Setting tells us when and where the story takes place.

Settings can be general (19th century in America, in the future on Mars) or specific (2014 in Gastonia, NC; May 22, 4089 in the White House).

Setting influences the plot of the story, the tone and mood, and the characters.

If the setting is based around real events in a real place during a historical time, we can expect the setting to dictate certain events in the story. A story set during the American Civil War, for instance, would likely include plot events based on actual historical events, with the fictional characters interacting with real people from history.

The setting influences the tone (the author's attitude towards his subject) and mood (the audience's attitude towards the subject) of the story. A story taking place on a "dark and stormy night in a crumbling castle by the sea" gives the audience a feeling of foreboding--the expectation that something frightening, tragic, or dramatic will happen.

Setting, to a large extent, determines what a character can and cannot do while still being believable. (For example, a Pilgrim child on the Mayflower in 1620 could not believably break his arm in a skateboarding-and-texting accident.) Setting influences our expectations for the characters. (For instance, a female character in a story set in 19th century America would be expected to be domestic, feminine, and focused on getting a husband.)

Don't believe me? Try taking any well-known story and re-imagining it in a different time or place, and see how it changes the story.

Plot, quite simply, is what happens in the story. Plot tells us the events of the story and the order in which they happen.

Most story plots follow a familiar pattern and can be mapped out in a graphic organizer like this one.

The exposition introduces the setting, characters, and the situation. Some stories have a substantial amount of exposition in the beginning. Other stories begin with an event that serves as the rising action, and exposition information is provided along the way.

Rising actions are the events that lead up to the climax (the breaking point) of the story. These are often a series of conflicts, complications, and challenges that the protagonist (main character) faces that push him into a crucial decision or a crisis.

Climax is the high point of the story--the most important event that changes the direction of a story. Often this is where the earlier conflict comes to a head and must be dealt with. A crucial decision is made. If a protagonist triumphs in the climax, then the story often resolves happily, whereas a protagonist's failure leads to an inevitably tragic ending.

Falling actions are the events that occur as a result of the climax. If, for instance, the protagonist shoots his brother in the climax, the falling actions might include going to prison, a funeral, or a medal of honor (depending, of course, on how other characters felt about the guy who got shot).

The resolution is the part of the story in which all the loose ends and plot threads are tied up. During the resolution, solutions are found to problems and questions are answered. (Some choices end unresolved, and the audience is left to decide what happened on its own.)

The conclusion is the ending of the story, in which we find out what the characters' lives will be like from here on out. Think "and they lived happily ever after" (except sometimes they don't).

Conflict is a struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions. Without conflict, most plots would never go anywhere. Conflicts spur the action of most fiction and nonfiction.

There are two types of conflict:

- External conflict--a character struggles against other characters or forces outside of himself or herself. A character can have external conflict against another character, against natural forces (death, sickness, a storm), against technology (or machines), or against society (especially its laws).

- Internal conflict--a character struggles against his or her own emotions, needs, desires, or conscience. For instance, a sailor stranded alone on a deserted island may have conflict between his need for food and his moral aversion to eating his dead shipmates.

The point of view is the perspective from which the story is told. There are three types, but only two are common.

1. First Person: The story is told by a character involved in the story. In first person point of view, the narrator (storyteller) interacts with other characters and takes part in (or observes) the events as they unfold. This kind of narrator uses the words "I, me, my, we, ours" and can only tell the story as he or she sees it. A first-person narrator cannot see the thoughts and feelings of other people or see events for which he or she was not present (although this narrator can relay the things he or she has been told about events or others' feelings).

2. Second Person: **(This is ALMOST NEVER used in fiction writing.)** The story is told with the narrator referring to the protagonist with second-person pronouns (you, yours). This point of view appears most often in self-help books, Choose Your Own Adventure interactive stories, poetry, and song lyrics.

3. Third Person: This is the most flexible--and therefore the most common--point of view. The narrator tells the story using the pronouns "he, she, they," but never refers to a character as "I" or "me". The narrator is invisible--we do not see who he or she is, what he or she does, or how he or she is related to the characters.
There are multiple types of third person point of view:
*Third Person Limited: The narrator is "zoomed in" on one character and can only tell us the events and thoughts of that character.
*Third Person Omniscient: The narrator is "zoomed out" and can see the big picture. This God-like kind of narrator can see all events and the emotions and thoughts of all characters. (That doesn't mean, of course, that the narrator tells the audience everything he or she knows. It just means he or she could.)

A character is an individual in a story.

Some important characters to know:

1. Protagonist: The MAIN character. This character's conflicts are usually the main focus of the story and drive the plot. The audience usually identifies or sympathizes with the protagonist in some way.

2. Antagonist: The character against whom the protagonist struggles. Sometimes this character is evil; sometimes his or her desires and actions are merely in opposition to the protagonist's.

Characters can be round, dynamic, flat, or static.

ROUND characters have complex personalities and motives; these are the most interesting characters because they can be unpredictable and are the most realistic.

FLAT characters are one-dimensional and seem to have only one side to them. (For example, they are completely good or completely evil.) The villains in fairy tales are often examples of flat characters.

DYNAMIC characters grow, change, and mature over the course of the story. (Round characters are often the most dynamic characters.)

STATIC characters do not change throughout the course of the story. They seem to be unaffected by the events taking place. (Flat characters tend to be static characters as well.)

Theme is the central idea of a story--the important message the author wishes to convey to the audience. The theme is usually implied rather than stated plainly.

Theme often reveals the author's motive for writing the story.