Interested in Writing Fiction?
A Crash Course in
Creating Characters,
Plot and Setting
Note: this presentations covers a lot of info! If you feel
overwhelmed, concentrate initially on slides #1-10, 20,
and 25-32.
First, a quick review of a couple important points…
What is the difference between an essay and a story?
Beginning writers sometimes confuse these.
Essays have a thesis, are primarily factual
(nonfictional), expository (explanatory), and
reflective. The “narrator” (the voice speaking the
essay) is the actual author, and any people
referenced are real, living individuals.
Stories don’t have a thesis, are primarily dramatic
and “made up,” and are narrated by an invented
character or an omniscient speaker. People who
are referenced in a story are invented characters.
Take care that you don’t
confuse a first-person
narrator of a story with
the author of the story!
They are not (necessarily)
the same person! We’ll be
discussing this in class at
some point.
So...
Go give away your dollar bill.
Yeah. Really.
Go outside, select someone, walk up and give
them the money. Or wait for someone to walk past
you. Or whatever.
You can’t explain why. Just say “Here” or “This is
for you” or something similar.
Now...
Don’t talk.
Don’t ask any questions.
Get out some scratch paper or open up a blank Word
.doc and write.
Describe what happened in a paragraph. You can reflect
a bit if you like, but be sure to describe the what, where,
who. In concrete, descriptive detail.
And finally...
what is the story in what just happened? How do you
locate the “story” in any set of events?
Sketch a story called, “The Dollar Bill”:
•
•
•
•
•
When/where does it begin?
Who is the main character?
What is the primary problem or narrative question?
What is the point of view?
How do events unfold? Where does each scene stop and
start?
• When/where does it end?
• What is the story’s primary effect, theme, and mood?
When you are waiting or searching
for a story...what are you waiting or
searching for, exactly? Good bets
are:
• Interesting images that catch your eye or linger in
your mind or haunt you.
• People who strike you as interesting and you’re not
sure why.
• First lines that simply come to mind. “The most
puzzling element of her day was the black hat.”
• A scene from your everyday life in which you notice
an interesting contrast or question.
Also, good bets for stories very often involve
character rather than plot. And a character’s
desires are almost always interesting. For
instance:
• Someone desperately wants something
they can’t have.
• Someone gets what they want, and it turns
out to be [tragic, funny, shocking].
• Someone wants x, but the reader can
clearly see that what they actually need is
y.
The Elements of Fiction
Plot
Characterization
Setting
And Some Other
Stuff
Note that experimenting with
plot is one of your options for
your Fiction Project!
Ok. Plot
What is it?
How do you
make one?
How do you make a GOOD one?
Fun facts: the
word “plot” in
fiction actually
derived from the
word “plot”
used in farming.
Plotting a Story

What's a plot?
o

The sequence (or pattern) of events in a story.
“First this happens, then that happens, then this…”
What sets a plot in motion?
o

Hint: when this narrative
question is linked to
CHARACTER, you have a
stronger, richer story!
A QUESTION is posed, explicitly or implicitly.
We call this the “narrative question.”
So why do we we continue reading? What
keeps us turning pages?
Say this is the first line of a story:
“Stan Studly was climbing a mountain.”
Ok, so what is probably going to be
this story’s narrative question?
Right! “Will he make it to the top?”
This question is implied, and, sure
enough, the reason we continue reading
is TO GET AN ANSWER!
Now, what are the possible
ANSWERS to such a question?
The possible answers are:
YES! or...let me guess... NO!
Nothing wrong with a story like that; it can be quite
good, even exciting. But that’s a pretty simple plot
basis. You can do quite a lot more.
Suspense and interest can get REALLY
intense when ADDITIONAL questions
are introduced, and/or when the
question(s) posed has multiple
possible answers.
Stan and Frank are climbing a mountain.
Stan is having an affair with
Frank’s wife.
More questions
So, NOW what’s the
narrative question(s)?
and/or more
possible
answers
• Will they make it to the top?
• Will one make it and the other fail?
• Will Frank find out that Stan is
having the affair?
more
• What will Frank do when he finds
suspense!
out?
=
& possibly a richer story.
Of course, there are other ways
of thinking about how a plot gets
“jump-started”:
A balanced situation becomes…
Or an obstacle is presented. The more
obstacles, the more potential suspense.
Usually :)
Whatever the case...
what gets a story going,
what keeps us interested,
is that...
SOMETHING IS WRONG!
If nothing’s wrong, if everyone’s happy, there’s no story. I mean, screw
happy people! Who cares, right?
Ha ha. Joking. But really. It’s human problems that engage us. Just ask
any soap opera or computer game addict. We want to read about the
problems people face and how they do (or don’t) manage to deal with
those problems.
Another way to think of PACE, in
fact, is the RATE OF REVELATION.
What else is important to plot?
PACE
What speeds
thepace?
slows the
 Exposition.
pace?





