2. Definition
• Fiction writing is based on fictitious
events; however, the story is written
in such a way that it takes on a
realistic quality to become believable.
• It includes literary prose such as
short stories, novellas, and novels.
3. Where to Start When
Writing Fiction
• One of the first places you may want
to start is with what you know.
• Look at events in your own
experiences or with stories you were
told by someone else.
4. Continued
• Writing fiction allows you to discover
character types, humor, personal
themes, the nature of your
imagination, and many other critical
details needed for story
development.
• You can find ideas from
poems, dreams, and conflicts.
5. Elements of Story
• Classical story structure is:
– set-up or exposition
– increasing of the complications by
moving forward in actions
– Climax or highest point of action
– Reversal where action may go back to
the beginning
– Resolution that ends or brings the story
to some type of closing
6. Continued
• Stories usually come in three-part
structure
– Beginning where the characters and
exposition (establishment of events or
actions that happen before another did)
are given. This is also where the
reader’s attention can be won or lost.
– May need to be being right away by
introducing the conflict of the story.
7. Continued
– Middle where plot development occurs
through different actions and possible
conflicts the protagonist will have to go
through while he/she is trying to solve
an issue.
– Resolution that brings the story to a
conclusion of some type or the resolving
of the current conflict the protagonist
is going through.
8. Ways to Begin
• Routine-disruption
• The Chance Encounter
• Entering of a Mysterious Stranger
• The Shattering Statement
• Expectation Vs. Actuality
• The Road Story
9. Other Elements of
Literature
• Tone
• Language
• Ideas
• Atmosphere
• Character
• Theme
10. All Stories Need
• All stories need
– exposition to let the reader know that
something does not occur in
isolation, but there were previous
events to occurred before the action of
the story.
– development where the reader sees the
disruption of the routine or the inciting
of the incident.
– drama that depicts the struggle the
protagonist will go through.
11. Moving to the Second
Act
• One of the most challenging parts is
making the middle as vital and
focused as the opening to keep the
action moving forward.
• The problems for the protagonist
become so urgent that a climax is
forced through the choices the
character makes and the actions
taken.
12. Continued
• The middle is where the writer
follows through on the complications
established in the beginning of the
story.
• It is also where the end is being set
up.
• There is a beginning to the middle as
well.
13. Act Three or the Ending
• The third act of the story or the
ending is where the character will
reach his/her goal, or where the
events after the climax happen.
• A protagonist may not fully resolve a
conflict, but the story will come to
some type of ending.
14. Basic Plot Line
• Exposition: The start of the story.
The way things are before the action
starts.
• Rising Action: the series of conflicts
and crisis in the story that lead to the
climax.
• Climax: The turning point. The most
intense moment (either mentally or in
action.
15. Continued
• Falling Action: all of the action which
follows the Climax.
• Resolution: The conclusion, the tying
together of all of the threads.
16. Theme
• The theme of a piece of fiction is its central
idea. It usually contains some insight into the
human condition.
• In most short stories, the theme can be
expressed in a single sentence.
• In longer works of fiction, the central theme is
often accompanied by a number of
lesser, related themes, or there may be two or
more central themes.
• Themes should be stated as a generalization.
17. Other Elements
• Allusion: a reference to a person, place or
literary, historical, artistic, mythological source or
event.
• A symbol represents an idea, quality, or concept larger
than itself.
• Irony: a difference between what is expected and
reality. (Verbal, situational, and dramatic)
• Style: a writer’s individual and distinct way of writing.
The total of the qualities that distinguish one author’s
writing from another’s.
18. Continued
• Structure: the way time moves through a novel.
• Chronological: starts at the beginning and
moves through time.
• Flashback: starts in the present and then goes
back to the past.
• Circular or Anticipatory: starts in the
present, flashes back to the past, and returns
to the present at the conclusion.
• Panel: same story told from different
viewpoints.
