Elements of Fiction

Here you will learn about the building blocks of storytelling, the elements of fiction

Fiction stories cover a wide variety of topics, subjects, and places. But what they all have in common, is that the use the building blocks of storytelling to tell their tales. Think about a story like a clock. Inside a clock there are many moving parts, springs, gears, and dials that are all individual parts working together to tell time. A story works in very much the same way. But the parts inside this machine are the elements of fiction and we call them elements of fiction are character, setting, plot, theme, conflict, point of view, and tone.

Evaluating each of these components separately and then looking at how they apply in a whole text can be incredibly helpful in understanding and discussing literature.

Character

Characters are important parts of the story, because they are the characters who interact with the events of the story and who we, the readers, relate to. Having a strong character can make all the difference in a story. Hit television shows like Friends, Dexter, and Breaking Bad are all examples of familiar stories told with profound and relatable characters that brings people back to the story again and again.

Below you will see some basic terms that can be used to analyze and discuss characters in fiction and a great tool to help you analyze characters in a work of fiction.

Character: The word character has two meanings in the English language. First, a character is a being inside a work of fiction. The second meaning for character is the characteristics of a person, such as what features make up who that person is. It is important to distinguish between these two definitions when writing and discussing fiction.

Characterization: How an author describes or explains who the character is. To examine characterization, readers can look at what words are used to describe a character, what the tone of these words are, and generally how the author shows who or what the character is in their story. There are two types of characterization:

Direct Characterization: When an author explicitly informs the reader information about a character. For example, "Bruce is a tall man."
Indirect Characterization: When an author shows or reveals information about that character, leading the reader to infer information about that character. For example, "When Bruce walked through the doorway, he had to duck under so he wouldn't hit his head."

Static Character: A character that changes as it progresses through the plot points of the story.

Flat Character: A character that does not change as it progresses through the plot points of the story.

Protagonist: The character is the main character in a story. The character in which all plot points in the story are connected to.

Antagonist: The force working against the protagonist.

Stock Character: A character that is familiar to nearly all readers, and relies upon stereotypes to describe who and what that character is. Check out this list of stock characters to learn more!

How to Analyze Character in Fiction, S.T.E.A.L.!

One of the best tools to use to analyze a character in fiction, is to the the S.T.E.A.L. tool. S.T.E.A.L. is an acronym (an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word) that we can use to analyze character.

Speech

What does the character say?

How does the character speak?

Thoughts

What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?

Effect

What is revealed through the character’s effect on other people?

How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to the character?

Actions

What does the character do?

How does the character behave?

Looks

What does the character look like?

How does the character dress?

What can we assume based on their looks?

Setting

Setting is the where and when a story takes place. Great stories have a setting where the action takes place and where the characters interact with the world around them. Sometimes authors give a lot of information related to the setting, sometimes they do not. The effect of what information given is very important in understanding literature.

To analyze setting, it is easiest to think about setting like another character. Use the S.T.E.A.L. method linked above to take apart setting, and see how it interacts with the story.

Plot

In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the sequence of events in a story. Stories are built out of "plot points," smaller developments in a narrative, and the plot of a whole story refers to the sequence of these events.

To the left, we see Freytag's Pyramid, created by 19th century German playwright Gustav Freytag. It is also sometimes known as the dramatic arc, and has many visual variations on the format. Freytag's pyramid provides a visual and some important vocabulary to identify and discuss plot in a narrative.

Each of the "stages" of this pyramid represent plot points in the story. Each of them are explained below.

Exposition: Information giving. This is the opening of the story, where the plot, essential characters, and any other information is communicated to the reader. In the exposition phase, we see the characters in their regular everyday life.

Inciting Incident: This is the point in the narrative where an event takes places that incites the conflict of the story, and shakes up the "regular life" of the protagonist.

Rising Action (or complication): This is the phase of story where the plot, tension, and conflict are developing. Battles are fought, characters are met, and trials overcome.

Climax: The highest point of action. Consider this as the final confrontation with the antagonist, the most action packed or defining scene in the story.

Falling Action (or reversal): In this phase of the story, the final battle has been fought, and the story is moving toward the...

Resolution: The resolution is the end of the conflict that was presented in the inciting incident.

Denouement (or denouncement): Not always present, but this is the "happily ever after," scene. The character(s) have emerged from the conflict, changed, and are living in a "new normal."

Theme

Image from Reedsy. Check out this great resource to learn more about theme in literature.

Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work, which may be stated directly or indirectly. Major and minor themes are two types of themes that appear in literary works.

A major theme is an idea that a writer repeats in his literary work, making it the most significant idea in the work.
A minor theme refers to an idea that appears in a work briefly, giving way to another minor theme.

