Lit13: Introduction to Fiction and the Plot
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The document provides an overview of the key elements of plot in fiction, including definitions, common plot structures, and plot devices. It defines plot as a sequence of causally related events that drives the story forward around the question "What happens next?". Three common types of plot structures are described: organic, episodic, and static. Plot devices like exposition, beginning in medias res, foreshadowing, deus ex machina, and surprise endings are also explained as tools writers use to develop their plots.
Lit13: Introduction to Fiction and the Plot
- 1. The Crux of the Matter Overview of the Elements An introduction to Plot
- 2. Why We Tell The Story It is in human nature to make stories. When we talk about the highlights of the day, We vary in the telling. We sometimes start from the very beginning, Or at the most interesting point of our day.
- 3. FICTION Defined as any literary narrative, whether in prose or verse, which is invented of being an account of events that have in fact happened -M.H. Abrams, The Glossary of Literary Terms
- 4. Our lives become the story that we weave. -'Why We Tell the Story' from Once on this Island
- 5. ELEMENTS OF FICTION PLOT CONFLICT SETTING CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW SYMBOL AND IRONY THEME
- 6. WHAT IS PLOT? According to most dictionaries, it is a plan or a scheme. According to your high school literature classes, it is “a sequence of causally related events”.
- 7. Plot is driven by the curious question, “What happens next?”
- 8. The Classic Plot, Graphed German Novelist and Playwright, Gustav Freytag, devised a system for dramatic structure
- 9. Plot is defined by action, a series of events happening to the characters at work.
- 10. Whether it starts at the beginning, middle, or end, a story isn't a story unless there is logic to its telling. Without the logic, you just have a mess of events.
- 11. Wait, there's more! 3 Types of Plot Organic - with a clear beginning, middle and end Episodic - a series of seemingly unrelated events Static -a story without any recognizable external action; static short stories rely on the event of an EPIPHANY – either on the part of the character, or on the part of the reader – in order for it to make sense.
- 12. Hello Plot Devices! Exposition - How writers provide their readers with the necessary background information in their stories. It could be anything from simply describing a character or the current scene, information about the world of the story you’re reading along with its culture, customs and traditions.
- 13. Hello Plot Devices! Page 2 Beginning “in medias res” and making use of flashbacks. Most stories begin “in medias res”, or in the middle of the action, flashbacks are then used to explain what had taken place before, and sometimes end up framing what is going on now in a new light. Foreshadowing. Authors sometimes plug in details that lead on to what happens later on in the story.
- 14. Example of In Media Res, Foreshadowing, and Flashback
- 15. Hello Plot Devices! Part 3! Deus ex machina - (translated: “God from the machine”) – the writer relies on “divine interventions”, coincidences or chance in order to tie up loose ends in the plot or to make the plot move. Surprise endings - unlike the DeM plots, these outcomes seem to be plausible and adequately prepared for.
- 17. THANK YOU! Download and View the presentation at http://slideshare.net/miamarci Love is why we tell the story, Faith is why we tell the story You are why... -Once on This Island
- 18. CREDITS Prepared by Mia Marci, with some text by Pamela Punzalan (used with permission). Free for non-commercial use, with due credit given.