Plot

Plot refers to the order of events in the story and should not be confused with action.  Plot considers the events and how the author organizes or structures them.  Action refers to the events as they occur chronologically, not in the way the author ordered them.  Action refers to what happens in the story.  Plot refers to how the author structures what happens in order to create interest or unity.

Conflict

Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces in a narrative.  Conflicts are usually resolved by the end of the story.  Narratives may include external conflicts between people, conflicts between people and external forces (nature, society, etc.), or internal conflicts between a person and her/his own problems or limitations (a character flaw or weakness).

Exposition

Exposition is the background information necessary to follow the narrative.

Complication

Complications are often called the “rising action” of the story.  They are the events that intensify or lead up to the turning point in the story.

Climax

A climax is the high point of a story.  It is the moment at which the conflict reaches a peak and that may lead to a resolution.

Denouement

Denouement is a French word referring to the falling action or resolution of a story. This part of the plot happens at the end of the story and involves a tying up of loose ends.

Character

Characters are the imaginary people who populate narratives.  Traits of characters are usually revealed through two main methods: direct characterization--when narrators spell out the traits of a character through narration (he was a lazy slob); and indirect characterization--when characters traits are revealed through their actions (the author shows the character sitting around all day drinking beer and watching TV in her underwear to illustrate her laziness).  See page 62 of Diyanni for a more explicit breakdown of techniques of characterization.

Protagonist

A protagonist is the central character of a story.  The protagonist is sometimes opposed by an antagonist who comes into conflict with the protagonist.

Static Character

Static characters are characters that don’t change or evolve.

Dynamic character

Dynamic characters are characters that do change or evolve.

Flat character

Flat characters are not developed very well or are minor characters that have little complexity.

Round character

Round characters are rendered with depth and complexity.

Setting

Setting refers to the place, location, and time of a story; setting can have symbolic significance or be used to reinforce a character’s attitude or state of mind.

Point of View

Point of view refers to the narrative perspective from which the author chooses to deliver the action of the story.  Authors may choose an objective point of view by which they reveal action and dialogue without commentary or interpretation of events, or authors may choose a subjective point of view by which they create a narrator who does comment on or interpret the events.

First-person point of view

This technique presents the action from the perspective of a narrator who generally participates in and/or comments on the action.  Stories from this perspective often present a discrepancy between what may have “actually” happened and the way a character perceives the action. 

Third-person omniscient point of view

This technique presents the action from an “all-knowing” perspective.  Typically, the narrator is objective but is able to present all characters’ thoughts and feelings

Third person limited point of view

This technique presents the action from a vantage point where the narrator may only have knowledge of one or two characters’ perspectives and not have total omniscience.

Style

Style refers to the way an author chooses words or arranges sentences; style greatly influences the way we understand a story.   Authors may use a simple style with concrete verbs and short punchy sentences, a more complex style with longer sentences and a more advanced vocabulary, or other styles that fall in between.

Diction

Diction is a part of style that refers to an author’s choice of words and may be characterized by words like conversational, elevated, upper-class, regional, simple, complex, colloquial, etc.

Syntax

Syntax is a part of style that refers to the way authors arrange their words; simple and complex are the most typical ways to characterize syntax.

Theme

A theme is a central idea in a work that can be abstracted through the action and images.  You should state a theme as a generalization (a broad statement or principle), and it should have a subject and a predicate.  A theme is not what a story is “about” but what a story “represents.”

Irony

Irony involves a discrepancy between one thing and another, and usually occurs in one of three ways: verbal irony--a discrepancy between what is said and meant (if I say “I like your shoes,” but you can tell I really don’t); situational irony refers to a discrepancy between what happens and what one would expect to happen (if a fire station burns to the ground); dramatic irony refers to a discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know (this kind of irony is more prevalent in drama and might occur if the audience has learned that Louie is the murderer, and the hero arrives to collaborate with Louie to solve the crime, but the hero doesn’t know that Louie is the murderer).

Symbol

A symbol is an object, action, or event in a narrative that is significant in its own right but that also represents something else (a train might be an important mode of transportation in a story, but it might also symbolize the disadvantages of progress with the pollution it creates).