It is important not to confuse a theme of a literary work with its subject! Subject is a topic that acts as a foundation for a literary work, while a theme is an opinion expressed on the subject. For example, a writer may choose a subject of war for their story, and the theme may be their personal opinion that war is a curse for humanity.

It is up to the readers to explore the theme of a literary work by analyzing characters, plot, and other literary devices.

A writer presents themes in a literary work through several means, how can you identify theme? Look closely at...

The feelings a character has about a specific subject
Thoughts and conversations of different characters
The experiences of the main character
The actions and events of the story
The use of literary devices can also help us identify theme

After you have examined the text closely, you can then work on creating a theme statement. A theme statement is a single sentence that clearly identifies the theme of a literary work. The theme statement.

Create a Theme Statement!

Does not contain plot details
Does not contain characters
Has a universal concept that is bigger than the story
Usually cannot be communicated in one word (if you are thinking it is one word, what is the author saying about that thing?)

To the right, you can see three examples of theme statements. Notice how each of them do not contain plot details, characters, have a universal concept bigger than the story, and are more than a single word? That is what makes them great theme statements!

Exploring theme requires time, and carefully reading the text. When looking for them you want to examine the small plot points, how they connect together, and also consider the text as a whole.

"When people work together they can overcome anything."

"Take responsibility for your actions"

"Humans will always struggle between civility and savagery."

Conflict

Conflict, in literature, is defined as a struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict is what makes stories exciting, and are present in all forms of literature. Without conflict, stories are simply not entertaining, therefore, conflict (and interesting conflict) is essential in a great story.

There are two general categories of conflict in literature with more specific types of conflict that fit with them. Some examples:

External Conflict

External conflict takes place outside the protagonist. Some examples are...

Character vs. Character: The most common form of conflict. This is the traditional "good vs. evil" story.

Character vs. Nature: When the protagonist is in conflict with nature

Character vs. Society: When the protagonist is in conflict with their society or another society around them.

Character vs. Technology: When the protagonist is in conflict with technology around them.

Character vs. Supernatural: When the protagonist is in conflict with forces such as ghosts, spirits, magic, or other supernatural beings/forces.

Internal Conflict

Internal conflict takes inside of the protagonist. Some examples are...

Character vs. Self: When the character is in direct conflict with themselves.

Character vs Destiny: This is not common in literature, but this is a conflict type where the protagonist is in conflict with destiny, deity, or fate.

Point of View

The point of view, sometimes called narrative perspective, is the narrators position in relation to the story being told. The point of view radically changes how a story is told and what details are available from the narrator to the reader. Point of view is a very important decision an author has to make when crafting their story, and evaluating why the author chose this point of view can also help analyzing their creation.

There are three main points of view, and they are fairly easy to recognize.

First Person

I sold my sandwich to the lizard king.

This point of view is when the narrator is telling the story themselves. This brings the audience close to the action, and gives a first hand account of what happens. This point of view limits the narration of the story to only one person however, so the thoughts and actions that happen outside the narrating character are not given.

Second Person

You sold your sandwich to the lizard king.

This point of view is uncommon in fiction writing. This is when the narrator addresses you, the reader, in the story. Second person narration is often found in short fiction, very rarely will this appear in longer work.

Third Person

He sold his sandwich to the lizard king.

This point of view is when the narrator is like a camera, reporting what they see. This is the most common form of narration in fiction, as the author can provide the thoughts, actions, and events that happen around each of the characters. There are two types of third person narration:

Omniscient: Third Person Omniscient is when the narrator can see all thoughts, actions, and details that the characters of the story themselves may not know. The narrator knows and sees everything.

Limited: Third Person Limited is when the narrator can only see the internal thoughts of one character. Think of this point of view like a camera following around only a single character.

Tone and Mood

Tone and mood in literature are closely connected, but have important differences. Evaluating both tone and mood in a work of literature will help you understand literary devices, authorial intent, as well as deepen your understanding of how an author shapes a scene or entire story.

Tone

Tone is the authors attitude toward a specific subject. A good way to examine tone is by looking at the word choice an author makes in relation to a specific subject. Some examples of tone you can look for are suspense, humor, tension, horror, sarcasm, or gloomy.

Consider the example below from Donald Barthelme's short story, "The School." :

"And the trees all died...I don't know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn't the best...All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing."

Look at the words used to describe objects and the words used. What is the overall tone of this passage? What words can you use to describe this tone?

Mood

Mood is the term used to evaluate the overall setting and atmosphere of a text. For example, a scary story will have a dark mood.

Mood is something that spans more than just a single scene or paragraph, mood is generally something that spans the entire text.

For example, Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstien, or, the Modern Prometheus, has a mood that could be describes as dark ,cold, and isolated. This mood is shaped by the repetition of lonely environments, descriptions of cold and cold settings, and dark (as in the absence of light) settings. This mood is established in each of the chapters, but is present across the entire text.

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