The Elements of Fiction
(combined)
Characteristics of Fiction:
1.) Fiction is dramatic. The artist creates a world and presents it through action, dialogue, and images. When we read fiction we are not looking for an essay about life, but for dramatically recreated experience.
2.) Fiction is centered in the narrative -- a recounting or presentation of an event, an experience, or sometimes an emotion or situation.
3.) Fiction is basically a work of the artist's imagination.
Fiction can be loosely defined as an imaginative prose narrative, conceived and ordered by the artist to dramatically illuminate some truth about the human condition.
1.) Plot -- the sequence of events in a story and their relation to one another -- usually, the events are related by causation, and their meaning lies in this relation
End Orientation -- the outcome of the action or the conclusion of the plot (inherent in the opening paragraphs)
Conflict -- a struggle between opposing forces (provides interest, suspense, tension)
Exposition -- gives the background or setting of the conflict
Rising Action -- dramatizes the specific events that set the conflict in motion
Turning Point --
Complications -- prolong the suspense of the conflict’s resolution
Climax -- the emotional high point of the narration
Falling Action -- the events begin to wind down and point the reader toward the end
Conclusion or Denouement -- resolves the conflict to a greater or lesser degree
Foreshadowing -- anticipating a turn of events
Showing vs. Telling --
Plot and Structure: At the heart of all fiction lies the story. Story is an inclusive term. It consists of the totality of what happens and its subsequent meaning. Plot consists of what happens in the story, and nowhere is the imaginative quality of fiction more evident than in the plot. We think of the story line or action as a series of events occurring naturally in a chronological sequence. By action we mean the total sequence of events presented as a movement through time. The opening or beginning of a plot structure will usually introduce the situation and is sometimes called the exposition. The opening situation will introduce the characters, the setting, and present the conflict. Conflict consists of the struggle that grows out of two or more opposing forces. Conflict constitutes the essential element of plot.
From the opening situation and initial conflict, the action of the plotted story develops into a series of difficulties or into the complication. Complication, presented scene by scene, comprises the rising action of the story. When the tension has reached its peak and reaches the point where some action, physical or emotional, turns the conflict toward resolution, the story reaches its climax. Here the story can end, or the conflict can be resolved through a series of falling actions leading to the resolution. In a tightly plotted story, the final unraveling of the plot is called the denouement. The term catastrophe is traditionally reserved for the tragic ending, the term denouement for works that are not tragic.
Structure is often a major key to understanding the theme of a work. Structure consists of the framework or overall pattern employed by the author to both express and contain the content of the story.
2.) Character
Protagonist -- the central character
Antagonist --
Characterization -- the method of developing or revealing a character
Round or Flat -- for characters to emerge as round, the reader must feel the play and pull of their actions and responses to situations
Static or Dynamic -- a dynamic character changes during the narrative because something significant happens to him or her
Emotional Truth --
Sentimentality -- emotional overindulgence
Stereotyping -- generalized, oversimplified judgment
Characterization: Characterization is concerned basically with what people do and think. Characters move the plot; characterization conveys the theme. We define characterization as the artist's creation of imaginary persons who seem so credible that we accept them as real. Three techniques are most commonly used in presenting characters: direct exposition, where the artist describes his or her characters and tells us precisely who and even what the characters represent; dramatic technique, where the author reveals little or nothing about the characters' situations and presents his or her characters to the reader primarily through what they say and do; subjective method, where the author moves inside the consciousness of his or her characters and presents the workings of their minds and emotions as an immediate experience.
3.) Setting -- the place and time of the story – used to set the scene and suggest a mood or atmosphere – must be perceived to affect character or plot
Setting: The time and location in which the action of the story is taking place. Verisimilitude, the appearance of truth, is essential if the artist is to achieve and maintain the convention of dramatic illusion. In some works, setting not only influences behavior, but becomes an active protagonist or antagonist.
If a particular setting or locale is emphasized because of its uniqueness, its inherent interest, or its effect on the customs and behavior of the characters, it is said to be regional.
4.) Point of View -- the author’s choice of a narrator for the story
First-person narration -- uses the pronoun “I”
Third-person narration
-- uses the pronouns “he,” “she,” and “they”
First-Person Narration (narrator apparently a participant in the story)
A major character
A minor character
Third-Person Narration (narrator a non-participant in the story)
Omniscient -- seeing into the minds of all characters
Limited Omniscient -- seeing into one or, sometimes, two characters’ minds
Objective -- seeing into none of the characters’ minds
5.) Voice and Style
Style -- the characteristic way an author uses language to create literature -- style is the result of the writer’s habitual use of certain rhetorical patterns, including sentence length and complexity, word choice and placement, and punctuation
Voice -- projected in the author’s prose style
Tone -- the way the author conveys his or her unstated attitudes toward the story
Irony -- makes the reader aware of a reality that differs from the reality the characters perceive (dramatic irony) or from the literal meaning of the author’s words (verbal irony)
Symbolism -- a literary symbol can be anything in a story’s setting, plot, or characterization that suggests an abstract meaning to the reader in addition to its literal significance -- symbols are more eloquent as specific images, visual ideas, than any paraphrase
Allegory -- an entire story can also suggest a symbolic as well as a literal meaning -- a story becomes an “allegory” when all the characters, places, things, and events represent symbolic qualities and their interactions are meant to reveal a moral truth
Atmosphere and Mood: Atmosphere is a general term used to denote the pervasive emotion, feeling, or belief one senses within the work of literature. It is the prevailing tone or mood.
6.) Theme -- a generalization about the meaning of a story -- whereas the plot of a story can be summarized by stating what happened in the action, the theme is the general idea behind the events of the plot that expresses the meaning of the story. (Theme comes last in a discussion of the elements of fiction because all the other elements must be accounted for in determining it.)
Analyzing Fiction:
What is your reaction to the story? Jot it down.
Who is the narrator--not the author, but the one who tells the story?
What is the point of view?
What is the setting (time and place)? What is the atmosphere or mood?
How does the plot unfold? Write a synopsis, or summary, of the events in time order, including relationships among those events.
What are the characters like? Describe their personalities and traits. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? Do any characters change, and are the changes plausible or believable?
How would you describe the story’s style, or use of language? Is the style informal or conversational? Is it formal? Is there any dialect? Are there any foreign words?
What are the conflicts in the story? Determine the external conflicts and the internal conflicts. What is the central conflict? Express conflicts using the word “versus,” such as “dreams [or appearances] versus reality” or “the individual versus society.”
What is the climax of the story? Is there any resolution?
Are there any important symbols? What might they mean?
What does the title of the story mean?
Does the story have more than one level of meaning?
What are the themes of the story? State your interpretation of the main theme. How is this theme related to your own life?
What other literary works or experiences from life does the story make you think of? Jot them down.
Sources:
1.) Chapter 2, “The Elements of Fiction: A Storyteller’s Means,” in Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, by Ann Charters and Samuel Charters, Compact 2nd edition, Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s, 2001, pages 37-47.
2.) Dr. Mary Susan Johnston (Minnesota State University, Mankato).
3.) The Bedford Guide for College Writers.