ABSTRACT
Narrative and fiction are quite different things even if they often appear together in public. Narrative involves such processes as creating a scene of action, defining a temporal progression, and dramatizing an observer of events. Narrative is a particular way of assembling and understanding information that is best contrasted to a nonnarrative way of assembling information. Nonnarratives may be found in classifications, inventories, indexes, diagrams, dictionaries, recipes, medical statements, conference papers, job descriptions, legal contracts, and in many other places.
