The Elements of Fiction

Plot, Setting, Character, Conflict, Symbol, and Point of View are the main elements which
fiction writers use to develop a story and its Theme.

Because literature is an art and not a science, it is impossible to specifically quantify any of these
elements within any story or to guarantee that each will be present in any given
story. Setting might be the most important element in one and almost nonexistent in another.

Just as a Crime Scene Investigator cannot approach a crime scene looking for a specific clue (e.
g., shell casings), you as a reader cannot approach a story deciding to look for a specific element,
such as Symbol. To assume could blind you to important elements. Both the CSI team and you
must examine the entire “area” carefully to determine what is present and how it is important.

With that understanding, let’s examine the elements.

PLOT
Literature teachers sometimes give the impression that plot is not important, that anyone
interested in plot is an immature reader.

Of course plot is important. It was what got us interested in reading in the first place. It was the
carrot on the string that pulled us through a story as we wanted to see what would happen next.

That said, let me emphasize that plot is rarely the most important element of a good story. As
much as I’ve always loved surprise endings, if the only thing a film or a story has is a great twist
ending, it doesn’t have anything on a second look.

And it’s worth noting that recent fiction and film have deemphasized plot, frequently stressing
character or conflict for example. In film, for example, think David Lynch or Pulp Fiction.

SETTING
Stories actually have two types of setting: Physical and Chronological.

The physical setting is of course where the story takes place. The “where” can be very
general—a small farming community, for example—or very specific—a two story white frame
house at 739 Hill Street in Scott City, Missouri.

Likewise, the chronological setting, the “when,” can be equally general or specific.

The author’s choices are important. Shirley Jackson gives virtually no clues as to where or when
her story “The Lottery” is set. Examination suggests that she wants the story to be universal, not
limited by time or place. The first two stories you will read each establish a fairly specific
physical setting; consider what each setting brings to each story.
CHARACTER
What type of individuals are the main characters? Brave, cowardly, bored, obnoxious? If you
tell me that the protagonist (main character) is brave, you should be able to tell where in the story
you got that perception.

In literature, as in real life, we can evaluate character three ways: what the individual says, what
the individual does, and what others say about him or her.

CONFLICT
Two types of conflict are possible: External and Internal.

External conflict could be man against nature (people in a small lifeboat on a rough ocean) or
man against man.

While internal conflict might not seem as exciting as external, remember that real life has far
more internal than external conflict.

Film and fiction emphasize external conflict not simply because “it’s more interesting” but also
because it’s easier to write. In a film script, you merely have to write “A five minute car chase
follows” and you’ve filled five minutes. How long would it take to write five minutes worth of
dialogue?

SYMBOL
Don’t get bent out of shape about symbols. Simply put, a symbol is something which means
something else. Frequently it’s a tangible physical thing which symbolizes something
intangible. The Seven/Eleven stores understood that a few years ago when they were selling
roses with a sign saying, “A Rose Means ‘I Love You.’”

The basic point of a story or a poem rarely depends solely on understanding a symbol. However
important or interesting they might be, symbols are usually “frosting,” things which add interest
or depth.

It’s normal for you to be skeptical about symbols. If I tell you that the tree in a certain story
symbolizes the Garden of Eden, you may ask “Is that really there or did you make it up?” or
“How do you know what the author meant?”

Literature teachers may indeed “over-interpret” at times, find symbols that really aren’t
there. But if you don’t occasionally chase white rabbits that aren’t there, you’ll rarely find the
ones that are there.

In the film 2001, a computer named HAL is controlling a flight to Jupiter. When the human
crew decides to abort the mission, HAL—programmed to guarantee the success of the mission—
“logically” begins to kill off the humans. Science fiction’s oldest theme: man develops a
technology which he not only cannot control, it controls him.
Consider HAL’s name. Add one letter to each of the letters in his name. Change the H to I, the
A to B, and the L to M. When you realize how close HAL is to IBM, the first response is
disbelief. But clearly the closeness of the names is either an absolute accident or an intentional
choice. As much as we are startled by the latter, we probably agree that the odds against the
former—it being an accident—are astronomical.

Somebody thought that up. Or maybe a computer.

POINT OF VIEW
Point of View is the “narrative point of view,” how the story is told—more specifically, who
tells it.

There are two distinctly different types of point of view and each of those two types has two
variations.

