Narrative Basics Project: Making a getaway

Purpose

Practise writing an exciting chase sequence with strong verb choices and compelling environmental details.

Description

This lesson pulls together some of the elements in the Narrative Basics course. We take a small scene from Zeyn Joukhadar's The Map of Salt and Stars, in which a couple of adventurers are chased through the streets and alleys of medieval Cairo. We break the snippet into fragments, model patterns in each fragment, and then recombine. At the end, we create a checkpoint piece. This is relatively easy lesson, with simple repeated patterns. The challenge is in word choice and imaginative detail. The lesson probably takes around 1 hour, depending on the level of student ability, engagement and teacher support.

Lesson type

Detailed practice

Genre / Topic

Adventure, Action, Period