Writing a chronicle requires planning, which means that before you start writing your text you need to think about form. how it intends to treat each of the elements that make up the chronicle: what is the theme, in what time and space, what are the characters. For that, let's remember what a text needs to be a chronicle.
What is chronic?
Chronicle is a short text that narrates an everyday situation in a creative and humorous way. It is characterized by using simple language, few characters and having reduced time and space.
Short text is understood to mean text that you don't take long to read. Although we cannot define a size, it can be said that a chronicle can be read at once, without requiring the reader to stop while reading.
There are several types of chronicles - narrative, essay, humorous, descriptive, reflective - and each one of them has some particular characteristic.
1. First step: choose the theme
One of the main features of the chronicle is the approach to everyday or much talked about issues at the time.
Marital relationships, weekly routine, family vacations and embarrassing situations are always current themes. But if you want something of the moment, be aware of news and situations that people currently identify with.
Example of a chronicle whose theme is marital relations:
“My wife and I have the secret to making a marriage last: Twice a week, we go to a great restaurant, with delicious food, a good drink and good fellowship.
She goes on Tuesdays and I go on Thursdays.”
(Excerpt from the Funny Chronicle, by Luis Fernando Verissimo)
2. Define the time the narration takes place
If the chosen topic is something that remains current over time, you can choose to speak both in the present and in the past.
And if the topic is in vogue, you don't necessarily need to place it in the present tense. This is an opportunity to bring a touch of humor to your chronicle by approaching something current, but from a past perspective.
Example of a chronicle that is contextualized in the 2020 quarantine:
“When you open this magazine, you could be crying. Or not, you may be listening to Caetano's album with his children — for me, a true anxiolytic — or confident, or even immersed in pessimism. I, here from my privileged quarantine in São Conrado, have no way of knowing your state of mind, nor do I know your marital status, much less your health. However, there is one thing about you that I do know, and that is what I venture here: you are at home. At home. Your friends, if they are not doctors or gas station attendants or nurses or pharmacists or deliverymen, are also at home, as well as your greatest disaffection or your first love.”
(Excerpt from a chronicle by Maria Ribeiro for Veja magazine)
3. Decide the space in which the situation unfolds
In the chronicle, the space in which the story takes place is limited. This is because the chronicle must be short, and there is no capacity to develop a text that covers a number of different places.
Example of a dirty space chronicle chosen is Rio de Janeiro:
“I don't know how things go elsewhere. Here, in Rio, it's a calamity, the kindergartens bill out in the name of the saints of June, and parents are forced to spend the tubes on redneck costumes that children do not understand or love. Even the president of the republic wears a tattered straw hat on his head and invites the ministers to an official hot drink usually replaced by 12-year-old whiskey.”
(Excerpt from June Nights, Nights of the Past, by Carlos Heitor Cony)
4. choose characters
Just as time and space in the chronicle are limited, so are the characters.
Since the text of the chronicle is short, there is no opportunity for a large cast to outline their actions.
Example of a chronicle that develops around a character:
“It was in 1868. We were some friends at Club Fluminense, Praça da Constitution, the house where the Secretariat of the Empire is today. It was nine o'clock at night. We saw a man who had stayed there the day before enter the tea room. He wasn't young; big intelligent eyes, shaved beard, rather full. It took a short time; from time to time, he looked at us, who examined him too, not knowing who it was. It was Dr. Sarmiento, who came from the United States, where he represented the Argentine Confederation, and from where he had left because he had just been elected President of the Republic. He had been with the Emperor, and was coming from a scientific session. Two or three days later, he went to Buenos Aires.”
(Excerpt from O Futuro dos Argentinos, by Machado de Assis)
5. Define the type of narrator
The narrative focus used in the chronicle is an important choice, because the narrator is the element that gives voice to the text.
If you choose the narrator character, in addition to telling the story, the narrator also plays the role of character in the chronicle and, therefore, narrates in the first person. already the observer narrator is what narrates in the third person.
Another option is the omniscient narrator, one who tells the story knowing everything that happens in it, including the thoughts of all the characters. You can narrate in first or third person.
Example of a chronicle whose narrator is a character narrator:
“It is useless not to confess that I have been watching football on television for about four hours a day, and there is no hope that it will get better before July 11th. I suppose the reader is also intoxicated with football, and so, for a change, I'll tell you about a game played almost 37 years ago, in this city of Rio de Janeiro. Here's my narrative, with little cuts:"
(Excerpt from Many Years Have Been Passing Lately, by Rubem Braga)
6. write your chronicle
After planning your text, it's time to write your chronicle.
Remember that this textual genre requires simple language, and that it can have a touch of humor, in addition to what is characterized by being a short text.
Take advantage of the moments when you are more inclined to write and choose the most suitable environment to help you with your work.
At the end, review the chronicle, paying attention to any Portuguese or typographical errors. Reading aloud also helps in the process of fine-tuning the text.
For you to understand better:
- Chronicle: characteristics, types and examples
- Narrative chronicle: what is it, how to do it, examples
- Argumentative Chronicle
