1. Plot: The plot of a novel or short story is the series of events that make up the story. (based on conflict)

Exposition: beginning action and dialogue (tells the reader the setting, who the characters are, what happened before, and what the situation is now)

1. Antecedent Action - Action that has occurred before the opening of the story.

2. Narrative hook - a device used at the opening to capture the reader’s interest.

3. Setting – Setting can provide a source of conflict, reveal character, symbol to develop the story’s meaning, or to develop atmosphere.

4. Time - involves the time period of the story.

5. Place - is the setting of the story.

6. Atmosphere - is the overall emotional effect or mood of a literary work that is created by
   setting, description, and dialogue.

7. Mood - is the feeling or emotional state created in the reader through the writer’s use of
   descriptive detail. (reflected in author’s state of mind)

8. Foreshadowing - An early hint or suggestion of a future event or circumstance.

Initiating Incident - the first action pertaining to the central conflict. (begins
the central conflict of the story)

Rising Action - a sequence of events following each other with logical development through cause and effect.

1. Conflict - is a struggle between two opposing forces, whether these be people or ideas.

2. External Conflict: conflict or struggle with forces outside oneself:

   • Man vs. Man - (M.C in conflict with other individual(s))

   • Man vs. Environment - (M.C is in conflict with physical nature, society or “fate”)

   • Man vs. Society - (M.C is in conflict with some form of society)

3. Internal Conflict: conflict or struggle within oneself:

   • Man vs. Self - (M.C is in conflict with conscience or morals)

4. Foreshadowing – a hint or suggestion of a future event or circumstance.

5. Suspense – the quality in a novel/story that makes the audience uncertain or tense about what is going to happen next.

6. Dilemma - a situation necessitating a choice between two equal, often equally
   undesirable, alternatives (a problem that seems incapable of a solution)

Crisis / Turning point – a moment of intense conflict which forces the character to make a decision which directly affects the outcome.

Climax - the climax of the novel/short story is that point in the struggle where the problem must be resolved one way or the other. (highest point of interest and emotion)

Falling action – the action of a novel/story which works out the decision arrived at during the climax.

Resolution or Denouement - The resolution, or denouement, is the section of the novel/short story which occurs after the climax.

• If the problem is resolved, then you have both resolution and denouement.

• If there is no resolution, then the untangling of event occurs and a new and final condition is accepted, which makes it a denouement.

Conclusion – the end of the novel/ story.

2. Character: A person presented in a dramatic or narrative work

Direct presentation of character: the author or someone in the story tells us directly by exposition or analysis, what a character is like.

Indirect presentation of character: the author shows us the character in action; we infer what he is like from what he thinks or says or does. (Most Effective)

1. Protagonist – the central character in a novel/story who is most responsible for bringing the conflict to an end.

2. Antagonist - the force that opposes the central character, which can be another person(s), the character’s own weakness, desire, or belief, circumstances, nature, or environment.

3. Dynamic Character – one who undergoes significant change in some aspect of his character, personality or values.

4. Static Character – one who does not change in personality, outlook or values throughout the text.

5. Round Character – one who has a number of personality traits.

6. Flat Character – one who is characterized by one or two personality traits.

7. Stereotype Character – one who is familiar and predictable.

8. Stock Character – One who occurs repeatedly in a particular literary genre.

9. Character Foil – a character that contains the opposite traits to another and serves to highlight the good / evil aspects of the foil.

10. Consistent Character - One who does not change without motivation.

11. Motivated Character - One who has believable reasons for a change in values or behaviour.

3. P.O.V: The vantage point from which the author tells the story

First-Person Narrator: (uses “I”) A character within the novel/story tells the story from the first- person point of view, as he/she experienced it, saw it, heard it and understood it. (Often the reader sees more about the characters and situations that this narrator does.)

Third Person Narration:

1. Omniscient Narrator: The author tells the story in the third person. The author is all-knowing about all characters. He tells the reader what any one of the characters is thinking and feeling, and may comment on the significance of any action or development. The author interprets the behavior and comment on the story’s significance

2. Limited Point of View: The author tells the story in the third person as it is seen and understood by a single character, and restricts information to what that character sees, hears, feels and thinks.Objective Point of View: The story is told in the third person by an external narrator. The narrator tells in an objective fashion what is said and done, and makes no attempt to explain or interpret.Stream of Conscious Narration - the author attempts to duplicate the unbroken flow of thought and awareness in a character’s mind. The technique puts on paper what is going on in the mind of a particular character.

3. Objective Point of View: The story is told in the third person by an external narrator. The narrator tells in an objective fashion what is said and done, and makes no attempt to explain or interpret.

Stream of Conscious Narration - the author attempts to duplicate the unbroken flow of thought and awareness in a character’s mind. The technique puts on paper what is going on in the mind of a particular character.

4. Theme: The central idea in a literary work. (Illustration of a basic truth of human life)

1. Symbol – something that means more that what it is or that stands for something else.

2. Allegory – A narrative or description which has a second meaning beneath the surface one.

3. Tone – An author’s attitude toward his or her subject and audience.

4. Satire – The ridicule of something, supposedly in order to reform it using techniques of exaggeration, sarcasm, irony, humour or absurdity.

5. Irony: A term with a range of meaning, involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity

Verbal irony - is a statement in which the implied meaning differs sharply from the meaning that is expressed.

Dramatic irony - is a situation in which the reader or audience knows more about the circumstances or events of a story than a character within it.

• The difference between appearance and reality – a character appears to be one way, but the reader knows the reality is different.

• The difference between the expected outcome and the real outcome; between what you expect and what you get.

• A character has goals or ends that are seen as inappropriate for their circumstances.

Situational irony – occurs when what takes place contrasts with what is expected or appropriate.

6. Form: Refers to the shape and structure of a story

1. Techniques - Short Stories have sections that are linked together by the common threads of character and conflict. These sections are often combinations of the following devices: narrative episode, exposition, dialogue, description and flashback.

2. Style - Style is the individual manner in which an author expresses his or her thoughts and feelings.

• diction (word choice connotation, denotation)

• Sentence structure (syntax)

• Imagery

3. Deus Ex Machina - This is a term used to describe the entry of a coincidence or implausible event that comes just in time to solve a problem in a story.

4. In Medias Res- This is a Latin term referring to a story which contains no introduction. Instead, the reader is plunged directly into the action and then the background information is usually provided through explanations, flashback, or allusions in dialogue.

5. Verisimilitude - This is a Latin term referring to a story which contains no introduction. Instead, the reader is plunged directly into the action and then the background information is usually provided through explanations, flashback, or allusions in dialogue.