CRW 207

Protagonist

A story or novel's central character. The word usually is used now to replace "hero," because the central character of a work may not have the heroic or positive characteristics the reader associates with a hero or heroine.

Background Description

Using words to illustrate the physical setting where a scene occurs

Dialogue Punctuation

"Always," the instructor said, "use double quotation marks. And keep the punctuation of the spoken sentence inside the quotation marks."

Archetype

A character or image that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly occurs in different literatures of different people.

Freitag's Triangle (or Freitag's Pyramid)

A concept invented by German critic Gustav _____ to represent the conventional flow of the plot of a play, starting with rising action in which complications develop, a climax, and finally a denouement (or resolution).

Monologue

A longish speech by a single character. Note the difference between ________ and soliloquy: A ________ is perceived as having listeners in the scene of the speech; a soliloquy has no listeners but the reader.

Summary

A method of presenting information necessary to a story without interrupting the flow with dialogue or other dramatization. Often, _______ is used to get the reader quickly through information that is not a full scene. ________ speeds up the action. It explains. It moves the reader from scene to scene.

Tautology

A negative term describing the unnecessary repetition of words without adding clarity. Examples: "advance reservation," "overused cliché," "repeated over and over," and "I thought to myself."

Subplot

A secondary plot in a piece of fiction. The ________ is less important than the main plot. Most often, _______ are found in novels. A good short story is generally too short to support more than one fully developed plot.

Vignette

A short scene, written with specificity and subtlety for the purpose of illuminating the work's theme or simply to create a vivid picture. A _______can be a digression; it's generally not related to the development of the story's plot.

Epiphany

A sudden moment of insight when a character discovers some truth important to the story. An _______ usually happens near the end of the story, when the plot demands a moment of truth for the story to conclude. Often the _______ comes from a visual image—something a character sees—that forces him/her to some important realization. Treat _______ gently, though—heavy-handed ______ can make stories sappy or push them over the top. Strive for subtlety—be clear, but subtle.

Rising Action

A term taken from drama to describe the part of the plot that occurs after the exposition—after the reader is introduced to the characters and knows enough to understand the story. In the _______, difficulties arise for the protagonist because of conflict with an opposing force (such as the resurrected Aunt Bernie in "Sea Oak," by George Saunders).

Motif

A theme, idea, image, or subject that recurs in a work. Ideally, it will become more important each time it reappears.

Flashback

A way for a writer to include information that occurred before the opening of the story, to show the reader something that happened in the character's past or to give an indication of the kind of person the character used to be.

Cliché

A word or phrase that has been used so many times that its original vitality has become lost through repetition. Note: Some story ideas themselves have become _____, along with plot devices such as opening with an alarm clock or having a character wake up from a dream (or, for that matter, using an insane main character).

Caricature

A work that exaggerates aspects or features of a character, generally for humorous or satiric purposes.

Climax

Also called the turning point, this is the point in a story's action when tension reaches its highest mark—generally, a point close to the end of the work.

Surprise Ending

An ending that a reader could not logically anticipate, either because the writer gives no clue as to what is to come or because it depends on some essential information that the writer has withheld until the end of the story. The term is generally negative—____________ often are seen as unfair tricks.

Interior Monologue

An extended passage relating the thoughts inside a character's mind.

Scene

Everything that follows in the description of a single dramatized incident, uninterrupted by change of setting or lengthy summary.

Literary Fiction

Fiction in which the writer wants the reader to read not simply to escape from the real world, but to deepen his understanding of life in general.

Mainstream Fiction

Fiction that appeals to a wide range of readers because it depicts situations and explores themes of broad interest. ________ ________ portrays characters with whom many people can empathize.

Genre Fiction

Fiction that belongs to categories, such as action/adventure, science fiction, romance, western, mystery, and horror. Some genres have subgenres—within romance, for example, we find historic romance, gothic romance, contemporary romance, etc.

Stream of Consciousness

Language that imitates the unedited, random expressions and feelings that go through the mind before the mind changes them into comprehensible, rational speech. The challenge of ________ ___________ _____ writing is to give the impression of unedited thoughts while at the same time being intelligible to the readers. (Note: Compare to Automatic Writing, earlier in this list.)

In Medias Res

Latin for "in the middle of things," this term refers to a method of beginning a story in the middle of the action. Starting in medias res allows the author to distribute the exposition (summary) and action (scene) throughout the work, moving back and forth in time and location without being bound to tell the story chronologically.

Deus ex Machina

Literally, this means "god from a machine." It comes from ancient Greek drama and describes a point at the end of a play when, just as things seem most bleak, an actor portraying a god is lowered onto the stage to set everything right. In fiction these days, the term generally suggests unnatural, strained coincidences, in which characters get out of difficulties through events that have nothing to do with their own skills or actions (such as a piano falling onto the head of the protagonist's vicious enemy, or the sudden appearance of a string quartet to help win the heart of the nervous young man's love interest).

Plot

The arrangement of a story's events, including the actions of the protagonist and how these actions affect other characters. The _______ is not what happens—it's the arrangement of what happens. It's the order of events.

