IF YOU LIKE WRITING STORIES PLEASE HELP ME Although writing fiction is a creative, artistic process, it still requires hard work and advanced planning to integrate ideas and themes, develop strong characters, and tell a compelling story. The Call of the Wild has all of these elements and, by reflecting on what you have learned from that novel, you can better prepare to create your own narrative essay about the Klondike. Before you Begin
One of the keys to a successful narrative is attention to detail. The more details you include in a story, the more the reader will be able to picture what you are describing and feel what you want felt. To help create a narrative with rich details, ask yourself a few questions before you begin. You can begin to jot down some ideas that come to mind as you read and answer the following questions:

Characters
First of all, who are the characters? Will the story focus on one primary character, or will there be multiple main characters? Once you have a sense of who the main characters are, think about who exactly you want them to be:

What is the history of your main characters?
What has happened to them before your story begins?
How has that shaped who they are, and what they believe?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
The more you understand about who the characters are at the beginning of your story, the more prepared you will be to explore what happens to them in the story.

Setting
You will write a narrative set in the frozen North, but when? Consider the following questions as you design the setting:

Is it set in the present, past, or future?
What time of year is it?
Does your story take place in the city or the countryside?
In The Call of the Wild, the setting isn't just the Klondike, but the Klondike Gold Rush, an event. That context shapes the entire story, and the details of that context are present throughout the book. Carefully consider the world in which your narrative takes place.

Plot
Part of writing is an act of discovery: as you write, you figure out plot and events, but you still want to have a rough sense of what will happen in your story before you begin.

What major events are going to happen?
What will they contribute to the story?
What conflicts will occur?
How will those conflicts be resolved?
As you think about plot, reflect on how events are related to themes.

What universal idea do you want to express in your story?
What connection do you want to make with your reader?
What message can you share with your reader through your story?
Narrative Voice
The narrator is often a fictitious character who the author has created in order to tell the story. Therefore, your narrator can be a character in your story, as is the case with first-person. Or, your narrator can be a person who is not directly involved in the story, but rather is someone who tells the story – that is third-person narration. Either way, the narrator is not the author. As the author, you get to choose the person who tells the story.

Is this story going to be written in the first person?
Or will it be written using third-person limited?
Or third-person omniscient narration?
Consider the chart below to distinguish the differences between these narrative voices and consider which one will best suit your story. Remember, you, as the author, are not necessarily the narrator.

Each of the different narrative voices will result in a vastly different tone for your story. Think carefully about how you want information to be revealed, and how you want your narrator to sound.

Audience
By considering who your audience may be, you can tailor your story to their knowledge and expectations. Consider the following questions:

Who is this story for?
What do they know about the subject of your story?
What may the narrator have to inform them of so that the audience understands the context of the story?
You don't need to know exactly who will be reading it, but it is always important to have a sense of who your readers might be. If Jack London had written The Call of the Wild with an audience of wealthy academics in mind, he might have written a tremendously different book.

Themes and Purpose
Finally, give some thought as to why you are writing this narrative.

What do you want to say?
What is the point of your story?
Is your purpose to entertain? To inform? To persuade?
By understanding the purpose of your story at the start of the writing process, it will help you shape the narrative arc of your story.

Details, Details, Details
Remember, the key to good writing is rich, descriptive detail. You can now use the chart below to fill in the information that you gathered by answering the previous questions: