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Creating Pacing and Suspense in Narratives

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Creating Pacing and Suspense in Narratives 1 Creating Pacing and Suspense in Narratives Focus: Narrative Writing ELAGSE8RL3: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. ELAGSE8RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. ELAGSE8RL6: Analyze how differences in the points of view of characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor. ELAGSE7W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events. Targets: I can understand pacing. I can analyze techniques for creating a suspenseful tone and determine which is most effective. I can write a suspenseful scene in a narrative using both slow and fast pacing. Part 1: Lesson Introduction Introduction: Suspense is a technique that is used to engage audiences by making them anxious to know what will happen next. Suspense can be found in short stories, novels, plays, poems, movies, and in everyday life. Writers use narrative techniques, such as description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, sentence structure, and pacing to create suspense. 1. View the following clips: “How to Make Your Writing Suspenseful” - Victoria Smith, TED-ED, 2017. (Time: 4:35) “What is Suspense?” - HelpTeaching.com, 2015. (Time: 2:15) “In On a Secret? That’s Dramatic Irony” - Christopher Warner, TED-ED, 2013. (Time: 2:49) 2. Show students a “scary” image. (Free Pixabay images included at the end.) 3. Ask students to write a brief suspenseful paragraph about the image. Encourage students to use precise descriptive words, onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors. 4. Discuss techniques the student writers have used to make their readers feel anxious. 5. Review the following lessons with students to improve their understanding of pacing/suspense. Part 2: Pacing Mini-lesson/Teacher Modeling (Watership Down) 2 Pacing refers to how fast or how slow the events in a film or text are moving. Suspenseful scenes can be created using fast or slow pacing. Writers should focus on precise descriptions and specific details that will achieve their desired writing purpose. View the following clip from the 1978 film Watership Down. Watership Down Fight Scene (3:34) As you watch, notice where suspenseful scenes are slow-paced and where they are fast-paced. In the very beginning, the rabbit is trying to chew the sleeping dog’s rope in order to free him. This is a slowly paced scene as the rabbit works cautiously, trying not to awaken the dog. When the rabbit signals to another rabbit that a cat is nearby, the dog awakes and dashes off to chase the second rabbit. This chase scene occurs throughout the clip. All of these scenes are fast paced. View the following scenes in the film and laBel them as either FAST PACED or SLOW PACED: (:36-:48) The cat is holding and talking to the first rabbit. Slow (1:04-1:24) The small rabbit is backing down the tunnel while the large bloody rabbit approaches him. Slow (1:36-1:45) The two rabbits fight. Fast (2:51-3:34) The dog catches some rabbits. Fast In Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down, he uses description, dialogue, questioning, punctuation, dramatic irony, sentence structure, and pacing to create suspense. Read aloud the following passage from Chapter 47 and review the questions and answers: “Hurry up,” he sneered, as Vervain hesitated, uncertain whether the General was serious, “and come out as soon as you’ve finished.” Vervain advanced slowly across the floor. Even he could derive little satisfaction from the prospect of killing a tharn rabbit half his own size, in obedience to a contemptuous taunt. The small rabbit made no move whatsoever, either to retreat or to defend himself, but only stared at him from great eyes which, though troubled, were certainly not those of a beaten enemy or a victim. Before his gaze Vervain stopped in uncertainty and long moments the two faced each other in the dim light. Then, very quietly, and with no trace of fear, the strange rabbit said, “I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.” “Blame you?” answered Vervain. “Blame you for what?” “For your death. Believe me, I am sorry for your death.” DRAMATIC IRONY: The reader already suspects that the dog will be used to help attack the enemy rabbits. When the strange rabbit (Fiver) apologizes to Vervain for his death, the reader knows a suspenseful scene involving a death will happen soon. 1. Identify words or phrases that are used to create a suspenseful tone. “killing”, “contemptuous”, “troubled”, “beaten enemy”, “victim”, “fear”, “kill”, “death” 2. Identify words or phrases that are used to create slow pacing. 3 “hesitated”, “uncertain”, “advanced slowly”, “no move”, “only stared”, “stopped”, “long moments”, “faced each other”, “very quietly”, “I am sorry for you with all my heart.” 3. Analyze how questioning creates suspense in this passage? Vervain, a strong captain for the enemy, is not afraid of a strange, tiny rabbit, so he is surprised when the small rabbit tells him, “I am sorry for you with all my heart. But you cannot blame us, for you came to kill us if you could.” Both the reader and the small rabbit know the dog is on its way; Vervain’s questions to the small rabbit indicate that he does not comprehend that he is the one in danger. Read the following passage from Chapter 47: “Run!” cried Campion, stamping. “Run for your lives!” He raced through them and was gone over the down. Not knowing what he meant or where to run, they turned one way and another. Five bolted down the opened run, and a few more into the wood. But almost before they had begun to scatter, into their midst bounded a great black dog, snapping, biting, and chasing hither and thither like a fox in a chicken run. Woundwort alone stood his ground. As the rest fled in all directions he remained where he was, bristling and snarling, bloody-fanged and bloody-clawed. The dog, coming suddenly upon him… 4. Identify words or phrases that are used to create a suspenseful tone. “Run for your lives!”, “gone”, “not knowing...where to run”, “snapping”, “biting”, “chasing”, “alone”, “bristling and snarling”, “bloody-fanged”, “bloody-clawed” 5. Identify words or phrases that are used to create fast pacing. “Run!”, “stamping”, “Run for your lives!”, “raced”, “run”, “bolted”, “scatter”, “bounded”, “chasing”, “hither and thither”, “fled”, “coming suddenly” Comparing and Contrasting Pacing in These Passages: 6. How does the length of the dialogue differ in the fast pacing versus the slow pacing? Dialogue used in the slow-paced passage has long, complete sentences. Dialogue used in the fast- paced scene has short sentences that may be incomplete. 7. How does word choice differ in fast and slow pacing? Descriptive words help to create the pacing. Fast pacing will use words associated with quick movements. Slow pacing will use words that slow or stop time. 8. Explain how the author creates a suspenseful tone in Both passages? The author uses descriptive words that relate to being captured, wounded, or killed by an enemy: “killing”, “snarling”, “bloody”. The author uses punctuation and short dialogues, such as “Run for your lives!” “Run!” The author uses questioning and dramatic irony: “Blame you?” answered Vervain. “Blame you for what?” “For your death. Believe me, I am sorry for your death.” The author uses both fast and slow pacing in this chapter to engage the reader: “Vervain advanced slowly across the floor.” “Five bolted down the opened run…” Part 3: Guided Practice (The Call of the Wild) 4 Students should read the following passage and answer the questions with a partner, while the teacher circulates among them to formatively assess understanding. Read the passage from Chapter 3 of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. As Buck and Spitz chase the same rabbit, these hungry, alpha sled dogs realize they will fight to the death in order to become the leader of the pack. The author relies on descriptive words and sentence structure to create fast and slow pacing in a suspenseful scene. It was Spitz. The rabbit could not turn, and as the white teeth broke its back in mid air it shrieked as loudly as a stricken man may shriek. At the sound of this, the cry of Life plunging down from Life’s apex in the grip of Death, the fall pack at Buck’s heels raised a hell’s chorus of delight. Buck did not cry out. He did not check himself, but drove in upon Spitz, shoulder to shoulder, so hard that he missed the throat.
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