In the First Person point of view, the story is told by a character within the story, a character
using the first person pronoun, I.

If the narrator is the main character, the point of view is first person protagonist. Mark Twain
lets Huck Finn narrate his own story in this point of view.

If the narrator is a secondary character, the point of view is first person observer. Arthur
Conan Doyle lets Sherlock Holmes’ friend Dr. Watson tell the Sherlock Holmes story. Doyle
frequently gets credit for telling detective stories this way, but Edgar Allan Poe perfected the
technique half a century earlier.

In the Third Person point of view, the story is not told by a character but by an “invisible
author,” using the third person pronoun (he, she, or it) to tell the story. Instead of Huck Finn
speaking directly to us, “My name’s Huckleberry Finn” and telling us “I killed a pig and spread
the blood around so people would think I’d been killed”, the third person narrator would say: He
killed a pig and spread the blood…..

If the third person narrator gives us the thoughts of characters (He wondered where he’d lost his
baseball glove), then he is a third person omniscient (all knowing) narrator.

If the third person narrator only gives us information which could be recorded by a camera and
microphone (no thoughts), then he is a third person dramatic narrator.

In summary, then, here are the types of point of view:

First Person Narrator

Protagonist
Observer

Third Person Narrator

Omniscient
 Dramatic

Different points of view can emphasize different things. A first person protagonist narrator
would give us access to the thoughts of the main character. If the author doesn’t want us to have
that access, he could use the first person observer, for example, or the third person dramatic.

THEME
Theme isn’t so much an element of fiction as much as the result of the entire story. The theme is
the main idea the writer of the poem or story wants the reader to understand and remember.

You may have used the word “Moral” in discussing theme; but it’s not a good synonym because
“moral” implies a positive meaning or idea. And not all themes are positive.

One word—love, for example—may be a topic; but it cannot be a theme.

A theme is a statement about a topic.

For example: “The theme of the story is that love is the most important thing in the
world.” That’s a cliché, of course, but it is a theme.

Not all stories or poems (or films) have an overriding “universal” theme.

http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/hhecht/the%20elements%20of%20fiction.htm

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
The six major elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view, setting,
style, and theme.
1. Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E.
M. Forester makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat
characters are types or caricatures defined by a single idea of quality,
whereas round characters have the three-dimensional complexity of real
people.
2. Plot –- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the
sequence of major events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation.
3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A
narrative is typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view.
In a narrative told from a first-person perspective, the author tells the story
through a character who refers to himself or herself as "I." Third –person
narratives come in two types: omniscient and limited. An author taking an
omniscient point of view assumes the vantage point of an all-knowing
narrator able not only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably but also
to enter the mind of any character in the work or any time in order to reveal
his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader. An author
using the limited point of view recounts the story through the eyes of a
single character (or occasionally more than one, but not all or the narrator
would be an omniscient narrator).
4. Setting –- That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu
that provides the general background for the characters and plot of a literary
work. The general setting of a work may differ from the specific setting of
an individual scene or event.
5.Style -- The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax
(arrangement of words), and other linguistic features of a work.
6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work.
The term also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.

https://web.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.html

A B

Fiction is prose created from the imagination and

usually narrative.

Prose is writing that uses straightforward

language and that differs from poetry in
that it doesn’t have a rhythmic pattern.

Narrative writing is that which tells a story.

Works of fiction usually contain the character, plot, setting, and theme.
elements of

A character is a person (or sometimes an animal) who

takes part in the action of a literary work.

A protagonist is the main character in a story.

An antagonist is a character who struggles against the
main character.

A major character is one who plays an important role in a

literary work.

A minor character is one who plays a lesser role.

A one-dimensional character, or flat reveals only one quality or character trait.

character

A three-dimensional character seems to have all the complexities of an

actual human being.

Characters come alive in fiction through characterization.

Characterization is the act of creating a character.

A writer creates characters in three ways by showing what characters say, do, or
#1 think;

A writer creates characters in three ways by showing what other characters say or
#2 think about them;

A writer creates characters in three ways by describing what physical features,

#3 dress, and personality the characters
display.

The plot of a work of fiction is the series of central conflict, or struggle.

events or situations related to a

The conflict can be internal or external.

The internal conflict takes place within a character.

The external conflict struggle between a character and an

outside force, such as another character,
society, or nature.
A plot usually contains the introduction of a
conflict, its development, and its eventual
resolution.

