"Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience."
Choosing the best one for your story.
First person point of view: This is when the story is told from the perspective of a character within the story, using pronouns such as "I", "me", and "my".
Second person point of view: This is when the story is told from the perspective of someone addressing the reader directly, using pronouns such as "you" and "your".
Third person point of view: This is when the story is told by a narrator who is not a character in the story, using pronouns such as "he", "she", and "they".
Limited point of view: This is when the narrator only has access to the thoughts and feelings of one character.
Omniscient point of view: This is when the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters.
Unreliable narrator: This is when the narrator is not completely truthful, accurate, or trustworthy in their account of events.
Objective point of view: This is when the narrator presents the story without any bias or subjective interpretation.
Subjective point of view: This is when the narrator presents the story with a particular bias, opinion, or perspective.
Interior monologue: This is when the reader is given access to a character's thoughts and feelings as if they were spoken aloud.
Dialogue: This is when characters speak to each other and reveal information about themselves and the plot.
Tone: This is the author's attitude towards the subject matter and the characters in the story.
Mood: This is the emotional atmosphere created by the setting, characters, and events in the story.
Characterization: This is the process of creating fully realized, complex characters that the reader can empathize with and understand.
Setting: This is the physical and emotional environment in which the story takes place.
Plot: This is the series of events that make up the story and create tension, conflict, and resolution.
Theme: This is the underlying message or moral that the story conveys to the reader.
First Person Point of View: The narrator is a character within the story and uses pronouns like "I" and "me" to refer to themselves. It is limited to the narrator's point of view and perceptions.
Second Person Point of View: The narrator uses the pronoun "you" to address the reader directly, making them a part of the story. This is a rare point of view in novels.
Third Person Limited Point of View: The narrator is an outsider who is not a character in the story and can only access the thoughts and feelings of one character in the story.
Third Person Multiple Point of View: The narrator is an outsider and can access the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters in the story, making it a more complex narrative.
Third Person Omniscient Point of View: The narrator is an all-knowing, godlike figure who knows and can reveal the thoughts, feelings, and actions of all the characters.
Third Person Objective Point of View: The narrator is a neutral observer and only reports the events of the story without delving into the thoughts or feelings of any character.
Limited Omniscient Point of View: The narrator is an outsider who can access the thoughts and feelings of only some of the characters, but not all.
Free Indirect Point of View: A mix between first and third person point of view, where the narrator takes on the perspectives of different characters within the story, but without the use of personal pronouns.
Dramatic Point of View: The story is told through dialogue and action without the narrator's intervention, allowing readers to infer the thoughts and feelings of the characters.
"However, narration is merely optional in most other storytelling formats, such as films, plays, television shows, and video games."
"The narrative mode, which is sometimes also used as a synonym for narrative technique, encompasses the set of choices through which the creator of the story develops their narrator and narration."
"Narrative point of view, perspective, or voice: the choice of grammatical person used by the narrator to establish whether or not the narrator and the audience are participants in the story; also, this includes the scope of the information or knowledge that the narrator presents."
"Narrative tense: the choice of either the past or present grammatical tense to establish either the prior completion or current immediacy of the plot."
"Narrative technique: any of the various other methods chosen to help narrate a story, such as establishing the story's setting, developing characters, exploring themes, structuring the plot, intentionally expressing certain details but not others, following or subverting genre norms, employing certain linguistic styles, and using various other storytelling devices."
"Thus, narration includes both who tells the story and how the story is told."
"The narrator may be anonymous and unspecified, or a character appearing and participating within their own story."
"The narrator may merely relate the story to the audience without being involved in the plot."
"Some stories have multiple narrators to illustrate the storylines of various characters at various times, creating a story with a complex perspective."
"Narration is a required element of all written stories (novels, short stories, poems, memoirs, etc.), presenting the story in its entirety."
"...in which the story can be conveyed through other means, like dialogue between characters or visual action."
"[Narration] establishes whether or not the narrator and the audience are participants in the story."
"The choice of either the past or present grammatical tense to establish either the prior completion or current immediacy of the plot."
"...any of the various other methods chosen to help narrate a story, such as establishing the story's setting, developing characters, exploring themes, and structuring the plot."
"...the choice of grammatical person used by the narrator to establish...the scope of the information or knowledge that the narrator presents."
"The narrator may have varied awareness of characters' thoughts and distant events."
"The author themself as a character."
"The narrator may merely relate the story to the audience without being involved in the plot."
"Some stories have multiple narrators to illustrate the storylines of various characters at various times, creating a story with a complex perspective."