| A | B |
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| Fiction | is prose created from the imagination and usually narrative. |
| Prose | is writing that uses straightforward language and that differs from poetry in that it doesn’t have a rhythmic pattern. |
| Narrative writing | is that which tells a story. |
| Works of fiction usually contain the elements of | character, plot, setting, and theme. |
| A character | is a person (or sometimes an animal) who takes part in the action of a literary work. |
| A protagonist | is the main character in a story. |
| An antagonist | is a character who struggles against the main character. |
| A major character | is one who plays an important role in a literary work. |
| A minor character | is one who plays a lesser role. |
| A one-dimensional character, or flat character | reveals only one quality or character trait. |
| A three-dimensional character | seems to have all the complexities of an actual human being. |
| Characters come alive in fiction | through characterization. |
| Characterization | is the act of creating a character. |
| A writer creates characters in three ways #1 | by showing what characters say, do, or think; |
| A writer creates characters in three ways #2 | by showing what other characters say or think about them; |
| A writer creates characters in three ways #3 | by describing what physical features, dress, and personality the characters display. |
| The plot of a work of fiction is the series of events or situations related to a | central conflict, or struggle. |
| The conflict | can be internal or external. |
| The internal conflict | takes place within a character. |
| The external conflict | struggle between a character and an outside force, such as another character, society, or nature. |
| A plot | usually contains the introduction of a conflict, its development, and its eventual resolution. |
| A story may begin with exposition, | the introduction of the setting and characters. |
| The inciting incident | is the event that introduces the central conflict. |
| The rising action, or complication | develops the conflict to a high point of intensity. |
| The climax | is the highest point of suspense in the story. |
| The crisis, or turning point | is the point in the story where something happens to decide the future course of events. |
| The falling action | is all the events that follow the climax. |
| The resolution | is the point at which the central conflict ends. |
| The dénouement | is any final material that finishes the story. |
| Plots are often illustrated using a pyramid; | however, many plots do not include all these elements, and in short stories, the climax often occurs very late in the plot. |
| The setting in a work of fiction (or any other literary work) | is the time and place in which it happens. |
| In fiction, the setting | is often revealed through the description of the landscape, buildings, rooms, scenery, weather, and season. |
| The setting | reveals important information about the time period, geographical location, cultural environment, and physical conditions in which the characters live. |
| These distinctions affect how the reader interprets a character’s | views and actions. |
| A theme of a work of fiction (or any other literary work) | is a central idea of the work. |
| Theme | is different from subject. |
| A subject of a work | is its topic, such as “horses,” “friendship,” or “tornadoes.” |
| A theme | is a broad statement about a topic, such as “animals can be our most loyal companions,” “friends are worth more than money,” or “tornadoes might destroy buildings but not communities.” Many stories share the same subject but have different themes because they make unique statements about that subject. |
| A story may have | more than one theme. |
| Describing theme | can be a useful means of clarifying your thinking about the story. |
| Other elements that influence and shape a work of fiction include | mood and point of view. |
| Mood, or atmosphere | is the feeling or emotion the writer creates in a literary work. |
| By working carefully with descriptive language, | the writer can evoke in the reader an emotional response such as fear, discomfort, longing, or anticipation. |
| Point of view | is the vantage point from which a story is told. |
| In stories told from first-person point of view, | the narrator takes part in the action of the story and includes himself or herself in the telling of the story by using words such as I and we. |
| In stories told from the third-person point of view, | the narrator is more of an observer, standing outside the action of the story and relating details to the reader using words such as he, she, it, and they. |
| The point of view from which a story is told | affects what the reader knows about the events and characters in the story and how the reader reacts to the events and characters. |
| If the point of view from which a story is told changes, | the story itself changes. |
| The oldest types of fiction | are the stories told in the oral tradition, which include myths, legends, and fables. |
| Although many of these are prose stories, | some myths were originally written in poetic form. |
| Short stories, novels, and novellas | are types of fiction. |
| A short story | is a brief work of fiction that contains a definite beginning, middle, and end. |
| Although it contains all the main elements of fiction__________it may not fully develop each element. | character, setting, plot, and theme |
| Often in the short story, | the true natures of characters are revealed by their actions and their encounters with other characters. |
| Sometimes writers of the short story may focus on | creating mood rather than telling a story. |
| A novel | is a long work of fiction that usually has more complex elements than a short story. Its longer format allows the elements of fiction to be more fully developed. |
| Some people view fiction in terms of | subject matter and define short stories and novels as works of historical fiction, science fiction, westerns, romances, or any of a number of additional categories. |
| Historical fiction | tells a story that is partly based on actual historical events and is partly made up. |
| Science fiction | is imaginative literature based on scientific principles, discoveries, or laws. |
| Often science fiction deals with | the future, the distant past, or worlds other than our own, and often works of science fiction take present-day problems and exaggerate them into the future. |
