Fiction and Short Story Elements 
Study Guide

Story Element	Definition	
Setting	Time, place and duration of the story.	
Characters	Persons, animals or objects that have personalities and partake in the events of a story.	
     Protagonist	The main character. 	
     Antagonist	The opposing character – conflicts with the main character.	
     Static	A character that does not grow or learn from the events.	
     Dynamic	A character that undergoes a change or maturity growth and learns from the events.	
Conflict	The problem that the character(s) must confront.  There are two types:	
     Internal	The character has a problem within; a difficult choice or decision that needs to be made.	
     External	The character has a problem with someone/something around him.  There are five types of external conflict:	
        Individual vs. Individual	The main character, protagonist, has a conflict with another character, antagonist; bully or someone abusing their power. 	
        Individual vs. Nature	The main character, protagonist, has a conflict that deals with nature; usually it’s about survival.	
        Individual vs. Society	The main character, protagonist, has a conflict that is against society or a portion of society; middle school “in-crowd”.	
        Individual vs. Supernatural	The main character, protagonist, has a conflict that deals with events that are extraordinary and not confined to scientific law; ghosts.	
        Individual vs. Technology	The main character, protagonist, has a conflict that deals with overcoming something technological; robots, spaceships	
Plot	The sequence of events in a narrative.  Plot involves characters and conflict.  The plot has five parts: 	
     Exposition 
           (includes initiating event)	The story opening - introduces the characters, setting and the basic conflict.	
     Rising Action	The events from the beginning to the climax of the story.	
     Climax	The emotional height of the story where the conflict is resolved.	
     Falling action	The events that occur after the climax.	
     Resolution	The final resolving of the characters situation after the climax.	

Theme	The main message of a story – stated directly or implied.	
Tone	The attitude of the author toward the subject, ideas, theme, or characters (found within the vocabulary used by the author)	
Point of View	The relationship of the narrator, or storyteller, to the story.	
     First person	The story is told by one of the characters, referred to as “I”, the story is seen through that character’s eyes.	
     Third person Limited	The narrator reveals the internal thoughts, feelings, hopes and desires of only ONE character and refers to the character as “he” 
or “she”.	
     Third person omniscient	The narrator reveals the internal thoughts, feelings, hopes and desires of SEVERAL characters and refers to them as “he” or “she” as well.	
Figurative Language	Language that is used for descriptive effect and often to imply ideas indirectly.  These descriptions may not be literally true but their may be truth behind them in a different way.	
     Foreshadowing	Clues written by the author intentionally to prepare the readers for events that will happen in the story.	
     Symbolism	Using an object, person, place, or experience (that mean MORE than it actually does) to represent internal realities. 	
     Flashback	An interruption in a chronological narrative that tells about something that happened before the timeframe of the story in order to help explain the current situation or the state of the character(s).