THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

PLOT

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PLOT THE SERIES OF EVENTS THAT MAKE A STORY

• Exposition: the background info, explains the status quo
• Rising action:starts with a problem, gets more exciting
• Climax: a crisis, must solve the problem, most exciting
• Falling action: story calms down, finds new status quo
• Resolution: New normal is reached, all questions are answered

Example of a Plot Structure: The three little pigs
Exposition:
Rising Action:
Climax:
Falling Action:
Resolution:

CHARACTER

5 WAYS TO LEARN ABOUT A CHARACTER

• What they do
• What they say
• What they look like
• What is said about them
• What the author tells us

INFERENCES

• Use clues (evidence) to make deductions about a character
• Takes practice!

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POINT OF VIEW

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY

• First Person: someone is telling a
• story about themself
• Look for a narrator using the pronouns
• I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY?

• Second Person: someone is
• telling a story about their audience to
• their audience
• Pronouns: you, your, yours
• Second person isn't used very often

WHO'S TELLING THE STORY?

• Third Person: someone telling a story
• about a third person to an audience
• Pronouns: She, her, him, he, it, they, them, etc
• This one's used a lot!

HOW MUCH DOES THE NARRATOR KNOW?

• Narrators, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd persons
• come in 2 varieties:
• Omniscient and Limited Omniscient

OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

• The omniscient narrator knows EVERYTHING
• about a story: what characters are thinking
• what has happened before and what will
• happen next.

LIMITED OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

• This narrator knows somethings,
• but does not know everything.
• Perhaps they do not know some character's
• thoughts

HOW TO IDENTIFY NARRATORYS

• A narrator gets two labels:
• 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person
• and Omniscient or limited
• Example: 1st person, limited