Novel and Short Story Terms and Definitions
Fiction – the name for stories dealing with imaginary people and imaginary events.
Non-Fiction – the name for stories dealing with real people and real events.
A novel is a long narrative written in prose dealing with fictional characters who take part in real-life situations. There
is no set minimum or maximum length, but anything under 40,000 words is generally considered to be a short story.
A short story is a short work of prose dealing with characters and situations which represent real life. Usually a short
story involves a character or characters who are confronted with a conflict or crisis of some sort. The seven main
elements of novels and short stories are character, plot, conflict, theme, setting, diction, and atmosphere / tone.
Usually one of these seven elements will be predominant depending upon the story. Short stories share many
characteristics with the novel, but the six main differences or characteristics of a short story are:
1. one main character struggling for or against something
2. one main setting
3. one main incident or event
4. one main idea, lesson, impression, moral, or message
5. short stories are shorter and more compressed; novels have a much wider scope.
6. short stories are more unified - if something does not have a purpose it should not be there. All
unnecessary characters, ideas, dialogue, and details are omitted.
Title - the title of a novel or short story gives the reader a valuable insight into the central themes of the story.
Understanding the meaning of the title will help you to understand the meaning of the work as a whole.
Characters - the fictional people, animals, or things in a short story or novel. Characters may be real or fictional
(created by the author’s imagination). Characters reveal themselves through their dialogue (what they say and how they
say it), their action (what they do), their thoughts, their physical appearance, and what others say about them. Every
character in a story will have their own individual and unique personalities. In real life, character is observed; in fiction,
it is created. Novels develop a greater number of characters in more detail due to their length.
Types of Characters:
1. Protagonist - the central or main character struggling for or against something.
2. Antagonist - the person, thing, or force struggling against the protagonist.
3. Flat or Static Character - a minor, oversimplified character who is not well developed and who does not
change, grow, or develop as the story progresses; their personalities are easily summed up because they are
usually one dimensional possessing one or two main character traits; as a result, their actions are often
easy to predict; these characters’ personality and values remain unchanged by the events of the story.
4. Round or Dynamic Character - a complex character with several developed personality traits
(sometimes contradictory ones); they are usually the character in conflict in a short story; they grow,
change, and develop as the story unravels; round characters often have mixed thoughts and feelings so
their actions are difficult to predict.
5. Stock or Stereotyped Character - a character who at one time might have been fresh and original, but
has become, through overuse, trite, conventional, and boring; often these characters are just caricatures
or exaggerated, flat, and familiar characters having one main character trait, feature gesture, mannerism, or
speech pattern (examples: bully, jock, nag, miser, villain, cop, detective, Newfoundlander, gossip, absentminded professor, etc.); their actions are easy to predict because we all recognize their character traits.
Characterization - the methods an author uses to create and reveal his or her characters. Characters are generally
presented in two ways by an author: 1) Direct Presentation - the author or another character in the story tells the
reader by exposition or analysis what a character is like or 2) Indirect Presentation - the author shows the reader the
character in action and the reader must infer what he is like from what he or she thinks, says, or does.
Characters must observe three main principals in order to be successful:
1. they must be consistent in their behavior; they must not behave differently in similar situations unless there
is a specific reason.
2. they must be clearly motivated in whatever they do.
3. they must be plausible (believable) and life-like.
A characters personality can change, but these changes must be within the possibilities of the character who makes them,
they must be sufficiently motivated by circumstances, and sufficient time must be allowed for them to believably take
place.
Motivation - the cause or causes which make a character behave the way they do.
Plot or Plot Structure - the sequence or arrangement of a story’s details, incidents, and events; plot shows the system
of cause and effect which is present in all stories; each event in the plot leads naturally to another event.
A. Introduction - the beginning of a story where the situation, characters, setting, atmosphere, etc. are
introduced; the introduction is meant to capture the reader’s interest.
B. Motivating Incident (Initial Impulse) - a single event or emotion (a character death, desire, fear, love,
C.
D.
E.
F.
envy, etc.) which causes the action of a story to begin; this event or emotion starts the plot in motion.
Rising Action - events building to the climax or highest point; problems, conflicts, and complications, for
the main character(s) are introduced here; this section contains a lot of action.
Climax - highest point of suspense, action, & excitement; this is the turning point of the story; the
protagonist usually wins or loses his or her struggle here; the climax often occurs near the end of the plot.
