Elements of Fictions - Terminology and Definitions

Characterization - The methods a writer uses to communicate information about characters to readers

Climax - The moment when the action comes to its highest point of dramatic conflict.

Complication - Any obstacle that increases the tension of the story conflict.

Conflict - The central source of tension and drama in the story

Dialogue - The actual words that characters speak

Dramatic irony - A technique that increases suspense by letting readers know more about the dramatic situation that the characters know

Exposition - Background material about the characters, setting, and dramatic situation with which the author introduces the essentials of the story to the reader

Falling Action - The part of the story, following the climax and leading to the resolution, in which there is a sharp decline in dramatic tension

foreshadowing - A writing technique that gives readers clues about events that will happen later in the story.

Imagery - The use of selected details to describe one thing in terms of another.

Irony - A particular tone created when the speaker intends a meaning that is opposite to the words he or she says

Character development - The ways in which a novelist shows how a character changes as a result of experiencing a sequence of events over an extensive period of time

crisis - a small peak of dramatic tension that functions within a chapter in the way that the more dramatic climax functions in the novel plot as a whole

flashback - a dramatic scene that is presented out of chronological plot sequence

foil  - a character that serves as a contrast to another

genre - Any of a number of traditional forms of the novel that are categorized by a particular treatment of characters, settings, plot, or style

In media res - A latin term meaning "in the midst of things" that describes a plot that starts at a moment of high action in the middle of the story and provides the reader with necessary background information later on

Multiple points of view - A narrative technique in which the novel's storyline is told by more than one character in the plot.

Parallel plotting - The technique of presenting more than one storyline to the reader at the same time

plot - the arrangement of story events that defines a novel's structure

serial plotting - the technique that creates suspense by telling the plot in a series of unresolved chapters with cliffhanger endings.

stream of consciousness - a narrative point of view that presents the actual thoughts going on inside the character's mind

subplot - a secondary storyline involving secondary characters that parallels or contrasts with the main plot involving the central characters

narrator - the speaker who tells the story

point of view - the perspective from which a story is told

protagonist - the central character of the story

resolution - the conclusion of the story

rising action - the part of the story, including exposition, in which the tension rises

setting - the environment in which the story takes place

structure - the framework that determines how a story is put together, its skeleton.

style - the characteristic ways that an individual author uses language

suspense - techniques used by the author to keep readers interested in the story

symbol - an image, object, character, or action that stands for an idea beyond its literal meaning

theme - the story's main ideas, the message that the author intends to communicate by telling the story

tone - the clues in a story that suggest the writer's own attitude toward the elements of his or her story