 I'm Dr. Pallavi Gugoy of Krishna Kanta Handic State Open University. Today I should be taking up Unit 15 titled Story Writing, Techniques and Sample. This is from the Foundation Course in English, Semester 1, Block 2. First I shall begin with a table of contents starting with the learning objectives, story writing, a little bit about story writing that is, techniques of story writing, sample of story and a few questions to check your progress followed by the references. Starting with the learning objectives, after going through this unit, the learner will be able to define the term story writing, grasp the basic techniques necessary for story writing, gain an idea on the techniques used from the provided sample story. A little bit about story writing, a story is a narrative of an incident drawn from a different situation. The Oxford dictionary describes the term story thus, quote unquote an account of imaginary or real people and events for entertainment. Story writing thus engages one in utilizing his or her creative ideas, plots, anecdotes, experiences, observations etc to create or even to recreate perhaps from real life interesting narratives. Writing an interesting story therefore requires a sense of creativity and a good idea of the techniques of story writing. It is important to remember the success of a story depends on how it is narrated. Techniques of story writing, one of the common techniques used in telling a story is to make use of narration without explicit comment or interpretation. We often make use of narration in telling others about the actual events that had happened or occurred. It is important to note that a piece of narration can be simple narration or an expository narration. Now the simple narration is, if we just relate the event without interpreting it, we are using simple narration. Now what is expository narration you will ask? If we see the event as making some point such as illustrating some principle of life or telling something about people, we are using an expository narration. More stories use expository narration in its framework. Coming to a sample of story, let us read through the given extract taken from Archie Naran's The Martyr's Corner. Just at the turning between market road and the lane leading to the chemist shop, he had his establishment. If anyone doesn't like the word establishment, he is welcome to say so because it was actually something of a vision spun out of air. At 8, you would not see him and again at 10, you would see nothing. Between 8 and 10, he right sold his goods and departed. Those who saw him thus remarked, Khudankot, Lucky fellow. He had hardly an hour's work a day and he pockets 10 rupees. What graduates are unable to earn 300 rupees a month? He felt irritated when he heard such glib remarks and said, What these folk do not see is that I said before the oven practically all day frying all this stuff. He caught up when the cock in the next house crowed. Sometimes it had a habit of waking up at 3 in the morning and letting out a shriek. Why has the cock lost its normal sleep? Rama wondered as he awoke, but it was a signal he could not miss. Whether it was 3 o'clock or 4, it was all the same to him. He had to get up to start his day. So this is the passage or the extract. The major portion of the 3 paragraphs in the sample story is a narration of the life of Rama. Now you will note how informed the style is, for it seems as if the author is trying to narrate to you an account of Rama or Rama's life, the kind of work he did for a living and the difficulties and also the attitude of people towards his business. You will note how the author uses vivid details to bring the scene to life. Another technique used in writing a story is to make use of description. Description brings a scene to life. Description makes an object, a landscape or scene, a building, a person or anything all the more perceivable. Effective description which is used to put the reader quote-unquote on the screen has two basic principles. Number one, using many concrete details so that the reader can visualize the description. Number two, selecting the important details and arranging them so as to create a cumulative impression. Now here are the questions to check your progress. Question number one, define the term story writing. Question number two, what does the success of the story depend on? Question number three, state the difference between simple and expository narration. Question number four, what is the function of description in story writing? Question number five, what are the basic principles of effective description? This is the reference. You are advised to go through BA English Graduate Self-Learning material or the SLM of Foundation Coursing English, block 2, unit 15, semester 1. Thank you dear learners.