Falling Action (Denouement) - the series of events which concludes a narrative; all loose ends are tied
together here; all mysteries are solved; characters’ fates are settled or decided here; the suspense subsides
as possible solutions are presented for the conflicts introduced in the rising action; conflicts are settled
here, for better or worse (RESOLUTION?); often in a short story there is little, if any, denouement.
Conclusion - the end of the story; the results; the aftermath; the conclusion could be happy or sad
depending on how satisfactorily the conflicts were resolved; it is here where we see how the action of the
story has effected or changed the main character.
The Basic Plot Diagram for all Short Stories:
D. CLIMAX
C. RISING ACTION
E. FALLING ACTION / DENOUEMENT
(RESOLUTION?)
B. MOTIVATING INCIDENT
A. INTRODUCTION
F. CONCLUSION
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
PLOT
Artistic Unity - This is essential to a good plot. There must be nothing in the story that is irrelevant or does not
contribute to the total meaning of the story and there must be nothing that is there for its own sake or its own excitement
(example: a car chase in a slow-moving love story). Each link on the plot diagram is equally important. If one weak
link exists then the chain collapses. Every cause must have an effect. Logical development and unity is particularly
important in a short story where everything must have a purpose. There is no room for any extras.
Conflicts - situations in which two or more people, ideas or forces are opposed to each other. When this happens a
struggle occurs and one side usually wins. Conflicts are the struggles of actions, ideas, desires, or wills around which
the story revolves. Conflicts may be physical, emotional, or moral. External conflicts pit the main character in a story
against some other person, idea, or thing. Internal conflicts pit the main character against some element of his or her
own nature. These are usually mental in origin. Conflict is essential to plot. Any discussion of conflict must contain
the sources or causes of the conflict, the complications arising to complicate the conflict, and the resolution (if any) of
the conflict. There are six main types of conflict:
1. person vs. person (external)
2. person vs. nature (external)
3. person vs. supernatural (external)
4. person vs. technology or machine (external)
5. person vs. society (external)
6. person vs. him or herself (internal)
Complication - in the struggle or conflict in which the main character is involved, someone or something may
complicate things and thereby intensify the struggle; obstacles in the story that often create suspense and tension.
Resolution - the part of a story which shows how the conflict ends or is resolved; this almost always happens towards
the end of the plot after the climax; the resolution tells the reader how the struggle affected the main character and what
the outcome was. Please note: not every story has a resolution.
Theme - The main or central thought or the dominating idea of a story, usually stated indirectly. The entire story will
illustrate this idea. The theme reveals the purpose of the author for writing the story (i.e. why he or she wrote it).
Theme is a unifying generalization about life stated or implied in the story. A theme is an abstract idea put into concrete
form. Theme exists when an author attempts to accurately reveal some truth about life or when he or she uses some
concept or theory of life to unify the story. Theme is the central and unifying concept of a story and therefore it must
account for all the major details of a story, it must not be contradicted by any of these details, and it must not rely on any
supposed facts. When stating theme, do not use the names of the characters, setting, etc. and avoid using words such as
“all”, “every”, and “always”. Theme must be a generalized statement about life not referring to specific people from the
story. For example, saying “murder is wrong” is the theme of a story is okay, but saying that it was wrong for Bill to
murder his boss is not. You cannot express a theme in a word - it needs a complete sentence. When trying to
discover the theme of a story, try the following clues:
-the story’s title
-the central conflict of the story
-the lessons that were learned by the main characters and how they changed
-ideas or comments expressed by the characters or the narrator
Some examples of popular themes can be seen in the following:
1. jealousy leads to broken friendships
2. sudden wealth is harmful unless a person is very wise
3. judge a person by what he or she does, not by what he or she says or looks like
There are two types of theme:
a) Explicit or Stated Theme - the main idea of a story is expressed directly by the author or one of the main
characters.
b) Implicit or Implied Theme - the main idea of a story is suggested through the overall effect of the story.
This is the most common type of theme as the reader must draw his or her own conclusions.
*Note: Not all stories have a theme. The purpose of some stories may be simply to provide a good scare or to make the
reader laugh or to surprise us with a sudden twist at the end of the story. The best way to discover a theme is to look at
the main character and see how the conflicts in the story changed them, for better or for worse.
Moral - the lesson of a story; the moral attempts to teach the reader how to live well; the moral and theme are often
quite similar and therefore are often confused.
