A narrative, on the other hand, has no specific settings, characters,
or dialogue: the writing /tells/ the reader what's the event is about.
A narrative is useful to, for example, add a lot of information to
your story, vary the writing rhythm, give continuity feel on large
scale of the story, and avoid receptive actions (ex. when a character
has to join parties days after days; you can narrative them and make a
scene only the first and the impactful one).

You can include a narrative in a scene; ex. "He feels disgust." But
it's better to write about the event that make the character feel that
way instead of /telling/ the reader he's feeling that way.

Of course, narrative isn't useless; most narrative, however, can be
converted into scenes. Do not convert all of your narrative into
scene.

Some plot development (ex. involves minor characters, or a key change
/before/ the main event) don't necessary need scenes.

When you add narrative summary to your scene, make sure that the scene
and narrative summery don't repeat themselves.

2 Characterization and exposition
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It's good to tell a character's appearance and settings, but it's
better to use a scene to the character's personality: action,
reaction, interior monologue, and dialogue.

The summarize of your character is repetitive at best (since you will
show it through the story), and misleading at worst (since the
character will act differently from the summary); so, do not summarize
your character. Summarizing also limits the character's development
later on.

Flashback is a good device to give depth to the character; but use
just enough amount of flashbacks to bring the character to the
present.

The same principles here is applied to lore, settings, history, and
other aspects of the story as well, not just characters.

3 Point of view
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There 3 basic approaches to point of view:
• First person
• Omniscient
• Third person

The rule of thumb to choose the narrative distance is, the more
initiate the point of view, the better.

Once you have a narrative distance, stick with it through the given
scene. If you want to change the distance or point of view, end the
scene and start a new one.

Put the point of view early in the scene, too.

You can start with omniscient PoV, then move to third person PoV; it's
like a camera zooming from long distance to the closer one.

3.1 First person point of view
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In first person, you are in the character's head, not the author. This
point of view gives intimacy with the character, but it also limit the
development to that character since he has to be there, and see, when
the plot is happening. You can't write anything that the character
doesn't know or feel, either.

3.2 Omniscient point of view
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This point of view doesn't get inside anyone's head; it view the event
as an outsider, even talk to the reader directly.

You have perspective but you lose intimacy.

3.3 Third person point of view
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This point of view balances perspective and intimacy meanwhile gives
enough freedom to be as distance or close distance to the story as the
writer wants.

In third person, you use language to control such distance: use the
language that the character uses to give more intimacy, and uses more
elaborate language to keep the distance from the character. You can
also use emotion to control the distance: the more emotionally the
description is, the more intimacy it is. Adding emotion to the
narrative is a way to vary the sentence structure.

4 Proportion
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Don't spend a long time on a short scene, and vice versa; too much
details and the reader can't imagine anything.

Proportion problem isn't only when you write but it is when you edit
as well: if you cut too much materiel, the proportion will change.

The solution is to pay attention of your story.

Proportion works at smaller scale, too. In a scene, let the viewpoint
character's interest set the portion of the scene to describe; how
much details, which details are important, etc. In this way, you also
show your character in the process.

5 Dialogue mechanics
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Dialogue is how your characters can show themselves.

Though dialogue is artificial, it must feel real. One way to write a
good dialogue is to avoid formality.

Do not use formality in dialogue; real people use contraction, don't
answer the question directly, answer silent questions, use unfinished
sentences, ungrammatical structure, absent of subjects or verbs, use
abbreviation, disagree, lie, etc.

If a dialogue is too formal, it can be out of character which means
you are probably info-dumb via the dialogue. Don't do it.

Don't explain dialogue, let it explains itself. Watch out for the
/-ly/ adverbs; they are easy to insert in the writing, but it's better
to use body language, context, and word choice to carry those meaning.
It isn't about "what" you say, but it's about "how" you say. If you
want to add unspoken information to the dialogue, use beat. This is
Show don't tell technique all over again.

Don't repeat dialogue with an action, and vice versa.

Almost always use "said" as a dialogue tag since it keeps reader's
attention to the dialogue itself.

Other points to consider are:
• If you are going to use a dialog tag, insert it at the first natural
break point of the paragraph.
• "said he" is old fashioned, use "he said" instead.
• If the context is clear, you may drop the dialogue tags. Or, if you
want to drop dialogue tags because they are repetitive, use beat
(more on this later); this is good for multi characters scenes since
you may have to remind the reader that who's speaking. But don't use
beat every line, too much of it is annoying.

Don't change the way a character refers to one another in the same
chapter or Scene.

