Elements of Fiction Terms
1. Fiction:
Works of imagination or invention; contrast with
Works of non-fiction, which are based on facts. Novels, short stories, plays, and poems are fictional.
2. Setting: The time and place in which a story takes place
3. Character:
A person (animal, robot, or whatever) who carries out the action in a piece of literature.
a. Static character:
Neither the character nor the reader’s knowledge of that character changes throughout the work
b. Dynamic character:
The character changes because of the action in the story’s plot.
c. Secondary Character:
A character who is not essential to the main plot line, but who contributes as a foil or supporting person, or who adds to a subsidiary plotline.
4. Protagonist: The main character
5. Antagonist:
The character or force that is in conflict with the main character/protagonist.
6. Conflict: The struggle between opposing forces.
a. External Conflicts:
- character(s) vs. other character(s)
- character(s) vs. society
- character(s) vs. nature
- character(s) vs. higher power
b. Internal
- character vs. him/herself
7. Plot:
The actions and events that occur as a character confronts a conflict in pursuit of his/her goal.
a. Exposition:
Introduces the character(s), the setting, and the conflict.
b. Rising Action: Building complications of conflict
c. Climax:
- The highest point of rising action at which the conflict reaches the highest point of interest or suspense.
- The turning point for the main character.
d. Falling Action:
Shows the aftereffects of the climax
e. Resolution:
Conflict is ended and loose ends of plot are resolved.
8. Foreshadowing:
To show beforehand or to foretell with hints or clues
embedded in the text.
9. Flashback:
Occurs when the narrative sequence of events is interrupted to relate a conversation, a scene, or an event that happened before.
10. Narrative Point of view:
- The perspective from which a story is told.
- Determines what/whose view of events will be presented.
a. First-person point of view:
Story is told by one of its characters, using first-person pronouns (I, me, we, our, etc.).
b. Third-person point of view:
Story is told by a voice outside the story.
- Third-person objective point of view:
Storyteller only reports what characters say and do; the author does not interpret their behavior or tell readers their private thoughts or feelings.
- Third-person limited point of view:
Storyteller’s knowledge is limited to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells readers only what that character thinks, feels, sees, or hears.
- Third-person omniscient point of view:
Storyteller’s knowledge extends to the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of all characters
11. Characterization:
The techniques a writer uses to develop the reader’s understanding of characters
a. Direct physical description, comments, and details provided by narrator
b. Character’s speech, thoughts, and actions
c. Speech, thoughts, and actions of other characters
12. Dialogue:
What characters say to one another.
13. Dialect:
Informal diction that is reflective of how people of a particular geographic region, economic group, or social class speak.
14. Diction:
A writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to create meaning.
15. Imagery:
Using language to represent sensory experiences—how things look, feel, taste, sound, or smell.
16. Irony:
A literary device that uses contradictory statements or situations to reveal differences between appearance and reality.
a. Situational irony:
A surprising, interesting, or amusing contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.
b. Verbal irony:
Occurs when a person says one thing but means the opposite.
c. Dramatic irony:
Occurs when there is a discrepancy between what a character believes or says and what the reader or audience knows to be true.
17. Mood:
The feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates
for the reader via descriptions, connotative words, sensory images, figurative language, etc.
18. Tone:
The attitude that a writer takes toward a subject and his/her audience.
19. Figurative Language:
Language that employs figures of speech, which are not to be taken literally, to suggest additional meanings.
a. Personification:
Giving human qualities to an object, animal, or idea.
b. Simile:
A comparison, using like or as, between two things that are unlike but that have something in common.
c. Metaphor:
A direct comparison between two unlike things in
which one thing is said to be another.
20. Symbol:
A person, place, object, or idea that stands for something beyond itself; the use of symbols is called symbolism.
21. Motif:
A recurring image or repeated idea that connects to theme.
22. Theme:
The central idea, concern, or purpose of the story.
It is seldom stated directly; usually speaks to the human condition.