19. Ways to Jump Time
• Writers cannot give all the event
because a story would be too long and
involved, so there are places where
time bridges will have to be created.
• Types of time jumping include:
– Flash forward
– Flashback
20. Characters
• Characters are the people the events
happen to.
• Characters mainly need to take on
rounded qualities to give them depth
and dimension.
• Also want to avoid cliché or
stereotyped characters.
21. How to Develop
Characters
• Research characters.
• Play around with original conceptions.
• Write sympathetically about all
characters.
• Give Heroes or Heroines a flaw.
• Avoid sentimentality.
22. Characters Continued
• Characters must be believable.
• Don’t give everything there is to
know about a character, but leave
some things for the reader to
imagine.
• Reveal personality traits and
characteristics through what the
character does and says.
23. Continued
Types of Characters:
•Round Character: convincing, true to life.
•Dynamic Character: undergoes some type of change
in story.
•Flat Character: stereotyped, shallow, often
symbolic.
•Static Character: does not change in the course of
the story.
24. Methods of
Characterization
1.Direct: ―he was an old man..‖ (The Old Man
and the Sea)
2.Own Words and Actions
3.Reaction of other Characters
4.Physical appearance
5.Own thoughts
25. Dialogue
• Dialogue is the talking that takes
place between characters and by the
characters.
• There are several types of dialogue
that can take place within a story.
• Dialogue should be infused with
exposition and description as well as
characterization.
26. Types of Dialogue
• Direct (dramatic/real-time) dialogue:
this is the dialogue that happens at
the scene in present time.
• Indirect dialogue: where the
narrator reports what someone says.
27. Continued
• Stylized dialogue: it’s an illusion;
flows through time without giving a
full cinematic picture.
• Asynchronous dialogue: tension and
drama in the dialogue increase as the
characters’ disagreement increases
and they respond in an unscripted
manner.
28. How is Dialogue Killed?
• Letting characters say what is
already known.
• Characters responding as if they
knew what each other was going to
say—predictable.
• Telling scenes explicitly instead of
revealing through the tone and word
choice characters could use to reveal
feelings.
29. Half-scene and Scene
Snippets
• Half-scene is the use of scenic
devices and present-action moments
in the midst of summary or
narration.
• These make summary more
alive, less static or informal, and
more dramatic.
30. Continued
• They can accelerate or facilitate
movement through time.
• Snippets give details that make
narration moments more vivid.
31. Types of Action
• Routine action is basically a summary
type action of something characters
do all the time.
• Present action is the action that
happens at a particular time.
32. Creating Tension
• One of the best ways to create
tension is to follow the actions of one
character while another is off-scene
taking part in different actions that
could have an adverse effect on the
main character.
33. Description
• Setting deals with time and interior
& exterior placement of where the
story is happening.
• May need to give at least three
sentences describing the setting
before introducing the character.
• Helps to include
metaphor, symbolism, and point of
view through the details given.
34. Types of Information
• Primary information: the main
information given that advances the
narrative.
• Secondary information: provides
context, metaphor, idea, etc.
• Cannot stray too far or for too long
from the real world or the story is
not believable.
35. Continued
• Leave out what is already known
and keep what you don’t know.
• Try something new.
• Make sure the reader always
knows where the character is and
use the setting to help tell the
story.
36. Point of View
• First-person narrator: limited to one
individual and told by the character
him/herself.
• Third-person narrator: can have total
omniscience or limited omniscience
(knows conscious of one character).
Knows the outcome of the
story, while the protagonist doesn’t.
37. Continued
• Second-person narrator: telling to
someone else. Usually is used in ―how-
to‖ type stories. Not highly used.
• When choosing POV, decide what
would work best with the material to
be presented.
38. Types of Conflict
• Man vs Man
• Man vs Nature
• Man vs Society
• Man vs Technology
• Man vs Himself
39. Revision
• Need hard revision—revising several
times.
• Parts of revision:
– Motivation
– Significant details
– Repetition of detail
– Recounting of story events
