1. Elements of FictionElements of Fiction

2. Elements of Fiction Students will identify the following elements of fiction: 1. Plot 2. Character 3. Setting 4. Conflict 5. Theme 3. Fiction Author's use fiction when writing about imaginary people, places, or events in the form of short stories or novels. Fiction is fake, imagined, or fantasy. Fiction is not real or true information from real life. 4. Author's Purpose The author's purpose is his or her reason for creating a story. The purpose may be to explain or inform, entertain, persuade, or reveal an important truth. 5. Plot The plot is a series of related events that present and resolve a conflict in a story. All stories have five parts of a plot that make the story complete: - Exposition - Rising Action - Climax - Falling Action - Resolution 6. Parts of the Plot Exposition: The reader gets a basic understanding of the story, learns the background, situation, and other information. Rising Action: The part between the exposition and climax, where the conflict occurs and builds up the story to make it interesting. Climax: The turning point or highest action in the story where the conflict is usually resolved afterwards. 7. Parts of the Plot Falling Action: This occurs after the climax in the story just before the resolution where the story comes together toward the end. Resolution or Denouement: The final outcome of the story. 8. Characters Characters in a story can be a person, an animal, or an imaginary creature that takes the part in the action of the story. Characterization is a technique used by a writer to create and reveal the personalities of the characters in a story. Direct characterization is when the author tells the reader directly aspects of the character's personality. Indirect characterization describes or reveals the character's physical appearance, situation, thoughts, and reactions of other characters. 9. Main Characters There are two basic types of characters in a fictional story: Protagonist - Main character of the story - Often the hero or character the reader is supposed to feel sympathetic for Antagonist -Primary adversary or bad person towards the protagonist - Oftentimes the villain 10. Setting The time and place in which the action occurs. Look for clues in the opening paragraphs of the story or novel. The setting also includes ideas, customs, values, beliefs, weather conditions, time of day, season, era, etc. 11. Conflict Conflict is often a struggle between opposing forces, such as the good and bad. Every plot must contain some kind of conflict and stories can have more than one conflict. - Conflicts can be external or internal External conflict- an outside force may be a person, group, animal, nature, or nonhuman obstacle. Internal conflict- takes place in a character's mind 12. Theme The theme of the story is the main idea the author wishes to share with the reader. Sometimes it helps to ask yourself what lesson has the main character learned in the story. Sometimes the reader may have to guess or make inferences as to the theme of the story. 13. Sources - The information on Elements of Fiction comes from The Elements of Fiction (n.d.). Retrieved from www. readwritethink.org/ files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/overview/ - The images are public domain or free to use non-attribute images from WikiCommons or Creative Common images.