1. Elements of FictionElements of Fiction

2. Elements of Fiction
Students will identify the following elements of
fiction:
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Setting
4. Conflict
5. Theme

3. Fiction
Author's use fiction when writing about imaginary
people, places, or events in the form of short stories
or novels. Fiction is fake, imagined, or fantasy.
Fiction is not real or true information from real life.

4. Author's Purpose
The author's purpose is his or her
reason for creating a story. The
purpose may be to explain or inform,
entertain, persuade, or reveal an
important truth.

5. Plot
● The plot is a series of related events that present and
resolve a conflict in a story.
● All stories have five parts of a plot that make the
story complete:
- Exposition
- Rising Action
- Climax
- Falling Action
- Resolution

6. Parts of the Plot
● Exposition: The reader gets a basic understanding of
the story, learns the background, situation, and other
information.
● Rising Action: The part between the exposition and
climax, where the conflict occurs and builds up the
story to make it interesting.
● Climax: The turning point or highest action in the
story where the conflict is usually resolved
afterwards.

7. Parts of the Plot
● Falling Action: This occurs after the climax in the
story just before the resolution where the story
comes together toward the end.
● Resolution or Denouement: The final outcome of the
story.

8. Characters
Characters in a story can be a person, an animal, or
an imaginary creature that takes the part in the
action of the story.
Characterization is a technique used by a writer to
create and reveal the personalities of the characters
in a story. Direct characterization is when the author
tells the reader directly aspects of the character's
personality. Indirect characterization describes or
reveals the character's physical appearance,
situation, thoughts, and reactions of other characters.

9. Main Characters
There are two basic types of characters in a fictional
story:
● Protagonist
● - Main character of the story
● - Often the hero or character the reader is supposed
to feel sympathetic for
● Antagonist
● -Primary adversary or bad person towards
the protagonist
● - Oftentimes the villain

10. Setting
The time and place in which the action occurs. Look for
clues in the opening paragraphs of the story or novel.
The setting also includes ideas, customs, values, beliefs,
weather conditions, time of day, season, era, etc.

11. Conflict
Conflict is often a struggle between opposing forces,
such as the good and bad. Every plot must contain
some kind of conflict and stories can have more than
one conflict.
- Conflicts can be external or internal
● External conflict- an outside force may be a person,
group, animal, nature, or nonhuman obstacle.
● Internal conflict- takes place in a character's mind

12. Theme
The theme of the story is the main idea the author
wishes to share with the reader. Sometimes it helps
to ask yourself what lesson has the main character
learned in the story. Sometimes the reader may have
to guess or make inferences as to the theme of the
story.

13. Sources
- The information on Elements of Fiction comes from The Elements of
Fiction (n.d.). Retrieved from www. readwritethink.org/
files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/overview/
- The images are public domain or free to use non-attribute images from
WikiCommons or Creative Common images.