Purpose - the writer’s reason for writing; a writer’s purpose might be to inform, to entertain, or persuade an audience;
or a writer may just want to express personal thoughts and feelings about a subject.
Setting - where and when a story takes place; the time and place of the action of the story; the physical or emotional
location or background of a story; the setting shows the action of a story very much like a frame shows a painting or a
stage shows actors; the setting often includes local color and often shows the mood or atmosphere of the story; every
story has a setting, but it depends upon the story whether or not the setting plays an important role.
Atmosphere - the mood or feeling produced by the story; the feeling that a writer creates in a piece of writing;
atmosphere can be described by adjectives such as happy, sad, scary, dark, dreary, etc. In the short stories of Edgar
Allen Poe, for example, all elements of plot combine to create and contribute to a general atmosphere of gloom,
weirdness, mystery, and horror. The atmosphere then creates one particular emotion in the reader. It is important to
remember that atmosphere deals with emotion and feeling. In a good piece of writing, everything contributes to one
over-all impression, emotion or feeling. Good atmosphere will affect the reader and leave them contemplating the story
long after they have finished reading it. A sampling of the various types of atmosphere can be seen in the following list:
contemptuous, religious, mocking, joking, flippant, ironic, casual, conversational, realistic, unrealistic, stately, pious,
sentimental, grieving, personal, impersonal, trite, solemn, facetious, disdainful, critical, extravagant, exaggerated,
languishing, luxurious, mock-heroic, heroic, angry, patriotic, manly, satirical, sarcastic, supernatural, tragic, comic, etc.
Tone or Mood - the attitude of a writer towards his or her subject. A writer’s tone may be formal or informal, intimate,
solemn or playful, humorous, positive or negative, sympathetic, empathetic, contemptuous, awestruck, serious or ironic,
distrustful, condescending, satiric, etc. The tone of a story is closely linked to its atmosphere and to the author’s diction.
Style – the manner in which an author chooses to express himself or herself; the qualities of an author that make him or
her unique; an author’s style can be examined in terms of their word choice, diction, characters, tone, atmosphere, etc.
Diction - the language an author chooses to reveal the characters, setting, plot, etc. of a short story. The author may
choose to be very “flowery”, to use slang, to use dialect or jargon, to be formal or informal, or to be brisk and
journalistic in his or her word choice and sentence length. All of these vocabulary, language, and stylistic choices
combine to give every author a unique “voice” or “style”.
Colloquialism - expressions of informal conversation not accepted as good usage in formal speech or writing ; slang
(examples: ain’t, jumpins, holy cow, I’m fixin to do something, etc.).
Idiom – a colloquial expression particular to a given language which may not make logical or grammatical sense, but is
nevertheless used in everyday speech (example: down in the dumps; easy come, easy go; sink or swim).
Dialect - the speech of the people of a particular place, country, region, or class.
Dialogue – the actual words the characters speak (in quotation marks).
Narrator - the person who tells the story (either the author or one of the characters in the story) to the reader or listener.
Local color - details used to describe the speech, manners, customs, dress, music, scenery, traditions, and peculiarities
of a region or place; local color is closely linked to setting and it adds a lot to the atmosphere of a story; using local
color, the author gives flavor to a story and the reader is able to picture vividly (imagery) the streets of London in a
Charles Dickens novel, the Mississippi River in a Mark Twain novel, etc. The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival would
be an example of Fredericton’s local color.
Emotion - feelings aroused in the reader as they read the story; there are two kinds of emotion:
1. Genuine Emotion - A story contains genuine emotion when it treats life faithfully and is believable. If an
author wants to make us feel genuine emotion he or she must create real and convincing characters and
situations. This honesty, in turn, reflects the complexity and endless variety of life.
2. Sentimentality - A sentimental story has fake emotion and an author exaggerates or manipulates the plot.
The sentimental writer usually presents a “sweet” picture of life. He or she relies on common characters,
situations, and themes. Good always triumphs over evil and every negative event has a positive side.
Empathy - the feeling a reader experiences when he or she identifies with a character in a story.
Sympathy or Pathos - occurs when the reader has a feeling of pity or sorrow for a character.
Epiphany - a sudden revelation or suddenly seeing something in a new light.