Interior monologue.
• ACTION!
Description.
• Revelation of
Dialogue.
Sub-plots
or parallel plot
ANSWERS
to(more
the on this is just
a sec)
narrative
False clues, misdirection, or otherwise
questions
withholding
answers to the narrative question.
We may and probably will discuss each of these
at some point in class!
Helpful Plot Devices







Framing (we’ll talk about this more in a sec)
Flashbacks
Foreshadowing
Parallel or intersecting plots or sub-plots (more in a sec)
False clues
“Hooks” (these are not so much “devices” but
integral elements; sometimes they’re referred to as
complicating actions, triggers, or twists)
Delay (withholding answers to the narrative
questions)
Plot Structure
So, what’s the shape of your
plot?
How do its parts fit together?
A traditional, linear plot...
is one we are all most accustomed to.
A series of actions occur, a problem someone
is facing gets worse, and, just when we think
the problem will destroy the person, the day is
somehow saved.
That’s a crazy oversimplification—so let’s look
deeper...
“Triggering action”= SOMETHING
GOES WRONG. Equilibrium
becomes DISEQUILIBRIUM.
“Hook” = complicating action.
Increasing
tension
X
X
TRADITIONAL
PLOT
STRUCTURE:
standard
rising and
falling action
X
X
X
X
X
Scene-setting: where, who, when?
(sometimes called “exposition”). Equilibrium. Balance.
Here are additional
possibilities in a
traditional plot:
False clue
Increasing
tension
X
Partial answer
X
Introduction of
minor parallel plot
TRADITIONAL
PLOT
STRUCTURE
X
X
X
Flashback
What SLOWS
Pace?
X
X
X
X
X
X
Scene-setting
(exposition).
What SPEEDS pace?
ACTION!
ANSWERS!
Even partial
answers!
Dialogue.
Description.
Minor parallel
plots.
False clues.
Flashbacks.
Internal
monologue.
There’s nothing wrong with a traditional
plot structure!
And did you know: each
carries with it its own
ideological assumptions
about the nature of time,
desire, purpose, even human
existence itself?
Feel free to research more info on anything
here!
Alternate Plot Structures (and devices)
Different plots
can express
Montage
or collage. (Tim O’Brien story which we will read for class.)
alternative
ways of
Multiple and intersecting plots. (I’ll tell you about a novel, Continental Drift.)
experiencing
Chronologically
TIME andbackwards plot. (Yes—backwards. See Lorrie Moore’s
“How to Talk to Your Mother.”)
REALITY! See
Garcia
StaticGabriel
plots. (See
experimental stories by Robbe Grille.)
Marquez’s One
A story made entirely of flashbacks, or footnotes, or exposition. (I’ll tell
Hundred Years
you about Nicholson Baker’s, The Mezzanine.)
of Solitude.
Framed narrative. A story within a story. (Have you seen Titanic?)
For your fiction project...
I’d suggest a simple, traditional,
linear plot, if you have not written
much fiction before.
Plot Thingys to Avoid
(none of this allowed!)

The “it was all a dream” ending. (Besides the fact that it already
happened to Dorothy, it’s just a cheap solution to the difficulties
raised in the story.)

Suicide endings. (Sorry—your characters will have to find some
other way out of their problems. Avoid this kind of ending, at least
for now.)

O’Henry twist endings. (Clever, but get old fast. The twist
becomes the whole point of the story, gets kind of gimmicky, and
ultimately has limited interest.)

