Introduction to Fiction
Basic Terms for Discussion
Study Guide for Section One
The Short Story
Elements of fiction
 I. Plot
 A. Dramatic structure
 B. Exposition
 C. Complication
 1. Rising action
 2. Conflict
 3. Moments of crisis
 D. Climax
Elements of Fiction
 E. Dénouement
 1. closed dénouement
 2. open dénouement
Elements of Fiction
 II. Characterization
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A. Protagonist
B. Antagonist
C. Development
D. Motivation
E. Description
Elements of Fiction
 III. Point of view
 A. First-person narration
 1. The narrator is a participant in the story
 2. The narrator must be present at all times
 B. Third-person narration
 1. employs a non-participant narrator
 2. Narrator is capable of moving from place to place
in the story and never reveals its source
Elements of Fiction
 C. Omniscience
 1. total omniscience is where the narrator knows
everything
 2. editorial point of view goes even further, allowing
the godlike author to comment directly on the action
 3. limited omniscience is where the storyteller limits
himself to the thoughts of a single character
 4. dramatic (or objective) point of view is where the
narrator simply reports dialogue and action with
minimal interpretation and does not delve into
characters’ minds
Elements of Fiction
 IV. Theme
 A. A story’s “theme” is the overall meaning the
reader derives from it. There’s no one “correct”
theme, but some are more likely than others.
Elements of Fiction
 V. Setting
 A. Put simply, it is the time and place of a
story.
 1. Locale
 2. historical fiction
 3. Regionalism
 4. magic realism
Elements of Fiction
 VI. Style, Tone, and Symbolism
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A. Style = a writer’s characteristics of
language
1. diction
2. sentence structure
3. punctuation
4. use of figurative language
Elements of Fiction
 B. Tone = The tone of the story is what
we can indirectly determine about the
author’s own feelings about its events
from his choice of words
 C. Symbolism = When actions take on a
larger meaning in the context outside the
story