Suspense - the quality of a story which makes a reader want to continue reading to see how a situation will turn out and
what is going to happen. It is a feeling of tension which writer’s use to keep the reader interested. Suspense means that
the reader has been told enough to pique or arouse his or her curiosity and to make the reader anticipate finding out what
has not yet been told to him or her. Something is concealed and the reader looks forward to finding out what he or she
does not know. Suspense is often created when there is a conflict or struggle. Two common ways to achieve suspense
are:
1. introduce a mystery or unusual circumstances for which the reader craves an explanation or
2. force the protagonist into a choice between two situations, both of which are undesirable
Foreshadowing - an early hint or clue of an event (usually unpleasant) that will happen later in the story; this is one of
the many ways to create suspense.
Foreboding - a sense of impending doom, disaster, or catastrophe. This is one of the many ways to create suspense.
Symbolism is a person, place, or thing which represents something else. A literary symbol means more than what it
appears to at first glance; it is an object, a person, a situation, an action, or some other item that has a literal meaning in
the story but suggests or represents other meanings as well; something definite (concrete) representing something that is
not definite (abstract) (examples: red = danger or love; black or a flag at half mast = death or mourning; a cross =
Christianity; a badge = authority). In order for a literary symbol to be effective, the story must provide clues to establish
and support the symbolic meaning. A reader may have to think deeply about something in order to detect its symbolic
meaning because often the concept of symbolism lies just below the literal meaning.
Motif – an element (character, incident, concept, etc.), usually symbolic, that recurs over and over in a creative work.
Image - a word or expression which helps the reader or listener to imagine the thing, person, or event being described.
Imagery - scenes or things that are described so well that you can see them clearly in your mind. You may also feel as
though you can hear, touch, taste, or smell the thing of scene being described.
Allusion - a reference to a person, place, event, or thing with which the reader is expected to be familiar. For example,
when we say “the King of Rock and Roll” everyone knows you are talking about Elvis, or when we say that someone is
acting like a baby we know what that means.
Classical Allusion – a reference to a character or story from Greek or Roman mythology.
Biblical Allusion – a reference to a character or story from the Bible.
Historical Allusion – a reference to a famous person, place or event from history.
Irony - A form of expression in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant or where what happens is the
opposite of what is expected; an incongruity between an actual result and an expected result; between a literal meaning
and an implied meaning; between appearance and reality; between what “seems” and what “is”; between what a
character says and what he or she does; between what the reader knows and what a character knows, says, or does. The
use of irony may create various effects such as humor or suspense. There are two main methods of creating irony:
1. Overstatement or saying more than what you really think (example: A McDonald’s hamburger is a
gourmet meal)
2. Understatement or saying less than what you mean (example: saying a 35 degree day is a bit warm)
There are four main types of irony:
a) Verbal Irony - the stylistic device of saying one thing but actually meaning the opposite (example: Little
John). The appearance is what the words say, but the reality is the contrary thing they mean. Both speaker
and listener are aware of the contrast, mutually understanding the situation and each other. For instance,
“a marvelous time” may mean a boring time and a “great day” may mean a rotten day. Of course, the
listener must know the “time” was boring in order to understand the irony in the word marvelous.
b) Situational Irony - this is when what we expect to occur in a story is comically or tragically opposite to
what happens, or when appearance is different from reality, or when the actual outcome of an action differs
from the intended one or when a person does not get what they deserve.
c) Dramatic Irony - the effect created when a main character is unaware of the true situation, but the reader,
listener, or audience is; saying or doing something while being unaware of its full meaning; dramatic irony
also occurs when a character makes a statement which has one meaning for him or her, but a different
meaning for the reader and at least one of the other characters. An example of dramatic irony is when a
character says it is the happiest day of his or her life when we know, as the audience, that the boss has
decided to fire him or her and his or her family has left him or her. Another example occurs when the
audience shouts “No! No!” when a character is about to open the door because we know disaster awaits
him or her.
d) Tonal Irony - this occurs when an author takes one attitude toward his subject but intends the reader to
take the opposite attitude.
Satire - a form of irony strongly influenced by sarcasm which is used to make fun of or attack something that is wicked
or undesirable; the use of wit and humour to make a comment on a social institution in an effort to provoke change;
when authors satirize something, they make fun of it in an exaggerated way hoping that people will then realize the
problem and attempt to change it (for example, in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, Swift suggests eating babies as a
way of solving the population problems and food shortages in Ireland).
Chronological Order - telling a story from start to finish without any interruption of the natural order.
