| A | B |
|---|
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Characters come alive in fiction | through characterization. |
| Characterization | is the act of creating a character. |
| 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 | French word meaning resolution -- any final material that finishes the story. |
| 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. |
| A theme of a work of fiction (or any other literary work) | is a central idea of the work. |
| 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. |
| Mood, or atmosphere | is the feeling or emotion the writer creates in a literary work. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| A novella | is a work of fiction that is longer than a typical short story but shorter than a typical novel. |
| The term novel comes from | novella, which is Italian for a tight-knit, realistic, prose tale. |
