literary terms for short story writing
TRANSCRIPT
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Literary Terms for Short Story Writing
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Plot
•This is what happens in the story.
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Conflict
•External conflict – a character struggles against another person, group of people or force of nature (tornado or a bear).
•Internal conflict – a struggle that takes place in the character’s mind, like when a character must make a decision.
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Complications
•A series of events that make it very hard for the character to get what he/she wants.
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Climax
•The story’s most emotional or suspenseful moment. The point at which the conflict is decided one way or another.
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Resolution
•The last part of the story. The conflict is resolved and the loose ends of the story are tied up. This is how the story ends.
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Subplots
•Plots that are part of the larger story but are not as important.
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Parallel episodes
•The storyteller repeats the main outline of an episode several times.
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Characterization
•This is the way a writer reveals a character.
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Direct Characterization
•The author directly states what the character is like.
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Indirect Characterization
•Describes the appearance of the character
•Shows the character in action•Allows us to hear the character speak•Reveals the character’s thoughts and
feelings•Shows how others react to the character
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Motivation
•Motivation is what makes characters behave the way they do.
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Foreshadow
•This makes us feel suspense. The storyteller gives us clues that hint at future events.
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Setting
•This is where and when the story takes place.
•The customs of the story must fit the time and place.
•The setting can play a key role in creating tone and mood (atmosphere).
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Simile
•Figurative language that compares two unlike things and uses “like” or “as.”▫The perfume smelled like a spring day.
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Metaphor
•Figurative language that compares two unlike things directly without using a specific word of comparison.▫The crowd was a storm.
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Personification
•Figurative language that speaks of a nonhuman or inanimate thing as if it has human like qualities.▫The frog cried.
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Symbols
•People, places, events, or things that have meaning themselves but also stand for something beyond themselves.
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Dialect
•A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular place or group of people.
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Mood
•The writer produces mood by creating images and using sounds that convey a particular feeling.
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Tone
•The attitude a writer takes toward his/her subject, characters, and audience.
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Theme•The author’s message in a story. The
author reveals something about life and people.
•The stories that have a meaning beyond the people and events on their pages-- a meaning that we can use—are the ones that change our lives. This deeper meaning is called THEME.
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Style
•The way a writer uses language.▫Punctuation▫Allusion▫dialect
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Irony
•Verbal irony – we say just the opposite of what we mean.
•Situational irony – what happens is different from what we expect.
•Dramatic irony – we know something a character doesn’t know.