Flashback - an interruption of chronological sequence by bringing in events of an earlier occurrence; descriptions of
scenes or events that happened before that point in the novel are flashbacks.
Media Res - Literally means “to start in the middle of things.” For this story-telling technique, an author starts in the
middle of a story, fills in the beginning as the narrative progresses, and then ends with the conclusion. Many directors
(example: Quentin Tarantino) have had a lot of success with this technique.
Anachronism – An event, person, or object appearing in a literary work set in a time in which the event, person, or
object did not occur or exist (example: a rocket ship in a story set in the 1800’s).
Point of View - how the author chooses to tell a story and who he or she chooses to tell it; the relationship between the
narrator and the story he/she tells; point of view is the angle from which the author chooses to tell or narrate the story.
The Author’s choice of narration style for a story determines the amount of information a reader will be given. An
author uses a narrator much as a movie director uses a camera. Through choice of point of view (who the narrator is) the
author can focus sharply on some details and characters while showing others less clearly.
Four Major (and One Minor) Points of view:
1. First Person - The narrator “I” is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and
feelings and what he/she sees and is told by other characters.
Example: “As I placed the carefully wrapped package on the park bench, I looked up and saw Molly
walking across the street. I hoped she didn’t see me.”
2. Third Person Objective - The narrator is an outsider who can report only what he or she sees and hears.
Example: “As George placed the carefully wrapped package on the park bench, he looked up and saw
Molly walking across the street.”
3. Third Person Limited – The narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters.
Example: “George, anxiously hoping that no one was watching him, placed a carefully wrapped package
on an empty park bench. When he looked around, he saw Molly watching him from across the street.”
4. Omniscient – The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the
characters.
Example: “George, anxiously hoping that no one was watching him, placed a carefully wrapped package
on an empty park bench. But Molly, who was walking home, saw him and couldn’t help thinking that he
was acting strangely.”
5.
Second Person Viewpoint? – Everyone always wants to know if this exists. Well, you could try writing a
story using the second person “you” (You meet this girl. You go on a date. You get married. You live
happily ever after.) but I am not aware of a successful story that uses this technique.
Narrative - the passages in a story which describe extended periods of time or represent complex actions in a kind of
general summary.
Scene - the parts of a story where the pace of the presentation is slowed to the point that the reader sees and hears
approximately all he or she would if he or she was actually witnessing the action of the characters.
Repetition – the way certain features or elements of a story may be presented more than once to make a thematic point;
stating a word, phrase, etc. over and over again for a particular effect.
Burlesque – the use of imitation to make a person, action, idea, etc. look ridiculous.
Parody – a type of burlesque which derides a particular literary work or style by imitating its features and applying them
to trivial materials.
Caricature – a type of portrait which makes a person look ludicrous by exaggerating or distorting their prominent
features without losing their likeness.
Lampoon – a verbal caricature which has a biting and often scurrilous tone.
Stream of Consciousness – a fictional technique in which the thoughts of a character are entirely opened to the reader,
usually being presented as a flow of ideas and feelings, apparently without logical organization.
Malapropism – a humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of a similar sound (example: a “shrewd”
awakening instead of a “rude” awakening).
Literal Language - the exact meaning of what is said or written; for example, newspapers and history books are written
using literal language
Figurative Language - The language of metaphor, simile, and personification; this type of language is much more
imaginative than literal language; for example, when you say that you are “dead to the world” it means you were
sleeping soundly.
Figures of Speech – expressions in which words are used out of their literal meaning.
Simile - a direct comparison of one thing to another using like, as, or than (examples: sly as a fox; lips like cherries; fit
as a fiddle; my love is like a red, red rose; he’s faster than a speeding bullet).
Metaphor – an implied comparison of one thing to another using something to which it has a common likeness, but not
using like or as (examples: he was a tiger in the fight; she’s a ray of sunshine; the road was a ribbon of moonlight).
Personification - giving life-like or human qualities to something (objects or ideas) which is not alive (example: the sun
cried when it saw the damage caused by pollution; the wind howled all night long; the trees danced in the wind; the
breeze kissed my face; Justice is blind).
Hyperbole – exaggeration (examples: his hands dangled a mile out of his sleeves; I’ve told you a million times!).
Contrast – the juxtaposition (comparison) of different things.
Oxymoron – placing two words together that mean opposite things; a contradiction (example: “parting is such sweet
sorrow” or “jumbo shrimp”).
