The storyteller
The narrator is the owner of the voice or, in other words, the voice that tells us the facts and their development. Depending on the narrator's position in relation to the narrated fact, the narrative can be done in first or third person singular.
Thus, we have the angle, the point of view, the focus by which the events will be narrated (hence speaking of narrative focus).
In first-person narration, the narrator participates in the events; he is, thus, a character with a double function: the narrator-character. He may have a secondary role in the events, thus highlighting his role as narrator, or he may be of fundamental importance, even being the main character. In this case, the first-person narration allows the author to penetrate and unravel the character's psychological world with greater richness.
It is important to note that, in first-person narrations, not everything that is stated by the narrator corresponds to the "truth", because, as he participates in the events, he has his own individual vision of them and, therefore, partial. The main characteristic of this focus is, then, the subjective view that the narrator has of the facts: he narrates only what he sees, observes and feels, that is, the facts pass through the filter of his emotion and perception.
In third-person narrations, on the other hand, the narrator is outside the events; we can say that he hovers above everything and everyone. This situation allows you to know everything, the past and the future, the emotions and thoughts of the characters - hence it is called omniscient (oni + sciente, that is, "who is aware of everything", "who knows of everything"). Note that the omniscient narrator "reads" the character's innermost feelings, desires (in fact, the narrator sees the that no one is able to see: the character's inner world), and knows what will be the repercussion of this act on future.
The plot
The plot (or plot, or plot) is, we can say, the skeleton of the narrative, what supports the story, what the structure, that is, it is the unfolding of events (it is the line intertwining, forming the mesh, the weft, the net, the fabric, the text). Generally, the plot is centered on a conflict, responsible for the level of tension in the narrative.
The characters
The beings who participate in the unfolding of events, that is, those who live the plot, are the characters (in Portuguese, the word character can be either male or female).
In general, a well-constructed character represents an individuality, with its own psychological traits. There are also characters that represent human types, identified by profession, by behavior, by social class, in short, by some distinctive trait common to all individuals that category.
There are also characters whose personality traits or behavior patterns are extremely accentuated (sometimes bordering on ridiculous); in these cases (very common, for example, in television soap operas), we have cartoon characters.
Character and Plot
See how the character/plot relationship works, according to critic Antonio Candido:
Generally, reading a novel gives the impression of a series of facts, organized into plots, and of characters who live these facts. It's an almost indissoluble impression: when we think of the plot, we think of the characters simultaneously; when we think of these, we think simultaneously of the life in which they become entangled, in the line of their destiny - drawn according to a certain temporal duration, referring to certain environmental conditions. The plot exists through the characters; the characters live off the plot. Plot and character express, linked, the purposes of the novel, the vision of life that derives from it, the meanings and values that animate it.
[CANDIDO, Antonio. The fictional character. São Paulo: Perspective, 1987. P. 534).
The environment
Environment is the setting where characters circulate and where the plot unfolds. In some cases, the importance of the environment is so fundamental that it becomes a character. For example: the Northeast, in much of the Brazilian modernist novel; the boarding school, in O Ateneu, by Raul Pompéia; the clearest case is in O tenement, by Aluísio Azevedo.
Note how there is always a close relationship between the character, his behavior and the environment that surrounds him; notice how often through possessed objects we can make a perfect picture of the possessor.
The time
The narrator can position himself in different ways in relation to the timing of the events - he can narrate the facts at the time they are happening; can narrate a perfectly concluded fact; can interweave present and past using the flashback technique.
There is also psychological time, which reflects the characters' anguish and anxieties and which has no relationship with time itself, whose passage is beyond our control. You talk like "Oh, time doesn't pass..." or "This minute doesn't end!" reflect psychological time.
Grammar in Narration
In a narrative text, action verbs predominate: there is, in general, a work with verbal tenses. After all, narration, that is, the unfolding of a fact, an event, presupposes changes; this means that prior, concomitant and posterior relationships are established.
When choosing one of the types of speeches, we organize the text differently. The elocution verbs, the connectives, punctuation, coordination or subordination start to play a relevant role in the text's assembly.
By transforming direct into indirect discourse (or vice versa), we made a big change in the text's architecture.
Therefore, to organize a good narrative text, we have to work on the grammatical framework that supports it (without to count that, in general, we come across descriptive passages in the core of a narrative text, which requires an organization differentiated).
By Marina Cabral
Specialist in Portuguese Language and Literature
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/redacao/gramatica-da-narracao.htm