Fiction chap 1
- 1. Fiction Creative Writing ENG 211
- 2. Definition • Fiction writing is based on fictitious events; however, the story is written in such a way that it takes on a realistic quality to become believable. • It includes literary prose such as short stories, novellas, and novels.
- 3. Where to Start When Writing Fiction • One of the first places you may want to start is with what you know. • Look at events in your own experiences or with stories you were told by someone else.
- 4. Continued • Writing fiction allows you to discover character types, humor, personal themes, the nature of your imagination, and many other critical details needed for story development. • You can find ideas from poems, dreams, and conflicts.
- 5. Elements of Story • Classical story structure is: – set-up or exposition – increasing of the complications by moving forward in actions – Climax or highest point of action – Reversal where action may go back to the beginning – Resolution that ends or brings the story to some type of closing
- 6. Continued • Stories usually come in three-part structure – Beginning where the characters and exposition (establishment of events or actions that happen before another did) are given. This is also where the reader’s attention can be won or lost. – May need to be being right away by introducing the conflict of the story.
- 7. Continued – Middle where plot development occurs through different actions and possible conflicts the protagonist will have to go through while he/she is trying to solve an issue. – Resolution that brings the story to a conclusion of some type or the resolving of the current conflict the protagonist is going through.
- 8. Ways to Begin • Routine-disruption • The Chance Encounter • Entering of a Mysterious Stranger • The Shattering Statement • Expectation Vs. Actuality • The Road Story
- 9. Other Elements of Literature • Tone • Language • Ideas • Atmosphere • Character • Theme
- 10. All Stories Need • All stories need – exposition to let the reader know that something does not occur in isolation, but there were previous events to occurred before the action of the story. – development where the reader sees the disruption of the routine or the inciting of the incident. – drama that depicts the struggle the protagonist will go through.
- 11. Moving to the Second Act • One of the most challenging parts is making the middle as vital and focused as the opening to keep the action moving forward. • The problems for the protagonist become so urgent that a climax is forced through the choices the character makes and the actions taken.
- 12. Continued • The middle is where the writer follows through on the complications established in the beginning of the story. • It is also where the end is being set up. • There is a beginning to the middle as well.
- 13. Act Three or the Ending • The third act of the story or the ending is where the character will reach his/her goal, or where the events after the climax happen. • A protagonist may not fully resolve a conflict, but the story will come to some type of ending.
- 14. Basic Plot Line • Exposition: The start of the story. The way things are before the action starts. • Rising Action: the series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead to the climax. • Climax: The turning point. The most intense moment (either mentally or in action.
- 15. Continued • Falling Action: all of the action which follows the Climax. • Resolution: The conclusion, the tying together of all of the threads.
- 16. Theme • The theme of a piece of fiction is its central idea. It usually contains some insight into the human condition. • In most short stories, the theme can be expressed in a single sentence. • In longer works of fiction, the central theme is often accompanied by a number of lesser, related themes, or there may be two or more central themes. • Themes should be stated as a generalization.
- 17. Other Elements • Allusion: a reference to a person, place or literary, historical, artistic, mythological source or event. • A symbol represents an idea, quality, or concept larger than itself. • Irony: a difference between what is expected and reality. (Verbal, situational, and dramatic) • Style: a writer’s individual and distinct way of writing. The total of the qualities that distinguish one author’s writing from another’s.
- 18. Continued • Structure: the way time moves through a novel. • Chronological: starts at the beginning and moves through time. • Flashback: starts in the present and then goes back to the past. • Circular or Anticipatory: starts in the present, flashes back to the past, and returns to the present at the conclusion. • Panel: same story told from different viewpoints.
- 19. Ways to Jump Time • Writers cannot give all the event because a story would be too long and involved, so there are places where time bridges will have to be created. • Types of time jumping include: – Flash forward – Flashback
- 20. Characters • Characters are the people the events happen to. • Characters mainly need to take on rounded qualities to give them depth and dimension. • Also want to avoid cliché or stereotyped characters.
- 21. How to Develop Characters • Research characters. • Play around with original conceptions. • Write sympathetically about all characters. • Give Heroes or Heroines a flaw. • Avoid sentimentality.
- 22. Characters Continued • Characters must be believable. • Don’t give everything there is to know about a character, but leave some things for the reader to imagine. • Reveal personality traits and characteristics through what the character does and says.
- 23. Continued Types of Characters: •Round Character: convincing, true to life. •Dynamic Character: undergoes some type of change in story. •Flat Character: stereotyped, shallow, often symbolic. •Static Character: does not change in the course of the story.
- 24. Methods of Characterization 1.Direct: ―he was an old man..‖ (The Old Man and the Sea) 2.Own Words and Actions 3.Reaction of other Characters 4.Physical appearance 5.Own thoughts
- 25. Dialogue • Dialogue is the talking that takes place between characters and by the characters. • There are several types of dialogue that can take place within a story. • Dialogue should be infused with exposition and description as well as characterization.
- 26. Types of Dialogue • Direct (dramatic/real-time) dialogue: this is the dialogue that happens at the scene in present time. • Indirect dialogue: where the narrator reports what someone says.
- 27. Continued • Stylized dialogue: it’s an illusion; flows through time without giving a full cinematic picture. • Asynchronous dialogue: tension and drama in the dialogue increase as the characters’ disagreement increases and they respond in an unscripted manner.
- 28. How is Dialogue Killed? • Letting characters say what is already known. • Characters responding as if they knew what each other was going to say—predictable. • Telling scenes explicitly instead of revealing through the tone and word choice characters could use to reveal feelings.
- 29. Half-scene and Scene Snippets • Half-scene is the use of scenic devices and present-action moments in the midst of summary or narration. • These make summary more alive, less static or informal, and more dramatic.
- 30. Continued • They can accelerate or facilitate movement through time. • Snippets give details that make narration moments more vivid.
- 31. Types of Action • Routine action is basically a summary type action of something characters do all the time. • Present action is the action that happens at a particular time.
- 32. Creating Tension • One of the best ways to create tension is to follow the actions of one character while another is off-scene taking part in different actions that could have an adverse effect on the main character.
- 33. Description • Setting deals with time and interior & exterior placement of where the story is happening. • May need to give at least three sentences describing the setting before introducing the character. • Helps to include metaphor, symbolism, and point of view through the details given.
- 34. Types of Information • Primary information: the main information given that advances the narrative. • Secondary information: provides context, metaphor, idea, etc. • Cannot stray too far or for too long from the real world or the story is not believable.
- 35. Continued • Leave out what is already known and keep what you don’t know. • Try something new. • Make sure the reader always knows where the character is and use the setting to help tell the story.
- 36. Point of View • First-person narrator: limited to one individual and told by the character him/herself. • Third-person narrator: can have total omniscience or limited omniscience (knows conscious of one character). Knows the outcome of the story, while the protagonist doesn’t.
- 37. Continued • Second-person narrator: telling to someone else. Usually is used in ―how- to‖ type stories. Not highly used. • When choosing POV, decide what would work best with the material to be presented.
- 38. Types of Conflict • Man vs Man • Man vs Nature • Man vs Society • Man vs Technology • Man vs Himself
- 39. Revision • Need hard revision—revising several times. • Parts of revision: – Motivation – Significant details – Repetition of detail – Recounting of story events