Short Story Elements

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Plot

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the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.

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Unified Plot

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No matter how many subplots are in the writing, they all tie together to the main plot in the end.

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Episodic Plot

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Made up of a series of chapters or stories linked together by the same character, place, or theme but held apart by their individual plot, purpose, and subtext.

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Archetypal Plot

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An inherited pattern of thought or symbolic image that is derived from the past collective experience of humanity and is present in the unconscious of the individual.

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Allegory

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A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

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Dramatic Structure

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The organization of conflict between characters in their world.

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Exposition

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Writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailedstatement or explanation; explanatory treatise:

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Complication

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An intensification of the conflict in a story or play.Complication builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

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Moment of Crisis

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The turning point of uncertainty and tension resulting from earlier conflict in a plot. At the moment of crisis in a story, it is unclear if the protagonist will succeed or fail in his struggle. The crisis usually leads to or overlaps with the climax of a story, though some critics use the two terms synonymously.

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Climax

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Decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot.

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Anti-Climax

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An event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.

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External Conflict

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Struggle between a literary or dramatic character and an outside force such as nature or another character, which drives the dramatic action of the plot

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Internal Conflict

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Psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character, the resolution of which creates the plot's suspense

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Falling action

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Occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved

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Rising Action

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Related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

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Dramatic Curve

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Rising action, climax, falling action, resolution

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Epiphany

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Literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically , such a moment of revelation and insight.

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Trick/O. Henry Ending

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An ending of a story or play, etc., that employs a surprise element or character to resolve the plot.

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Denouement

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the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.

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Resolution

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the act of resolving or determining upon an action, course of action,method, procedure, etc.

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Closed denouement

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Endings where all or almost all of the uncertainties are resolved, leaving very few loose threads.

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Open denouement

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Endings where the author leaves several unresolved issues or loose threads for the reader to consider

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Sympathetic Character

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a fictional character in a story whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, if not necessarily admire.

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Pathos

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The quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature, music,speech, or other forms of expression, of evoking a feeling of pity, or of sympathetic and kindly sorrow or compassion.

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Metaphor

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A comparison without using like or as

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Simile

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Comparison using like or as

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Metonymy

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A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part,as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads (or noses)” for “count people.”.

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Synecdoche

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figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for apart, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.

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Euphemism

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the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought tobe offensive, harsh, or blunt.

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Personification

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the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.

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onomatopoeia

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the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation ofa sound made by or associated with its referent.

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symbol

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something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial;emblem, token, or sign.

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Objective correlative

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a completely depicted situation or chain of events that objectifies a particular emotion in such a way as to produce or evoke that emotion in the reader.

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Alliteration

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the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration) as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable (vocalic alliteration) as in each to all.

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Cadence

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rhythmic flow of a sequence of sounds or words:

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Tone

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a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of thevoice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.:

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Juxtaposition

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an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially forcomparison or contrast.

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Pathetic Fallacy

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the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.

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Hyperbole

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an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”.

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Meiosis

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expressive understatement, especially litotes.

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Litotes

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understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”.

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Tall Tale

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a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some stories such as these are exaggerations of actual events

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Idiom

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an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.

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Dialect

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a special variety of a language:

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Foreshadowing

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to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure:

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Flashback

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a device in the narrative of a motion picture, novel, etc., by which an event or scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work.

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Characterization

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the act of characterizing or describing the individual quality of a person or thing.

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Protagonist

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Main character

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Antagonist

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a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another;opponent; adversary.

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Hero

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a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal:

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Anti-hero

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a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, asnobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose,and the like.

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Motivation

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the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in acertain way:

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Stock Character

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a stereotypical person whom audiences readily recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition.

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Flat Character

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two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work.

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Round Character

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complex and undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader.

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Static Character

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a literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop.

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Dynamic Character

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a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude

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Characternym

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writing technique of reflecting a character's personality through their name.

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Interior Monologue

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a form of stream-of-consciousness writing that represents theinner thoughts of a character.

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Dramatic Monologue

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a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at acritical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation.

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Stream of Consciousness

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a manner of writing in which a character's thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure,distinctions between various levels of reality, or the like:

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Narrator

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a person who gives an account or tells the story of events, experiences,etc.

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Point of View

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the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.

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First-person Point of View

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where the story is narrated by one character at a time. This character may be speaking about him or herself or sharing events that he or she is experiencing.

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Third-person Point of View

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is writing from the third person point of viewand uses pronouns like he, she, it, or they

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Second-person Narration

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a narrative mode in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by second-personpersonal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, for example the English second-person pronoun "you."

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Total Omniscience

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A type of narration in which the narrator is a nonparticipant.

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Limited/Selective Omniscience

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In third person limited the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. All characters are described using pronouns, such as 'they,' 'he,' and 'she.' But, one character is closely followed throughout the story, and it is typically a main character.

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Editorial Point of View/ Authorial Intrusion

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the author penning the story, poem or prose steps away from the text and speaks out to the reader.

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Dramatic Point of View

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a specific style of writing in which the author chooses to only share the action of a scene and not the internal thoughts or emotions of a character. Some people refer to this as the “fly-on-the-wall” POV, where the narrator is a fly observing the events but not commenting upon them.

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Objective Point of View

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the writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.

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Enveloping Action

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the one action that gives the story unity.

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In Medias Res

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It usually describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle — usually at some crucial point in the action.

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Metafiction

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the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (especially naturalism) and traditional narrative techniques.

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Self-reflexivity

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a piece of writing draws attention to its manner of composition

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Allusion

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a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.

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Intertextuality

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the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature; theway that similar or related texts influence, reflect, or differ from eachother:

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Connotation

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the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression inaddition to its explicit or primary meaning

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Denotation

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a word that names or signifies something specific

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Atmosphere/Mood

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a distinctive emotional quality or character:

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Frame Story

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a narrative providing the framework for connecting a series of otherwiseunrelated stories.

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Cacophony

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harsh discordance of sound; dissonance:

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Euphony

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agreeableness of sound; pleasing effect to the ear, especially a pleasantsounding or harmonious combination or succession of words:

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Realsim

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a theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspectsof life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact mannerthat is presumed to reflect life as it actually is.

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Naturalism

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a manner or technique of treating subject matter that presents,through volume of detail, a deterministic view of human life andactions.

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Verisimilitude

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likeness to the truth i.e. resemblance of a fictitious work to a real event even if it is a far-fetched one.

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K-mart realism

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A literarygenre characterized by a spare, terse style that features struggling, working-class characters in sterile, bleak environments

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Imagery

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to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.

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Dicition

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Word Choice

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Theme

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the central topic a text treats

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Motif

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any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story.

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Setting

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Where the story takes place

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Milieu

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the setting and environment in which a person lives, including social and cultural aspects of life.

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Local Colour

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fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region.

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Irony

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a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated.

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Dramatic Irony

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occurs when the audience knows something the characters do not. Because of this understanding, the words of the characters take on a different meaning.

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Verbal Irony

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irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, oruses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literalmeaning.

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Urban Legend

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a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidencethat spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements ofhumor, moralizing, or horror:

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Parody

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a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing

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Foil

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A foil is another character in a story who contrasts with the main