Pun – a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply different meanings (example: when
Mercutio says the line “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” in Romeo and Juliet, he means that
tomorrow you will find him to be a serious person or a corpse in his grave; “sticks float; they would”).
Apostrophe – speaking to someone who is absent as if they are there or speaking to an inanimate object as if it was
human (example: Oh, Moon; asking a deceased relative to help you with a problem).
Antithesis – two contrasting ideas stated together (example: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”).
Paradox - a statement that contradicts itself; a statement that seems absurd but which, upon closer inspection, turns out
to be logical and based in fact (example: “That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me” – the poet John Donne
paradoxically asks God to knock him down so that he may stand. In other words, he wants God to destroy his present
self and make him into a holier person.).
Onomatopoeia – the use of words whose sounds seem to suggest or reinforce their meaning (examples: vroom;
aaahhhhhh; tic toc; hiss; bang; bow-wow; buzz; rattle; sizzle).
Humor – any device used to evoke some kind of laughter.
Picaresque – a kind of story that blends comedy and satire to narrate the adventures of a rogue character (a merry rascal
who survives by his wits) passing through a low or debased version of contemporary reality.
Analogy - an equation using words in which one pair of words must have the same relationship to each other as a second
pair of words. For example, finger is to hand as toe is to foot.
Allegory – a narrative in which the characters and/or events stand for abstract qualities. For example, honesty might be
represented by a character named honesty or the slaying of a dragon may symbolize the defeat of the devil. The purpose
of an allegory is to teach a moral or a spiritual lesson.
Parable – a story that takes the form of a simple allegory, using humble characters and situations as a way of suggesting
more important moral or religious concerns.
Fantasy – a story that has characters such as fairies, monsters, dragons, spirits, ghosts, and so forth. The setting is a
dream world of the imagination.
Melodrama – a story in which the central character is often engaged in a life or death situation which he or she usually
wins.
Fable – a story that makes a moral point through the actions of characters, often using animals to represent human
behavior (example: the movie Babe).
History (a.k.a. Chronicle) – a re-telling of events from the past in the form of a story. This is the most factual kind of
fiction.
Realism – a mode of fiction that is not specifically factual but presents a world that is recognizably bound by the same
laws as the world of the author.
Epistolary Novel – the story is conveyed entirely using the exchange of letters.
Sociological Novel – emphasizes the influence of economic and social conditions on characters and events in the hope
that this will bring about social change and reform.
Romance – a story that is neither wildly fantastic nor bound by the conventions of realism, but offers a heightened
version of reality.
Comedy – a story that ends happily for the main character(s) who often are forced to undergo much discomfort and
embarrassing moments.
Tragedy – the story of a character’s fall from a high position through some flaw of personality.
Biography – the story of a person’s life as told by a novelist who attempts to recreate that person’s life by describing
their character, personality, historical significance, etc.
Autobiography – the story of a person’s life told by that person using the first person point of view.
Genre - a category or class in which all items have a particular form, technique, or content. Genre is a synonym for type
and kind. Genres in literature include novels, short stories, essays, poetry, etc. Genres in novels include horror,
comedy, tragedy, mystery, etc.
Bombast – verbose and pretentious diction inflated out of proportion to the meaning and situation (example: a homeless
person using a fancy British dialect to describe his luxurious accommodations).
Sensibility - highly developed emotional and intellectual awareness, particularly in response to beauty.
Juxtaposition – the way episodes or elements of a plot are located next to one another to contribute to the design of a
story.
Pathetic Fallacy – the attachment of human traits or feelings to nature; presentation in a work of fiction of a mood in
nature that is in harmony with the mood of the character involved (for example, if a character is extremely upset, it may
be storming in the story).
Exposition - the explanation, clarification, discussion, or analysis of ideas and literary techniques used in a short story,
novel, or poem; exposition is often used at the beginning of a story to provide information about the characters, setting,
and situation.
Bathos - a sudden and ridiculous descent from the exalted to the ordinary (example: The exile came back to his home,
crippled, unfriended, broke, and hatless).
Types of Language Used in Poetic Writing
Literal language refers to the use of words in their most usual, obvious, and limited sense. Figurative language refers
to the symbolic use of words to suggest a meaning other than that implied by the literal words. Figurative language
often contains figures of speech such as similes and metaphors. For example, the description of someone as “blind to
others” could literally mean that the person has no eyesight. Figuratively speaking, it may mean that the person does not
consider the needs or existence of others.