A story may begin with exposition, the introduction of the setting and
characters.

The inciting incident is the event that introduces the central

conflict.

The rising action, or complication develops the conflict to a high point of

intensity.

The climax is the highest point of suspense in the

story.

The crisis, or turning point is the point in the story where something
happens to decide the future course of
events.

The falling action is all the events that follow the climax.

The resolution is the point at which the central conflict

ends.

The dénouement is any final material that finishes the story.

Plots are often illustrated using a pyramid; however, many plots do not include all
these elements, and in short stories, the
climax often occurs very late in the plot.

The setting in a work of fiction (or any is the time and place in which it happens.
other literary work)

In fiction, the setting is often revealed through the description

of the landscape, buildings, rooms,
scenery, weather, and season.
The setting reveals important information about the
time period, geographical location,
cultural environment, and physical
conditions in which the characters live.

These distinctions affect how the reader views and actions.

interprets a character’s

A theme of a work of fiction (or any other is a central idea of the work.
literary work)

Theme is different from subject.

A subject of a work is its topic, such as “horses,” “friendship,”

or “tornadoes.”

A theme is a broad statement about a topic, such

as “animals can be our most loyal
companions,” “friends are worth more
than money,” or “tornadoes might destroy
buildings but not communities.” Many
stories share the same subject but have
different themes because they make
unique statements about that subject.

A story may have more than one theme.

Describing theme can be a useful means of clarifying your

thinking about the story.

Other elements that influence and shape a mood and point of view.
work of fiction include

Mood, or atmosphere is the feeling or emotion the writer creates

in a literary work.
By working carefully with descriptive the writer can evoke in the reader an
language, emotional response such as fear,
discomfort, longing, or anticipation.

Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is

told.

In stories told from first-person point of the narrator takes part in the action of the
view, story and includes himself or herself in the
telling of the story by using words such as
I and we.

In stories told from the third-person point the narrator is more of an observer,
of view, standing outside the action of the story
and relating details to the reader using
words such as he, she, it, and they.

The point of view from which a story is affects what the reader knows about the
told events and characters in the story and
how the reader reacts to the events and
characters.

If the point of view from which a story is the story itself changes.
told changes,

The oldest types of fiction are the stories told in the oral tradition,
which include myths, legends, and fables.

Although many of these are prose stories, some myths were originally written in
poetic form.

Short stories, novels, and novellas are types of fiction.

A short story is a brief work of fiction that contains a

definite beginning, middle, and end.
Although it contains all the main elements character, setting, plot, and theme
of fiction__________it may not fully develop
each element.

Often in the short story, the true natures of characters are revealed
by their actions and their encounters with
other characters.

Sometimes writers of the short story may creating mood rather than telling a story.
focus on

A novel is a long work of fiction that usually has

more complex elements than a short story.
Its longer format allows the elements of
fiction to be more fully developed.

A novella is a work of fiction that is longer than a

typical short story but shorter than a
typical novel.

The term novel comes from novella, which is Italian for a tight-knit,
realistic, prose tale.

The novella originated in Italy during the Middle Ages

(c.500 AD–1350 AD) and contributed to
the development of both the short story
and the modern novel.

Another popular literary form during the a type of tale that features the adventures
Middle Ages that contributed to the of such legendary figures as Alexander the
development of the novel is the romance, Great and King Arthur.

The modern novel deals with the reality of human experience,

often in an imaginative or romantic way.
Some novels focus mainly on character, while others may concentrate
on plot or even imagery.

In the novel, the true natures of characters are typically

revealed by their reactions to the actions
and events they undergo during the
course of the narrative.

Some people view fiction in terms of subject matter and define short stories
and novels as works of historical fiction,
science fiction, westerns, romances, or any
of a number of additional categories.

Historical fiction tells a story that is partly based on actual

historical events and is partly made up.

Science fiction is imaginative literature based on scientific

principles, discoveries, or laws.

Often science fiction deals with the future, the distant past, or worlds
other than our own, and often works of
science fiction take present-day problems
and exaggerate them into the future.

The term western refers to short stories or novels set in the

western United States—usually during the
second half of the 1800s—that relate the
details of the venturesome lives of frontier
men and women.

Today the term romance still describes stories that feature

extraordinary characters in exotic settings
committing heroic acts.
https://www.quia.com/jg/1019068list.html