Key aspects of telling a story – connectives, chronological order and order of space Essay

Connectives that signal a contrast - on the contrary, on the other hand, however, unlike, nonetheless, nevertheless, whereas, even though, although, but, yet, regardless...
Connectives that signal a similarity similarly, likewise, once again...
Connectives that signal a cause/effect therefore, consequently, then, in other words, because, since, as a result, due to, thus...
Order of time
A time or chronological order is the natural order of narration and is commonly used while explaining the steps in a process. We record events in the order in which they occur first, second, next, and so on to the last. If we are telling a story or giving directions on how to reach a certain place or how to bake a cake, the natural order would be the time order.
Example (short recipe)
Preheat oven to 180C. Chop the chocolate into pieces of about 2-3 centimeters. Chop the butter and add it to the chocolate.
On low heat on the stove, melt the mixture without it bubbling. Remove the mixture from the heat and carefully fold in the brown sugar. Add eggs, stirring carefully. Slowly sift in the flour and fold it into the mixture. Add milk, mixing it in completely. Add chopped walnuts.
Pour the mixture into a greased medium-sized baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for five minutes, then turn onto a wire rack until cool and slice into squares. Dust with icing sugar.
Order of space
The order of space is useful when we want to report what we see. The movement of the composition thus follows the movement of the eyes. That movement must have some continuity which a reader can recognise and follow.
Example
I seated myself in the barber chair, which was only a rickety, straight-backed affair made of bamboo placed on a wooden box in the center of the room. Directly in front of this throne hung a dingy, blurred mirror, suspended by ropes from the roof. To my right stood a square table, upon which rested the barber only tools - a pair of clippers, a dirty-looking comb, and a razor. As I cast my eyes downward, I was somewhat surprised to find that the floor was still in its natural state dirty. It also showed evidence that hair had been cut here before. I noticed now for the first time an opening at the rear, over which a piece of grey material was draped. Evidently this archway led into the living quarters of the barber.
(We notice that this paragraph begins with the front view, and then moves right, down and to the rear.)
There should always be some logical order or natural progression from one descriptive detail to the next. It need not start at the far left and move steadily to the right, or vice versa, since the observer's gaze is likely to be drawn quickly to the most conspicuous object.