1. Fiction Writing
What you should know…

2. The Elements of Fiction
Setting
Character
Conflict
Message
Point of View
Plot
Literary Devices

3. Setting
Time
Place
Circumstance

4. What were the settings of?
Down these Mean Streets?
Malcolm X?
The Kite Runner?

5. Setting creates Atmosphere
Setting is closely related to the atmosphere or mood of the story
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country.”
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

6. The “People”* appearing in a literary work
Characters
The “People”* appearing in a literary work
*can also be animals or things that act as people

7. Types of Characters Main Character/Protagonist
The character through whose eyes and ears and thoughts we read the story
Opposing Characters/Antagonists
The character who opposes, or presents a conflict for, the main character (can be more than one)
Does not have to be a person

8. Who are the main and opposing characters in?
The Kite Runner?
Down These Mean Streets?

9. Conflict The problem that must be solved to complete the story.
There can be more than one conflict in a story, but usually only one MAIN conflict

10. Types of Conflict Man vs. Man Man vs. Society Man vs. Himself
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Superbeing

11. Name a conflict from one of the stories…?
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Self
Man vs. Society

12. Message The whole point of the story
Usually a message or lesson that the writer wants to reader to come away with when done reading

13. What was the message in?
Malcolm X?
The Kite Runner?

14. Point of View Who is telling the story? 1st Person
Story is told from point of view of one of the characters who uses the first person pronoun “I.”
Omniscient 3rd Person
The narrator telling the story knows all the characters’ thoughts and feelings.
Limited Omniscient 3rd Person
Told from the viewpoint of a character in the story- knows only that character’s thoughts and feelings

15. From what point of view are these stories told from?
Malcolm X
The Kite Runner

16. Plot The series of events and actions that take place in a story
Story Map or Storyboard- an outline of the plot of a story that breaks it down into scenes and chapters

17. Plot Line
Climax: The turning point. The most intense moment (either mentally or in action).
Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crises in the story that lead to the climax.
Falling Action: all of the action which follows the Climax.
Exposition: The start of the story. The way things are before the action starts (Background introduced)
Resolution: The conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads.

18. What was the climax of?
The Kite Runner?

19. Literary Devices Allusion Irony Metaphor Hyperbole Symbolism
Foreshadowing
Flashback
Irony
Hyperbole
Anthropomorphism
Personification

20. How do you create …?
An allusion?
A symbol?
Foreshadowing?
Flashback?

21. LEARN THEM, KNOW THEM, USE THEM !
The Final Word
If you had trouble answering the questions in this slide show, then you are going to have trouble writing these elements into your stories.
LEARN THEM, KNOW THEM, USE THEM !