Elements of Fiction

1. Fiction is prose writing about imagined events or characters.
a. A novel is a long work of prose fiction.
b. A short story is a short work of fiction.
c. Long short stories are sometimes called novellas.
d. Science fiction is imaginative literature based on scientific principles, discoveries, or laws.

2. A character is a person or animal who takes part in the action of literary work.
a. A protagonist is the main character in the story.
b. An antagonist is a character who struggles against the main character.
c. A major character is one who plays an important role in a literary work.
d. A minor character is one who plays a lesser role.

3. The setting of a literary work is the time and place in which it happens. Setting is often revealed by descriptions of landscape, scenery, buildings, furniture, seasons, or weather.

4. Mood, or atmosphere, is the emotion created in the reader by a piece of writing. It is created through descriptions of the setting, characters, and events.

5. A conflict is a struggle between two people or things in a literary work. One side of the central conflict in a work of fiction is usually taken by the main character. The main character might struggle against another character, against the forces of nature, against society, or against a part of himself or herself.

6. A plot is a series of events related to a central conflict, or struggle. A typical plot involves the following elements:
a. Inciting incident (an event that introduces the central conflict or struggle)
b. Climax (point of highest interest or suspense).
c. Resolution (point at which the central conflict, or struggle, is ended).

7. Subplot is a story told in addition to the main story in a work of fiction.

8. A theme is a central idea in a literary work.

Freytag's Pryamid

Plots can be illustrated by a pyramid diagram (named by its creator Gustav Freytag)

It contains the following parts:
exposition -- inciting incident -- rising action (actions that develop the story) -- climax -- falling action -- resolution -- denouement

Think of the exposition (introduction), inciting incident, development, and climax of the plot as the RISING ACTIONS, and the resolution and denouement as the FALLING ACTIONS.

Events in a story are causally related -- that is, one event causes the next, which causes the next and so no to the end of the story. Some stories do not contain these parts in the same order. An author may choose to begin a story in media res (literally, "in the middle part"), after the inciting incident. In some stories the climax and the resolution are the same event. In some there is no denouement, or tying up of loose ends after the resolution.

Most plots are presented in chronological order (events follow one another in time as they would in real life).
Authors may choose to vary this pattern by using flashbacks (a section of a literary work that interrupts the normal sequence of events to present an event from an earlier time).

The following special devices of plot are also commonly used by authors:
1. foreshadowing: hinting about events yet to happen
2. subplot (see #7 above)
3. suspense: the creation of a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events
4. surprise ending: an unexpected event occuring at the end of the story.

additional note: sometimes when you analyze a story's plot you may discover a "false climax and resolution" leading to the surprise ending (real climax and resolution are revealed).

Additional terms:

1. Allusion - a reference in a literary work to something famous

2. Understatement - a statement that treats something important as though it were not important.

3. Resolution - the point in a poem, story, or play in which the central conflict, or struggle, is ended.

4. Verbal irony - a statement that says one thing but means the opposite

5. Irony of situation - an event that contradicts the expectations of the characters, the reader, or the audience of a literary work.

Booklist of Outstanding Fiction for the College Bound Student (American Library Association)

Charles Dickens - Biography