Inside Language, Literacy, and Content [Level C]

Focus on Genre: Narrative Writing

• Fiction
• Nonfiction

Narrative writing can be fiction or nonfiction, but it always sounds like a story. In narrative fiction, the writer imagines the details of the story. In narrative nonfiction, the writer tells about real people and events.

How It Works

In narrative fiction, the setting, characters, and events are often believable, even if they are not real.

A Dark Storm

At eight o’clock in the morning, it was already hot and dry. Uncle Roy walked into the kitchen. He had gone to work in the field just a few minutes before, so Aunt Doris was surprised to see him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“There’s a storm coming,” he replied. “But it’s not like any storm I have ever seen.”

The sky got darker and darker. They could hear the wind. It wasn’t rain that was blowing, though. It was dust.

In narrative nonfiction, the setting, people, and events are real. Oleta Belezzuoli lived in Oklahoma in the 1930s. She tells about a dust storm.

The First Dust Storm

We were living in Oklahoma. I remember the first sandstorm. We were walking home probably three or four miles and this huge, huge black cloud came. We thought it was going to be a thunderstorm or a rainstorm, but it was only dust. And it just blotted out the sun. It was just like night. People had to use their car lights. The town lights went on. Afterwards, sand piled up two feet high in front of the door. It went through windows and every place.