FICTION is prose writing that tells about FICTION is prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events. imaginary characters and events.

Some fiction is entirely made-up, while other Some fiction is entirely made-up, while other fiction is fiction is based onbased on real events and/or people real events and/or people

Elements of Fiction

Plot

PLOTS CAN BE TOLD IN:

Chronological order

Flashback

In media res (in the middle of things) when the story starts in the middle of the action without exposition

Plot refers to the sequence of events that make up a story, usually centering around a main conflict.

IN YOUR OWN WORDS: Plot refers to what happens in a text.

Plot Components

Exposition: the start of the story, the situation before the action starts

Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax

Climax: the turning point, the most intense moment—either mentally or in action

Falling Action: all of the action which follows the climax

Resolution / Denouement: the conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads

Conflict

Conflict is the dramatic struggle between two forces in a story. Without conflict, there is no plot.

Types of Conflict

Human vs Nature

Human vs Society

Human vs Self2. INTERNAL CONFLICT

Human vs Human1. EXTERNAL CONFLICT

Theme

The central message or insight into life revealed through a literary work

This is the deeper meaning, the

main lesson/message/moral that the author hopes the reader will understand at the end of the story

Point of View

The perspective or angle from which a story is being told

There are several types: First-Person-Point-of-View: When the

narrator telling the story is one of the characters, and tells the story as a personal account

Third-Person-Point-of-View: When the narrator is not one of the characters (has no name, and does not participate in any of the action of the plot)

Point of View (continued)

There are also two types of Third-Person-Point-of-View:

Third-Limited-Point-of-View: When the narrator sees the world through one character’s eyes and reveals only that character’s thoughts

Third-Omniscient-Point-of-View: When the narrator sees into the minds of all the characters

Setting

The setting of the literary work is the time and place of the action.

Time can include not only the historical period—past, present, or future—but also a specific year, season, or time of day.

Place—though Place—though usually physical—usually physical—may also involve may also involve the social, the social, economic, or economic, or cultural cultural environment of the environment of the story story

IRONY

The difference between appearance and reality, expectation and result.

There are THREE kinds of Irony:

-Verbal Irony: a word or phrase used to suggest the opposite of its actual meaning

-Dramatic Irony: When there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the readers know is true

MORE IRONY!

-Situational Irony: When an event directly contradicts expectations of the reader or of the characters