When
do we tell stories?
You don’t need to
be a professional writer to tell a story. Maybe you’re telling your friends
about a special person you met last night. Maybe you’re explaining to your boss
why you haven’t finished the report. Of course, maybe you’re one of the lucky
people who *can* write stories.
Master
the past
No matter
who you are, if you want to tell a story in English, there’s one rule you can
learn here:
90% of English stories are written in the past tense. So, to tell a story
in English, we must be masters of the past tense.
Let’s
look at some examples of the past tense in classic (English) literature. We can
see how this tense makes our story great…
We’ll
start with the simplest tense (literally!)
We use the past simple to describe: an action which happened in the
past. The action is finished, and the time is finished.
To make
things easy, we can tell our story in the past
simple tense. Some of the greatest lines in English literature have
begun with a very short past-simple sentence:
The past simple
tense is perfect, classic and, well, simple. But sometimes it isn’t enough. So
another tense becomes useful…
We use the *past continuous* to describe: an action which happened over a
long time. During this time, another (past simple) action may happen.
The first
two “opening lines” above are the best examples of the past continuous: they
clearly show the meaning of this form. We could say this sentence another way:
“I was looking for Abraham Trahearne [for a long
time]. He was drinking beer when I found him.”
The
second example (1984) contains a
strange, but descriptive verb: striking.
This literally means “hitting”, and the verb is used here to describe the sound
of bells in a clock which were being hit thirteen
times: during this long event, Winston Smith slipped
into (quickly entered) Victory Mansions.”
Now that
we have the grammar, let’s put it into practice using everyone’s favourite
idiot, Mr. Bean. Take a look at this video…
Here are
some sentences (in the present tense) which describe the video. As you read
them, think:
1. How do we
say these sentences in the past simple
tense?
2. How do we
say these sentences in the past continuous
tense?
3. Which is
better for each sentence: the past simple,
or the past continuous?
Mr. Bean
takes a flight.
Mr. Bean sits beside a sick boy.
Mr. Bean tries to listen to music.
The air stewardess offers the boy a drink. (The boy refuses.)
Mr. Bean dances in his seat.
Mr. Bean hits the stewardess by accident.
Mr. Bean tries to entertain the boy.
Mr. Bean does many funny things.
The plane goes up and down.
Mr. Bean looks away for a moment.
The boy vomits into a bag, and gives it to Mr. Bean.
Mr. Bean inflates the bag (which is full of vomit) and bursts it.
[scroll down for the
answers…]
******************************************************
******************************************************
Mr. Bean was taking a flight. He was
sitting beside a sick boy.
As Mr. Bean was dancing in his seat, he hit the stewardess by accident.
He was trying to entertain the boy, and he did many funny things.
The plane went up and down.
While Mr. Bean was looking away for a moment,
the boy vomited into a bag, and gave it to Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean inflated the bag (which was full of vomit) and burst it!
Adverbs
& order
We used a
couple of time markers to help us
link the past continuous tense with the past simple tense in each sentence:
As Mr. Bean was dancing in his seat,
he hit the stewardess by accident.
While Mr. Bean was looking away for a moment, the boy vomited into a
bag, and gave it to Mr. Bean.
(another time marker, which we didn’t use, is when: “When I was eating
my dinner, I got a message.”)
These
words are very common in English, and they make things clear for the
reader/listener. We can also use adverbs to make a sentence stronger,
or to make an action clearer and more specific.
Adverbs are words which (almost always) end in –ly. They can be used at the start of a sentence, at the end of a
sentence and/or near a verb.
We know
that Mr. Bean didn’t want to hit the stewardess, so we say he “hit the
stewardess by accident.” We can replace these last two words with the
word accidentally. This is an
adverb which gives more information about the action.
Here are
some very popular adjectives in English stories:
suddenly
Meaning: very very quickly
Example: “Mr. Bean was dancing in
his seat. Suddenly, he hit the
stewardess.” (or “He suddenly hit the
stewardess.”)
unexpectedly
Meaning: not expected, a surprise
(good or bad)
Example1: “The plane unexpectedly
went up and down.” (or “The plane went up and down unexpectedly.”)
definitely / probably /
possibly
Meaning: expressing how possible
something was.
Example: “It was probably
six o’clock. He wasn’t wearing a watch, but the sky was almost black.”
firstly /
secondly…finally
Meaning: a list of events/reasons
Example: “He had many reasons to be at
the wedding. Firstly , he knew both
the man and his wife. Secondly,
he was a family friend. Finally, he had nowhere else to go.”
Eventually /
Finally
Meaning: after a long time
Example: “She waited for him at the
cinema entrance. Eventually, after half an hour, he arrived.”
These are
not all the adverbs in the English language. Stephen King once said that the
writer’s basic “bread” is his/her vocabulary. Learn more adverbs and your
stories will become better every day.
The
5 Ws
Our last
principle of story-writing is that of the 5 Ws. The principle, which writers
and journalists of English all learn, is that a story can, very simply, answer
the 5 Ws:
What
happened?
Where
did it happen?
When
did it happen?
Why
did it happen?
AND
Who
was involved?
The 5 Ws
can be seen in the first 2-3 sentences of any news story. Here’s an example
from today’s news (12 March 2014)
An explosion caused the
swift and entire collapse of two buildings in the East Harlem neighborhood of
New York on Wednesday, causing at least two deaths and 22 injuries.
What
happened?
two buildings collapsed
Where
did it happen?
in East Harlem (New York)
When
did it happen?
on Wednesday
Why
did it happen?
an explosion caused it
AND
Who
was involved?
2 people (who died) and 22 people (who were injured)
Take any
movie or story – an old classic or a new blockbuster; a short tale or a long book;
a boring presentation or an exciting adventure – and you should be able to
answer the 5 W’s. Try to explain these:
- Titanic
(the movie)
- a recent sports event in your
country
- your last holiday
- Romeo
and Juliet
Time to try...
This
seems like a good time to try to build a story, using another Facebook
exercise.
Do your
best to build the first sentence(s) of a story using:
the past simple tense
the past continuous tense
an adverb
For
example, we can practice our first line (in the past tense) if we choose:
WHO a tall, muscular
soldier
WHAT(1) was standing / stood
WHERE on a boat
WHEN in the middle of the
night
WHAT2 an
explosion
WHY because the plan was
almost ready
Here is one possible way to tell the story:“A
tall muscular soldier was standing on the
deck of a boat. It was the middle of the
night, but electric lights shone all around
him. He was there because the plan was
almost ready. Suddenly, he heard an
explosion.”
“Read
a lot, write a lot”
There is one
thing we can’t teach you here at English42. No teacher can teach you this. You
can only study it yourself. It’s the most important rule of telling a good
story:
Descriptive language makes the best story.
As we
said in our Facebook post this week…
Using the right words, instead of lots of words, should always be your rule when you're telling a story.
Here’s
another example.
There is a difference between the words shouted
and whispered. They share the
same basic word/meaning: said. But replace
the basic word, and you paint a better, more descriptive picture:
“I promise I’ll always love you,”
she said to me.
“I promise I’ll always love you,” she whispered to me.
Using the right words is an art which all story-tellers try to master. Some of
them are very good at it: they become successful authors, or comedians, or
journalists.
They have a talent, but most importantly they have always
tried to expand their vocabulary.
It’s
simple: the more words you know, the better your English is. The more you
study, the more words you learn. We’ll end with the advice (again) of one of
the English language’s most successful writers:
