Short Story and Novel Elem
Cresta McGowan
Works Cited:
Meyer, Michael. "The Elements of Fiction." The
Bedford Introduction to Literature (Reading-WritingThinking). 8th ed. Boston/New York: Bedford/St
Martin's, 2008. 67-339. Print.
PLOT
I put a group of characters in
some sort of predicament, and
then watch them try to work
themselves free, or manipulate
them to safety - those are jobs
which require the noisy
jackhammer of plot - to watch
what happens and then write it
down.
-Stephen King
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Created by a writer’s imagination, a work of fiction
need not be factual or historically accurate.
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We can learn much about Russian life
from Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, but
that historical information is incidental to
Tolstoy’s exploration of human nature.
Tolstoy, like most successful writers,
makes us accept as real the world in his
novel no matter how foreign it may be to
our own reality.
One of the ways a writer achieves this acceptance and
engagement - and one of a writer’s few obligations - is to
interest us in what is happening in the story. We are carried into
the writer’s fictional world by the plot.
PLOT STRUCTURE
Introduction - The beginning of the story where the characters and the setting
is revealed.
Rising Action - This is where the events in the story become complicated and
the conflict in the story is revealed (events between the introduction and
climax).
Climax - This is the highest point of interest and the turning point of the story.
The reader wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be resolved or
not?
Falling action - The events and complications begin to resolve themselves.
The reader knows what has happened next and if the conflict was resolved
or not (events between climax and denouement).
Denouement - This is the final outcome or untangling of events in the story.
Plot Pyramid
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Common Plot Strategies that keep you
reading on:
•Flashback - a device that informs us about an event before
the opening scene of the work.
•Conflict (or INCITING INCIDENT)- Man vs. Man, Man vs.
Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. himself
•Foreshadowing - clues of events yet to come
•Suspense - making a reader anxious to find out what
happens
•Anecdote - A very short tale told by a character in a literary
work.
•Sub-plot - A subplot, sometimes referred to as a "B story" or
a "C story" and so on, is a secondary plot strand that is
auxiliary to the main plot. Subplots may connect to main
plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance.
Subplots often involve supporting characters, those besides
CHARACTE
When I find a well-drawn character
in fiction or biography, I generally
take a warm personal interest in
him, for the reason that I have
known him before - met him on the
river.
~Mark Twain
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Character is essential to plot. Without characters
Rowling’s Harry Potter Series would be nothing more
than a journey through England and Meyer’s Twilight
Series little more than a faded history of a sleepy town in
the north where the sun never shines.
The methods in which a writer creates people in a story
so that they seem to actually exist is called
characterization.
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Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character
is.
Example: “The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not
disobey their mother.”
Explanation: The author is directly telling the audience the personality of these
two children. The boy is “patient” and the girl is “quiet.”
Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal the personality of a character.
There are five different methods of indirect characterization:
Speech - What does the character say? How does the character speak?
Thoughts - What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and
feelings?
Effect on others toward the character - What is revealed through the
character’s effect on other people? How do other characters feel or behave in
reaction to the character?
Actions - What does the character do? How does the character behave?
Looks - What does the character look like? How does the character dress?
Tip #1: Use the mnemonic device of STEAL to remember the five types of indirect
characterization
Basic Types of Characters in Fiction
Flat Characters - background characters who are never described in enough
detail to give a good mental image, and thus seem to be flat cut-out images.
They seem to be stereotypes, even if they have names and some description.
Examples: "the butcher," "the red-haired woman," "a little old man."
Round Characters - characters who are described in more detail, so that you
have a good mental image of them. The main characters in the story will be
round characters, and some of the more important background characters will
also be round.
Dynamic Characters - characters who change over the course of the story.
Static Characters - characters who stay the same throughout the story.
Protagonist vs. Antagonist
What’s really going on here?
The Protagonist:
Often called the 'hero' of the story, it is more accurate to say that the Protagonist is
the main character- the one that your audience will follow for the majority of the
story. This doesn’t always make him the good guy. At it's core, the Protagonist is the
one with the obstacle to overcome.
The Antagonist:
In simple terms, the Antagonist is the force that your main character struggles
against during your movie. The simplest and most common Antagonist is the villain,
which must be overcome during the course of your stor, but it is not always the bad
guy. Although this character is extremely important (because it gives your
Protagonist something to struggle against), it is important to understand that the
Antagonist doesn't always have to be another human character, nor does the
Antagonist always have to be 'evil.' For example, a Protagonist can struggle against
'the coming storm on the horizon,' or can struggle against 'his girlfriend's father who
doesn't want them to get married.'
The reason a story has less 'flexibility' with a Protagonist is because you will follow
him (or her) around for the entire piece; your reader will need to be able to identify
I love the way a short story can offer a sharp
concentrated insight like a stiletto thrust. I love the
way you can experience a whole lifetime in a few
pages.
~Andrea Lee
Setting is the context in which the
action of a story occurs. The major
elements of setting are:
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1. Time - Morning/Night, Early/Late,
1955/2025, etc…
2. Place - North/South, Africa/England,
Inside/Outside, etc…
3. Social Environment Formal/Informal, Young/Old,
School/Hospital, etc…
Setting
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It is not necessary to
portray many characters.
The center of gravity
should be in two persons:
him and her.
~Anton Chekov
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Point of View
Point of view comes in three varieties, which the English scholars
have handily numbered for your convenience:
First-person point of view - is in use when a character narrates
the story with I-me-my-mine in his or her speech. The advantage
of this point of view is that you get to hear the thoughts of the
narrator and see the world depicted in the story through his or
her eyes. However, remember that no narrator, like no human
being, has complete self-knowledge or, for that matter, complete
knowledge of anything. Therefore, the reader's role is to go
beyond what the narrator says.
For example, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is told from
the point of view of Scout, a young child. She doesn't grasp the
complex racial and socioeconomic relations of her town — but
the reader does, because Scout gives information that the reader
can interpret. Also, Scout's innocence reminds the reader of a
simple, "it's-not-fair" attitude that contrasts with the
Third Person Omniscient: This is when the writer
tells the story using the third person (he said, she
did, etc.) The writer has access into every action
and even the thoughts of all the characters. He is
all-knowing, in other words. Omniscient point of
view means the writer is a God.
Third Person Limited: The writer still uses the third
person, but his insight into every thought is now
limited to just one character in the story, or maybe
a few different characters separated by parts of
the book. He still has some pretty godlike powers,
DO not
NOTall
USE
2ND PERSON POV! DO NOT EVEN
butWE
he's
knowing.
THINK ABOUT SELECTING THIS CHOICE ON A
Symbolism
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Now mind, I recognize no
dichotomy between art and
protest.
~Ralph Ellison
A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggest
more than its literal meaning.
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Symbolism often throws off a reader as they
review the literature. They often question
themselves thinking, “I didn’t see that when I
was reading the story.”
Most readers go through the story for first time
getting their bearings, figuring out what is
happening to whom and so on. Patterns and
details often require a SECOND or even (say it
ain’t so) a THIRD reading before a symbol
sheds its light. Often when the symbolism is
recognized, there is an “a-ha” moment for the
reader. Symbols are usually embedded but
NOT hidden; they are carefully placed. What is
Types of Symbols
Conventional Symbols - symbols widely recognized by a society o
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Certain kinds of experiences also have traditional meanings in
Western Culture (that’s you!) For example: Winter, the sun
setting, and the color black often represent death, while spring, the
rising sun, and the color green often represent life or new
beginnings.
Writers use these conventional ideas in their stories to convey an
idea. Kate Chopin uses the imagery of spring in “The Story of an
Literary Symbols - this type of symbol can
include conventional or public meanings, but it
may also be established internally by the total
context of the work in which it appears.
A literary symbol can be a setting, character, action,
object, name, or anything else in a work that
maintains its literal significance while suggesting
other meanings. Symbols can not be restricted to a
single meaning; they are suggestive rather than
definitive. The many walls in Melville’s “Bartleby the
Scrivener” can not be reduced to one idea - they
have many meanings in the story: the walls
symbolize the deadening, dehumanizing, restrictive
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repetitiveness of the office routine, as well as the
confining, materialistic sensibilities of Wall Street.
They suggest whatever limits and thwarts human
aspirations, including death itself. As the reader, we
never know precisely what shatters Bartleby’s will to
live, but the walls in the story give us symbolic
Allego
ry single, fixed meaning, the writer is using an allegory
When a character, object, or incident indicates a
rather than a symbol. Where symbols have literal
functions as well as multiple meanings, the primary
focus in allegory is on the abstract idea called forth by
the“The
concrete
C. S. Lewis’s
Lion, object.
the Witch, and the
Wardrobe” is a good example of an allegory.
Aslan represents the figure of Jesus Christ.
The Stone Table refers to the stone tablets
that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai,
according to the Bible.
The sea becomes a boundary between
Narnia, the Earth, and "Aslan's country," or
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To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme
~Herman Melville
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Theme
Theme is the central idea or meaning of a story. It provides a
unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point
of view, and symbols of a story are organized.
Theme is not always easy to identify. A few pointers to help you
determine the theme or a piece of literature on your SECOND
or THIRD reading are:
1. Pay attention to the title of the story..
2. Look for details with symbolic meaning - consider names,
places, objects, etc…
3. Decide whether the protagonist changes or develops some
important insight as a result of the action in the story.
4. Write down your ideas of theme in your own words - avoiding
just nothing the subject. The story may be about revenge, but
the theme should make a statement about revenge!
5. Be sure that your statement is a general idea of theme and
not a specific focus on people, places, or incidents in the
story.
6. By wary of using clichés - they tend to short circuit the idea.
7. Be aware that some stories emphasize theme less than
Style, Tone, and Irony
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I like it when there is some feeling of
threat or sense of menace in short
stories. I think a little menace is fine
to have in a story.
~Raymond Carver
Style is a concept that everyone understand on some
level because in its broadest sense it refers to the
particular way in which anything is made or done.
Style is all around us: cars, clothing, buildings,
dance, music, politics - in anything that reflects a
distinctive manner of expression or design.
Authors also have different characteristic styles.
Style refers to the distinctive manner in
which a writer arranges words to achieve
particular effects.
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DICTION refers to a writer’s choice of
words. Because different words evoke
different emotions, the writer’s choice of
words is critical to the story.
Tone is the author’s implicit attitude toward the people,
places, and events in a story. When we speak, our tone
is conveyed by our voice inflections, our wink of an eye,
or some other gesture. In a literary work that spoken
voice is unavailable; instead we must rely on the context
of which a statement appears and interpret it correctly.
To determine tone in writing
you have to consider diction
and syntax (the grammatical
structure in the sentence) in
the author’s representation of
information.
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Screaming or Yawning?
Irony
Irony is a literary device that reveals a
reality different from what appears to be
true.
There are three main types of irony:
1. Verbal Irony - consists of a person saying one thing but
meaning the opposite. If a student driver smashes the
driver’s ed car and the instructor says, “you did well
today” the statement is an example of verbal irony.
Verbal irony is usually calculated to make light or
banter someone with false praise or “teasing” through
the use of sarcasm.
In literature, however, verbal irony is not openly
aggressive; instead, it is more subtle and restrained
though no less intense.
2. Situational Irony - this exists when there is an incongruity
(difference) between what is expected to happen and what
actually happens.
•
•
•
An example of situational irony is a scene in a movie where a
man is about to shoot someone, however, when the noise of the
gun being fired occurs, instead of the bullet hitting the victim,
the shooter himself is shot by someone else.
Another example would be a woman who is apprehensive about
attending a wedding due to being single, she however goes and
there meets her future husband.
In literature, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet provides
an example of tragic situational irony. Juliet takes a drug to fake
her death, Romeo however takes poison as he believes Juliet to
be dead, when she awakens from her self-induced coma, she
finds Romeo's body and thus kills herself for real.
3. Dramatic Irony - creates a discrepancy between what a
character believes or says and what the reader
understands to be true.
The most sustained example of dramatic irony is undoubtedly
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus searches to find
the murderer of the former king of Thebes, only to discover
that it is himself, a fact the audience has known all along.
In a horror movie, suspense is often built up by the use of spooky
music. The viewers often know that someone is going to die
or get ripped up, or, at least, something is going to jump out
because of the music that THEY can hear--and, of course, the
characters cannot. Because the viewers know something the
characters do not, this is dramatic irony.
Another similar example is when the main character (in a scary
movie), is being chased by a killer and we know that the killer
Types of Literature
1. Allegory - as noted before, When a character, object, or incident indicates a
single, fixed meaning
2. Novel - A fictional prose work of substantial length. The novel narrates the
actions of characters who are entirely the invention of the author and who
are placed in an imaginary setting. The fact that a so-called historical or
biographical novel uses historically real characters in real geographical
locations doing historically verifiable things does not alter the fictional
quality of the work. Nor does it qualify a work labeled a novel by the author
as a historical text.
3. Novella - a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a
short story and a novel
4. Parable - A brief story, told or written in order to teach a moral lesson.
Christ's tale of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-7) is an example.
5. Prose - Prose is writing that resembles everyday speech. The word "prose"
is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to
"straightforward".
6. Short Story - A short fictional narrative. It is difficult to set forth the point at
which a short story becomes a short novel (novella), or the page number at
which a novelette becomes a novel. Here are some examples which may
help in determining which is which: Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted
7. Poetry - Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed
through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an
emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme,
but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone
through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of
poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly
impossible to define.
8. Informational text - reading material that is designed to inform, teach, or
explain
9. Non-Fiction Text - text that provides true and accurate details such as a
documentary or an autobiography.
10. Essays - An essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from
an author's personal point of view. Essays can be literary criticism, political
manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and
reflections of the author. An essay can be narrative (telling a story),
persuasive (making a point), compare/contrast, expository (informative),
autobiographical (your own story), cause/effect, descriptive, or literary
analysis (going deeper into the literature). Essays ARE NOT ALWAYS 5PARAGRAPHS! Structured essays will have requirements, but free
response ask you to know when to begin, what to say, and when to end! It