Author's Craft
Just as a woodworker uses many tools and techniques to craft a piece of furniture, a skilled author uses tools and techniques of language and storytelling to craft a piece of writing.
As you read your Joan Bauer book try to think about the following narrative and literary elements that Joan Bauer uses to "craft" her story:
Setting
The environment in which a story or event takes place.
Setting can include specific information about time and place (Boston, Massachusetts, in 1989) or can simply be descriptive (a lonely farmhouse on a dark night).
Foreshadowing
A way of indicating or hinting at what will come later on.
Subtle: Like storm clouds on the horizon suggestion that danger is coming
Direct: In The Outsiders the characters were talking about not wanting to burn the place down with cigarettes but that is what ends up happening.
Characterization
The method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits.
Direct (George was cunning and greedy)
Indirect (A description of the character)
Concrete Words
These are nouns; they describe things you experience through your senses: smoke, mist, a shout
Concrete words help us describe things and they are specific
Figurative Language
Metaphor (an equation)
Simile (comparison using like or as)
Personification (Giving human/animal characteristics and traits to non-living things)
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia (Zap, Thunk, Swish, Zoom)
Hyperbole (an exaggeration)
Descriptive Adjectives
These describe the noun in detail.
Examples: yellow banana, tall pole, wide door, deep ditch, flowing river, honest man, stormy sky