Abstract words suggest a world of general ideas or abstract thought which can not directly be perceived by the senses.
Concrete words tend to suggest vivid, specific, or readily identifiable meanings and situations. For example, in the line
“My love is like a red, red rose”, the last two words are concrete. Love is an example of an abstract word, as are similar
words such as “freedom”, “peace”, “beauty”, “reason”, or “passion”.
Denotation describes the meaning of words in a limited, literal sense, as defined by a dictionary. Connotation goes
much further in that it describes the meanings words acquire beyond the denotative level when they are used for their
emotional and/or figurative associations. For example, “house” is a denotative word; “home” is a connotative word;
“horse” and “steed” denote the same animal, but steed has a different connotation.
Image / Imagery refers to a word or a group of words that helps the reader sense or picture what is being described. In
Shakespeare, imagery refers especially to vivid and descriptive passages.
An allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, or event from history, literature, the Bible, mythology, etc. which is
assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader. For example:
“Brightness falls
from the air
Queens have died young and fair,
Dust hath closed Helen’s eye;...”
This allusion is to the famously beautiful Helen of Troy.
Metonymy means referring to something by naming only one of its parts. For example, when we say “All hands on
deck” we mean all people to the deck, not just hands.
A cliche is a word or phrase that has been used so often that they are felt to be boring or tedious. For example: “neat”
or “Show me the money”.
Sound Devices
-Great writers uses sound devices to add flow, beauty and rhythm to his or her writing. The most common sound
devices are onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition, cacophony, and euphony.
Onomatopoeia is the use of a word whose sound imitates, suggests, and reinforces its meaning. For example: “crash”,
“roar”, “meow”, “buzz”, “crack”, “boom”, “murmur” “hiss” or “hum”.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant or vowel sound in words or stressed syllables that are close together
in a poem. Assonance is the repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds. For example: “Dip the tip of your fingers
in liquid”. Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sound within words that are close together. For
example: “She sells sea shells by the sea shore”.
Repetition is the repeated use of a word or phrase in a piece of writing to stress an idea or achieve a dramatic effect.
For example: “Pines and pines and the shadow of pines as far as the eye can see.”
Cacophony refers to the use of harsh, unpleasant sounds for poetic effect. For example: “The buzz-saw snarled and
rattled”. Euphony refers to the pleasant, musical quality produced by agreeable sounds and images in a piece of
writing. For example: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep”.
Figures of speech
-language used in a deliberately unconventional, non-literal way in order to achieve a special effect such as adding
meaning, imagery, emphasis, or contrast. Figures of speech often add beauty, richness, and intensity to a piece of
writing. Some of the most commonly used figures of speech are: personification, apostrophe, hyperbole, pun, metaphor,
and simile.
Personification is a figure of speech which attributes human qualities to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract ideas.
For example, when we say that a window pane is crying on a rainy day. “Justice is blind”. “The moaning of the wind
frightened us”. “A smiling moon peeped out at us.”
Apostrophe is a type of personification that means addressing the absent as present, the dead as if alive, or the
inanimate as if it was human. For example: “O, moon, do you feel my pain?”
Hyperbole is a figure of speech which uses exaggeration (overstatement or understatement) for emphasis or
serious/humorous effects. For example, when we say that we are “starving to death” when we are really hungry. Or
when we say that something very seriously wrong isn’t really that bad. Example: “His hands dangled a mile out of his
sleeves”. “He missed him by a mile.”
A pun is a play on words in which a word is used to convey two meanings at the same time. For example, if your car
needs new wheels you might retire, or someone might say they got a fair deal after they bought a carnival.
Metaphor is defined as a direct comparison between two objects. It is a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of
as being that which it only resembles. Some examples include:
1. Calling a ferocious man a tiger.
2. “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”
3. “In the sea of life we mortals swim alone.” Or “A poem is a moment’s monument.”
4. “This school is a zoo”. Or “You’re a pig!” Or “She’s a doll.”
Simile is defined as a comparison between two things using the words like, as or than. Some examples include:
1. “Faster than a speeding bullet.”
2. Like loose silk blown against a wall, she walks by the railing of a path.
3. “As virtuous men pass mildly away…So let us part and make no noise…”
4. “That man is as strong as an ox.”
5. “He ran like the wind.” Or “My love is like a red, red rose”.