Tidy, comprehensive endings in which everything comes out well,
all loose ends are neatly tied up, and the universe is pretty much
explained to one and all. Let your stories end inconclusively now
and then. Let them end with questions rather than answers.
And Something Else to Think About
Does a story have to be plot-centered?
NO! A piece can be character-driven,
image-driven, idea-driven, even
setting-driven. (Look at selected
scenes from Robert Altman’s, The
Player—maybe I’ll show them in class.)
So, a little sum-up:
Plot—Don’t Plod!
o Be aware of your narrative question. Introduce
additional narrative questions. Create multiple
obstacles, physical or emotional.
o Control the rate of revelation. Slow pace = interior
monologue, description, dialogue, exposition. Fast
pace = action, jump cuts, answers to narrative question.
o Provide false clues, misdirection, to create tension.
o Develop sub- or parallel-plots which delay revelation in
the main plot, add interest and complexity.
o Consider creating your backstory gradually. Don't give
main character’s full story immediately. Let it evolve.
o Provide powerful IMAGERY which heightens tensions.
Students almost NEVER use imagery with feeling.
Note: many students are not aware of where their
scenes stop and start, and their transitional
passages are consequently “muddy”: overelaborated, bogging the whole story down.
What else is important to plot?


Scene Development
o
A unit of time and place in which (usually) important action takes
place.
o
Can be like mini-stories within the larger story.
Scene transitions
o
o
o
Provide a simple extra space on the page. This is common these
days.
Transitional phrases.
“Jump cuts.” Leaping from one scene to another abruptly. Done
well, reader intuits the transition. Student stories often have
needless exposition and crud between scenes.
How long should a scene be?

Depends on length of story.

Depends on pacing: do you want to speed
things up or slow things down? Short scenes
obviously go faster than longer ones.

Student scenes are often neglected. Too
long, too short, non-existent…
Characters
How do you make
them?
How do you make
them INTERESTING?
Types


Flat (or Simple, Secondary, Static)
Round (or Complex, Primary, Dynamic)
Need to Be



Try starting with a
CHARACTER idea, not
a plot idea!
Believable, Real
Consistent
Distinctive
Worst beginner
faults: characters
who are all alike
(can’t tell one from
the other), or are
generic.
Starting with a Character
Cook up a distinct, rounded, believable character.
What is that person’s greatest desire? Primary
fault? Greatest fears? Worst neuroses? What makes
this person sad, edgy, confused, repulsed? What do
they NOT KNOW about themselves?
NOW:
put that character in a setting and situation which will
MAXIMIZE his/her fears, faults, neuroses; a situation
which may force them to confront their what they do
not know about themselves or what they don’t want
to know.
Something very handy is...
applied to
CHACTERIZATION
Don’t explain away your characters. Don’t continually
TELL us what they feel. SHOW us what they feel. And,
even then, let only the tip of the iceberg show—the
RIGHT details will evoke the great complex mass of
feeling under the surface. Trying to explain a person’s
feelings usually oversimplifies those feelings, even
cheapens them and drains them of nuance. Provide
fewer, but better, details. (Less is more.)
E.g., instead of saying that “Sally was taken aback and
completely furious”...say that “Sally frowned very
gradually, a really long frown, her eyes narrowing like
debit card slots on an ATM.” This shows the
character’s feeling dramatically and more richly.
Instead of explaining
everything...
o
Have your character DO something which
reveals interesting nuances of their personality.
o
Have your character REACT to what someone
else does or says.
o
Show other characters reacting to, or speaking
about, your protagonist.
o
Or, sometimes, just let the most recent action
speak for itself.
Don’t feel you have to know everything there is to
know about your protagonist!
In fact, if your protagonist is any good,
you WON’T know everything there is
to know about the person. Many good
writers report that their main
characters take on a life of their own,
and, just like people in real life, are
too complex to be completely pinned
down.
Silences aren’t silent.
Silences aren’t nothing.
Being good with words means knowing when to shut up.
SETTING and IMAGERY

What do SPECIFIC ITEMS in the setting say about the main
character?
–
–
–
What is in your invented character’s bedroom?
What is in YOUR bedroom?
What is in the jungle in “How to Tell a True War Story”? What
is in the home of the protagonist of “Cathedral”?

What mood is created by the setting and by the story’s imagery?

How do the setting and the imagery contribute to theme?