Theme

The central idea of a story or novel—________ is a concept represented through the plot and through interaction among the characters. ________ is related to the idea that even though fiction is not a reflection of literal reality, it still may communicate a kind of truth about the way human beings act, think, or feel in a way that word-for-word truth (nonfiction) cannot.

Narrator

The consciousness that tells the story.

Dialogue

The conversation among the story's characters. Edith Wharton once said writers should use "only the significant passages" of characters talking. Like description, _____ should carry along the action of the story and be distinctive enough to show something about the speaker through his/her voice. Also, ______ should sound natural—the way people speak. Avoid writing dialogue that sounds formal, tidy, constructed. Likewise, avoid dialogue that gets hokey or unintelligible by trying to sound folksy, regional, or hip.

Dialect

The distinctive habits of speech used by a particular race, class, or regional group. For example, "y'all" is Southern ______. Be careful with _____: Don't overwrite in an effort to make the story feel authentic. ____ is dangerous. Touch the accents; don't hammer them. Also, remember: Your characters' actions and values will speak as loudly as their words. Maybe louder.

Atmosphere

The dominant mood of a work of fiction—especially in regard to physical setting or landscape.

Beginning

The first sentence or paragraph or page of a story: whatever goes on before the real conflict is made clear. A story's ________ had better be compelling. If it is not, a reader will not get past it.

Structure

The framework into which the plot of a story or novel is organized. Every successful work must have ________. The ________ is seldom apparent to the reader, but the writer must have a _________ plan for the work.

Epigraph

The inscription on the title page of a novel (or at the top of a story) that calls attention to the theme. An ______ is often a quotation, but it also might be an original saying by the author.

Denouement (also called the resolution)

The part of a story that comes after the climax—after the story's main problems are solved. Remaining loose ends get tied up in the ______.

Suspense

The reader's feeling of anticipation about how the story will turn out. ____________ keeps the readers reading. Though ______ is obviously associated with mysteries or detective stories, it should be part of all good fiction. _________ is embedded in several reader questions: What will happen next? Why did this situation happen? How will the main character resolve this problem? Note: ________ is not the same as confusing the readers. ______ is a positive characteristic of fiction; confusion is negative.

Motivation

The reason(s) why a character does something.

Tension

The sense of excitement readers feel when two or more aspects of fiction tug in seemingly opposite directions, helping them maintain psychological interest in the work.

Conflict

The struggle between two or more contrary forces that generally lies at the heart of any fictional work's plot. Without _____, it is difficult for a work to develop the suspense necessary for a reader to retain interest.

Characterization

The techniques a writer uses to portray the people who perform the actions in a story. Many contemporary writers consider _____ the most important element of fiction. In part, this is because it is often how the events in a story affect the characters—how they think and feel about those events, that really matters, rather than simply the fact that the events have occurred

Magical Realism

The term describes a style of writing that combines the reasonable, logical events of everyday life with aspects of the supernatural. A fine example: One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.

Dialogue Tags (attribution)

The use of he said/she said to note who is speaking. Use _____ _____ often to keep readers connected to who is speaking. Many writers under-use dialogue tags, making conversations difficult to follow. While it is not required that you use tags with every line of dialogue, you should use more—not fewer—_____ _____.

Point of View

The vantage point from which a story is presented. A story may follow any of three main ________: First-person —the narrator as "I" (or, occasionally, "we"). Second-person —the narrator speaks directly to "you" throughout the story, as in Fred Leebron's "When It's You" or Kevin Canty's "Dogs." Third-person —the narrator is not in the story but functions as an invisible presence to tell the story of other people. The third-person narrator identifies the characters as "he," "she," and "they." There are several types of third-person narrators: Limited: The narrator can see into one character's mind. Omniscient: All knowing. The narrator can see into all characters' minds. Objective: The narrator observes from the outside but cannot see into the minds of any characters. This is also called a fly-on-the-wall narrator.

Style

The way authors express themselves: the words they use (whether abstract or concrete, imagistic or straightforward, simple or ornate, friendly or cold, vivid or bland, excited or blasé). A writer's decisions about ______ also will include decisions about sentence rhythms and even about the order in which the ideas are arranged. In this sense, another word for _______ is voice

Intrusive narrator

This happens when the narrator seems to step out of the story and address the reader. Writers should understand that this device can jar readers. Use the ______ ______ only when the story demands it.

Revision

Transforming first drafts to polished, completed work. ______ involves small work (such as tinkering with commas) and large work (making major adjustments to characters and plot, adding new writing, eliminating some sections, etc.). For the writer, revision is not the same as proofreading. ______ is more labor-intensive.

Automatic Writing (also called free association, or trance writing)

Writing in which the words seem to come straight to paper from the subconscious mind.

Setting

________ refers to the physical location in which a story takes place. It also refers to the approximate year and even the hour of the day. Some writers also consider the ________ to refer to the protagonist's psychological state.

Flat character

by contrast, is not fully developed—and thus remains rather unformed. The _____ ________ possesses only a single quality or personality trait. Often, we can sum up a_______ ________ in single sentence.

Round character

possesses complexity—different traits we get to know by reading the story. Some of these traits are flattering, some unflattering, and some contradictory. We know _______ ______ well—by their words, their actions, their values, their vanities, their insecurities, their weaknesses, their fears, etc.

Antagonist

the character who works against the protagonist in the story