Narration is the act of telling a story out loud, or the words themselves that tell it. In a film or documentary, the narration is often a voice you hear but don't see, explaining what's happening or filling in the background ('the narration explains why the character left home'). In writing, narration is the part of a story that tells events and describes the scene, as opposed to dialogue, which is what characters actually say to each other. A person who does this job or has this skill is called a narrator.