In what ways might a story actually be ABOUT setting? (setting
that is almost a character)
Settings can tell us general info
about a character’s socioeconomic class or age, but they
can also reveal nuances of
character and contribute to our
understanding of a rich
character
Beginning writers...
always neglect setting :/
And now…
Fiction Review
Some #1 Things to Look Out For
Before handing in any work,
ask yourself at least a few of these questions:
1. Does the story rely entirely on plot? Are other story elements—character, setting,
perspective, language, image—ignored?
2. Does the plot in turn rely entirely on an "O'Henry twist" or trick ending? This is fun
maybe once or twice, but it gets old really fast. You should only be doing this
sparingly. The outcome is a foregone conclusion for the writer and so no discoveries
have been made. One of the central pleasures in writing—for the writer—has been
missed.
3. A related problem is the plot based heavily on a clever, "ooh-aah" or "oh wow"
premise. Such a premise or basic concept is fine if the story is otherwise fully
developed, but too often the premise becomes the only point, a gimmick of interest
for about 3 seconds. Try founding your story on some interesting and unresolved,
possibly unresolvable problem of character rather than plot. The premise may seem
less snappy or clever at first, but ultimately the story will be richer and take the reader
(and you, the writer) into more interesting territory.
4. Is the plot "front-heavy"? That is, does it have page after page of initial scene-setting
and exposition, followed by screaming slide to a conclusion?
5. Is there a suicide ending? Come on.
6. Are there plenty of specific, concrete, sensory DETAILS so that the reader can really
see and feel the setting and characters? Or is most of the language general and
abstract?
7.
Are the characters in the story distinctive? Can you tell one apart from the other, or are they all
basically the same person?
8.
Are the characters developed? Do you really know the central people in the story—their
desires, physical quirks, beliefs, contradictions? Does the main character leave an
impression? Do you know everything there is to know about the main character? (you
shouldn't!).
9.
Are scenes* in the story distinctive and delineated? If they all kind of run together, chances are
there's a lot of inconsequential action which is diluting the best stuff so we can't see it or
experience it vividly. Go through and mark where scenes in the story begin and end, and
consider cleaner transitions from one scene to another.
10.
Look at the scenes you've marked. Is each one sufficiently developed? Notice where some
good scene opportunities are being brushed over. These are places where you probably
SUMMARIZED or used EXPOSITION rather than developed the moment with sensory detail.
11.
Are the scenes well-modulated? You want to alternate action, reflection, dialogue, and
exposition—not action scene followed by action scene followed by action scene. If there's no
modulation, the high points just run together with the low points and the story will feel
monotonous.
12.
Is the point of view modulated? You want "distant shots" as well as detailed "close-ups."
13.
Is there real engagement with language? Or, oops, is the prose style pretty much a soggy
paper towel?
14.
Look out for dull, hackneyed language; cliché words and expressions:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
"sly smile"
"evil smirk"
"deep into his eyes"
"heart leaped to his throat"
"face etched with concern"
"blacker than night"
"bitter tears"
majestic sunset," etc.
15.
Try some interesting figurative language! Look at Lorrie Moore and Annie Proulx
for evocative, surprising, moving, vivid, juicy metaphors and similes.
16.
Watch out for monotonous sentence length and style; no rhythmic, modulated, or
otherwise engaging sentences.
17.
Listen for voice—does your narrator, whether she's wholly omniscient, limited
omniscient, or first-person—have a distinctive way of talking?
* Scene = an unbroken stretch of time and action, usually in one place. Unlike a summary or
exposition, which may overview a broad period of time, a scene generally covers a brief,
detailed, circumscribed period. Scenes are almost like small stories in themselves.
Remember, there’s no need ever for writer’s block.
llllllllllllll
Commercial
Screenwriting
(in case you’re interested)
Movies vs. Plays vs. Novels








Novel: author has control of nearly all of the main
product
Plays: playwright has total control of script
Movies: screenwriter usually has little control of
anything 
Novel: can get directly into characters’ thoughts
and also provide exposition easily
Movies: primarily visual
Plays: primarily verbal (dialogue)
Novels: a solitary art
Plays and especially movies: highly collaborative
arts
Basics BASICS
 Shooting
BASICS
or Production Script:
 Formatted
for actual use on set.
And there’s
the:
Pitch
Outline
 Spec
or Writer’s Script:
Treatment
Synopsis
 For
shopping your script around.
 100-120
pages. Period.
In MANY commercial films, CONCEPT is key.
A successful concept:













