I was way too brown. And when I watched Beverly Hills 90210, I was so
confused that Donna Martin, played by Tori Spelling, was considered a hot girl. Were all
blonde women automatically considered beautiful? Was I missing something? Was it
some sort of conspiracy?
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 235
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

06_SheaFLL2e_40926_ch05_130_243_6PP.indd 235 28/06/22 8:58 AM