Use em dash (—) for interruption, ellipses (…) for trailing off, or
having one side of a dialogue (like a phone call).

New paragraph means new speaker.

Read the dialogue out loud.

These principles can also be applied to for narration and description
as well.

6 See how it sound
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It's one of dialogue technique, you read the sound dialogue out loud
to see whether they are natural or not. Your eyes can be fooled, but
your ears will detect those unnatural flow, rhythms, a character's
unique voice, etc.

7 Interior monologue
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Like dialogue and its techniques, as well as narration, interior
monologue is where your characters can show themselves; so the
monologue has to be unique for each character.

Interruption from interior monologue between dialogue is annoying,
don't jump into a character's head too often.

Don't repeat an interior monologue and the character's dialogue.

Too little interior monologue is a problem since some emotion can't be
explain via a dialogue ex. when a character is tired but have to
pretend that he isn't.

The amount of monologue depends on how import to the story/character
it is, does the scene should flow that way, how they express their
emotion other way, etc.

Never use quotation marks for interior monologue.

Don't make a character mutters or speak under his breath.

Like dialogue tag, you can use "he thought" or "he wondered." But it's
better to write in a close distance so that you don't need those
monologue tags for the character.

You can write the narration in third person and write interior
monologue in first person, but switching point of view like that can
be confusing; you should rewrite the monologue to be done in the same
point of view as the narration instead.

Long interior monologue in a distance narration should be on its own
paragraph.

If you write in a close distance (ex. in the first person point of
view), a description and a monologue can be one and the same: you look
through the world from the character's eyes and mind. In this first
person case, if the story in about the character looking back to his
past, you may want to separate monologue that the narrator /is/
feeling from the description that the character (the narrator in the
past) /was/ feeling.

8 Easy beats
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A beat is, typically, a small action in a scene, ex. standing up,
waving, etc. Usually, they are gestures, but short Interior monologue
is fine too.

If a beat is long, it signals that it's a longer pause for the
dialogue.

A beat controls the pace of a dialogue and creates image of the scene
like emotions. Like dialogue and Interior monologue, each character
should have unique beats (that is, reactions) for each situation.

Too many beats and you restrict the reader's imagination. Too few
beats and you let the reader's imagination run wild. So, use enough
beats to make the dialogue flows naturally.

Always use a beat when the emotion of a dialogue changes.

See how it sound so you can detect beats' unnatural placements.

To learn what beat to use, notice people around you, watch movies,
read books; study those reaction of people or characters.

9 Breaking a long paragraph
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A long paragraph, more than half a page or so, is often unreadable, so
you should break them into smaller parts with white spaces to separate
them. The white spaces here are often newlines, but they can (and
should) be Beat or Dialogue as well. Of course, a long beat or
dialogue is a problem, so break them up as well.

A paragraph's length can convoy meaning, too. Longer paragraphs have
more relaxing tone, shorter paragraphs have faster pace.

Put important plot point in a separate paragraph, probably a short one
or even a single sentence.

Sometimes, though, long formal speech is appropriate for dramatic
effect.

Just like you break up a paragraph, you can also break up a Scene or a
chapter, too.

10 Once is usually enough
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Repetition occurs on information as well, not just words or phrases.
Such repeated information can be in different paragraphs, sentences,
characters that serve the same role, plot devices, etc.

Sometimes, a writer wants to get the point to the readers, so he
repeats. Do not repeat like that. Instead, the right way to repeat is
to repeat the same information from different directions.

11 Sophistication
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• Avoid -ing or "as" structure.
They are useful when two actions happen simultaneously. Other use of
them will draw attention away from the verb, so it make the action
weak.
• Avoid cliche Not just phrases, but stereotype characters and plots
as well. Be original.
• Avoid -ly adverbs; use stronger verbs instead.
• Omit commas in dialogue can make it read more like how people talk
in real life.
• Use these sparely:
•• emphasis "quote"
•• exclamation mark
•• flowery, poetic language:
••• Not every character is a poet.
••• Too much flowery narrative is unnatural.
••• It draws attention to those fancy words instead of the story.
••• Use subtle approach for sex scene and profanity. Don't write it
all out; let the readers imagine the scene.

12 Voice
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To find your voice, don't try to find it. Let the story flows instead.

You can emulate style from other writers, but you can't emulate their
voices.

There are time when long, poetic narrative is appropriated. Though it
doesn't fit the character, it can capture the emotion of the scene.
Use Proportion to balance poetic language and the plain one but do not
jump around them.

Take note on the passage you like from books and study them.