Can be understood by an 8th grader
Can be summed up in one or two sentences
Is provocative
Provides a compelling mental picture
Has a main character who experiences a conflict which leads to
an initial HOOK
Has sequel potential
Has “legs” (could work even without big stars)
Will nonetheless attract a big star
Stands out
Is original but also has familiar elements (Being John Malkovich)
You can see the whole movie in it
Has broad appeal
Is marketable; the exec knows immediately that the idea has
potential
Formulating the concept
(the “one-line” or “logline”):

Pose as question:



What if Dorothy had a sister?
What if Titanic were a spaceship instead of a boat?
What if one of the ghostbusters were himself a ghost?

Pose as a logline: TV Guide or newspaper movie
section one-sentence summary

Pose as a hook:






The Graduate: Part II
Out of Africa meets Pretty Lady
Braveheart comes to America (The Patriot)
Night of the Living Dead meets Star Wars (The Imposter)
Night of the Living Dead meets Outbreak (The Invasion)
Animal House meets The Good Girl (The Tao of Steve)
Logline should have an implied structure—on
hearing the concept, an exec would sense a
beginning, middle, and end, or the “beats”:
1. Opening Image
Every handbook you consult will
2. Theme Statement
break these parts down a little
3. Set-up
differently or with different headers
4. Catalyst
5. Debate
6. B Story (usually the love story, page 30)
7. Fun and Games
8. Midpoint
9. Bad Guys Close In
10.All is Lost
11.Dark Night of the Soul
12.Finale
13.Final Image
The killer TITLE
+ the
CONCEPT
= a one-two
Know Your Genres
Thriller
 Love Story
 Action/Adventure
 Sci-Fi
 Horror
 Detective mystery
 Comedy

…including ones not mentioned in your local video store:

The Fish Out of Water


Dances with Wolves, Dangerous Minds, Miss Congeniality, Legally Blonde,
Benjamin Button, The Reader
The Pet Who Heals

Winn-Dixie, Seabiscuit, As Good as It Gets (sub-theme), Marley and Me

The Buddy Story (Sensitive Male Bonding Flick)

Ill-Fated Lovers (Casablanca, Romeo and Juliet,

Plain Jane Transformed


The Devil Wears Prada, Pretty Lady, My Fair Lady, Cinderella (of course)…
Beloved Mentor

Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, Good Will Hunting

Rites of Passage (A Few Good Men, Rocky, Titanic, The Reader)

The Quest (Titanic, Troy, Indiana Jones, My Best Friend’s Wedding

Monster in the House (The Exorcist, Tremors, Panic Room, Alien)

The Brilliant Dope (Forrest Gump, Dave, I Am Sam)
There is much, much, much, much,
much, much, much, much, much,
much, much, much, much more to
this discipline.
I’ve given you a wee taste, a feel for
the commercial foundations.
Finding resources is EASY
To read actual film scripts, try out:





www.isriptdb.com (Internet Movie Script Database)
www.dailyscript.com
www.newmarketpress.com/category.asp?id=10www.scriptcrawler.com (New Market Press’s film
and television scripts for sale)
www.script-o-rama.com
www.simplyscripts.com
TV and movie script writing site:

www.cybercollege.com/index.htm
Quicky on film script format:

www.cybercollege.com/dram_flm.htm
Longer thingy on script writing format:

http://www.screenwriting.info/
These sites haven’t been
thoroughly examined; they are
suggested starting places only.
BTW,
how do you know when a website is junk?











No contact info or verifiable background
No affiliations, stated or linked
Claims made without supporting evidence
The site is problematically “.com” or other
“.orgs” are getting easier to fudge, apparently
No documentation of sources
No documentation of little-known or debatable info
Conspicuous ill-will, bias, disregard for opposing views
Unedited and unproofread
Links take you to advertisements or porn
Comes from Wikipedia :)
Wickedpedia
There’s a whole world of non-formula filmmaking and screenwriting out there; you
just might have to look a little further
than franchise theaters or screaming TV
trailers.
E.g., visit
the Fargo
Theater!
But, man, do you
really want to
write formula
stuff?