# Narrative > An account of connected events, true or invented, told from a point of view. The word also names the telling itself: the order, voice and perspective through which a story reaches its audience. Also known as storytelling, narrative writing ## In practice Two films can share a plot and feel nothing alike because of how they tell it. Narrative is the word for that telling: who knows what and when, which events are shown and which are skipped, the order they arrive in and the voice that delivers them. Screenwriters make narrative choices on every page. Opening with the ending, holding back what a character knows, cutting between two timelines or letting a [voice-over](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/voice-over) [narrator](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/narrator) mislead the audience are all decisions about narrative rather than about what happens. When notes say a draft is confusing or slow, the problem is often narrative, not story. The events may be fine and the order wrong. Before rewriting scenes, try moving them, or changing whose [point of view](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/point-of-view) the audience shares. A scene that drags in chronological order can grip when it arrives as an answer to a question the audience is already asking. ## A narrative choice on the first page **A thriller that opens at the end** ``` EXT. LAKE HOUSE - DOCK - NIGHT A car sits half-sunk at the end of the dock, headlights still on underwater. SARAH (30s), soaked, sits on the boards with a phone she isn't using. SARAH (V.O.) Everyone asks why I didn't call for help. Truth is, I was deciding whether to. CUT TO: INT. LAKE HOUSE - KITCHEN - THREE DAYS EARLIER Bright morning. Sarah unpacks groceries, laughing at something off screen. ``` The story of this film begins three days before the dock. The narrative begins at the dock, with a narrator who admits she had a choice, so every cheerful scene that follows is watched with suspicion. Nothing about the events has changed; only the order and the voice have, and that is what narrative means. ## What narrative means A narrative is an account of connected events, real or invented, told by someone to someone. Novels, films, news reports, memoirs, history books and the story you tell a friend about your day are all narratives. The word comes from the Latin narrare, to tell. In writing and film, narrative also names the way a story is told: its structure, its order, its point of view and its voice. When critics praise a film's narrative, they usually mean how it is told, not just what happens in it. Narrative is also used for a type of writing. A narrative essay tells a story, often a personal experience, in contrast with an argumentative or expository essay that makes a case or explains a subject. ## Narrative, story and plot Story usually means the events in the order they happened. Plot is the selection and arrangement of those events with cause and effect. Narrative is the telling: the plot delivered through a particular voice, perspective and form. Russian formalist critics named the first two fabula, the raw chronology, and syuzhet, the order the audience receives it in. E. M. Forster made a related point in Aspects of the Novel: "The king died and then the queen died" is a story; "the king died, and then the queen died of grief" is a plot, because it adds a cause. The distinction matters in practice. Memento tells a simple story in reverse; Pulp Fiction rearranges a few days in Los Angeles into interlocking chapters; Citizen Kane assembles one man's life from the memories of people who knew him. Each changes the narrative far more than the events. ## Types of narrative By structure, a linear narrative tells events in chronological order, while a nonlinear narrative uses flashbacks, flash-forwards or parallel timelines. A frame narrative places one story inside another, and an episodic narrative is built from loosely connected episodes. By point of view, a first-person narrative is told by a character who says I; a third-person narrative is told by a narrator outside the story, who may be limited to one character's knowledge or may know everything. A second-person narrative addresses the reader as you, and is rare. By purpose, teachers often separate personal narratives, about the writer's own experience, from fictional narratives and from nonfiction narratives such as history or journalism told as a story. Film adds its own forms, including the voice-over narrator and the [unreliable narrator](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/unreliable-narrator) whose account cannot be trusted. ## Narrative in film and television A film has no narrator unless it adds one, so its narrative is built from what the camera shows, in what order, and from whose position. Choosing to stay with one character, so the audience knows only what they know, is a narrative decision that creates [suspense](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/suspense) or mystery. Rashomon tells the same crime four ways through four witnesses, and its title has become a name for that kind of story. Television often runs several narratives at once, with A, B and C stories that cut between characters and come together at the end of an episode. Screenwriters control narrative through scene order, transitions, voice-over, flashbacks, title cards and what each scene holds back. Changing these can make a familiar story feel new. ## Elements of a narrative Most definitions list the same core elements: characters who act and are changed, a [setting](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/setting) in time and place, a plot of connected events, a [conflict](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/conflict) that drives those events and a [theme](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/theme) the story explores. Point of view is often added as a sixth, because every narrative is told from somewhere. Some lists add tone, the attitude of the telling, and style, the texture of its language or images. Each element affects the others: a change of narrator can change the theme, and a change of setting can create a new conflict. Our page on the [elements of a story](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/story-elements) explains each of these in turn, with links to the glossary entries for character, setting, [plot structure](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/plot-structure), conflict and theme. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Nov 2, 2026 - [Merriam-Webster — Narrative](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/narrative) - [Wikipedia — Fabula and syuzhet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_and_syuzhet) ## Common questions ### What is a narrative? A narrative is an account of connected events, true or invented, told from a point of view. The word also means the way a story is told: its order, voice and structure. ### What is the difference between a narrative and a story? A story is the events themselves, in the order they happened. A narrative is the telling of them: which events are shown, in what order, by whom and from what point of view. ### What are three types of narratives? One common grouping is linear, nonlinear and frame narratives. Another groups narratives by point of view: first person, second person and third person. ### What is an example of narrative? Any told story is a narrative, from a fairy tale to a memoir. Memento is a famous film example of narrative choice: it tells its story backward, scene by scene. ### What are the 5 elements of a narrative? The five most often listed are character, setting, plot, conflict and theme. Many lists add point of view as a sixth element. ### What is a narrative essay? A narrative essay tells a story, usually from the writer's own experience, and uses it to make a point. It uses scenes, characters and [dialogue](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/dialogue) like fiction, but the events are true. ### What is narrative point of view? It is the position from which a story is told: a character speaking as I, a narrator outside the story, or a voice addressing the reader as you. In film, it is whose experience the camera shares. ## Related terms - [Elements of a story](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/story-elements): The building blocks most stories share: character, setting, plot, conflict and theme, often with point of view and tone added. Together they answer who, where and when, what happens, what stands in the way and what it means. - [Unreliable narrator](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/unreliable-narrator): A narrator whose account the audience cannot fully trust, because they lie, misremember, misunderstand or hide something. On screen that usually means a voice-over or a flashback that shows the story the way one character tells it. - [Frame story](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/frame-story): A story that contains another: an outer narrative in which a character tells, reads or remembers the main tale. The Princess Bride's grandfather reading to his grandson, and old Rose recalling the voyage in Titanic, are frames. - [Plot structure](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/plot-structure): The shape of a story's events: how it sets up a problem, raises the stakes, turns, and resolves. Three-act structure is the most common model in film; Freytag's pyramid, the hero's journey and the eight-sequence approach are others. --- Canonical page: