Even before the invention of the book, storytelling has been used for generations to preserve a culture, to pass down knowledge and to educate. However, how that story was told is crucial. If the narrative was boring, then it will be forgotten by the next generation, possibly retold to the teller’s liking. But if the story made and told well, then it will last for year. That is why in order to write a successful fiction, it needs to have a compelling theme, engrossing setting, and realistic characters. The first aspect of good fiction is the theme. Theme is the overall “point a writer wished to make” (McCord). A theme is like a thesis, it is the underlying idea that brings the plot, setting, character, etc. together and keeps them all focused.
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Setting is a crucial aspect of fiction because setting is the time period and/or place where the story takes place. Setting is not just the background or the scenery where the narrative takes place, it is the “part and parcel of the significant, it is heritage and culture” (Burroway 136). The setting determines the plot and characterization of a character. When it came to my short story, “String Theory,” I had to think about where Kris and her mother would live and what kind of life style they would have. I chose to have my characters live in a city because I was able to take full advantage of the scenery for my strings. If I were to have Kris live in the suburbs, then I could not be able to create the beautiful scenery of tangled yarn draping down from skyscrapers and high windows. Plus, the scenery required a lot of people in a single space since every one individual had a string attached to them. The time period is crucial to my story as well. String Theory is based upon the scientific theory where particles are replaced with string, and that these strings determines how molecules moves, etc. depending on their vibration. Taking this idea, I expanded on it adding a human component to the idea, but it would have not made sense if Kris and her mom lived in Middle Ages when science was still …show more content…
Characters are the key component to any story because they carry the reader through out the narrative and they are, as John Gardner claims, “the first reason a reader reads a book” (Edwards 46). First, before a reader can follow a character through their journey, the reader must care about the character and what they are going through. Edwards writes that a reader must “feel a certain empathy so that a character’s actions seem both unique and understandable” (45). Just as a person does not care for anyone they have not met yet, no one will care for a character in a new book. For a reader to be interested in the character, he or she must stand out. The uniqueness of a character will draw the reader’s attention toward that character. For example, in the series Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, the main character Artemis is known as a child prodigy, yet his idiosyncratic nature does not stop there. Artemis is also created a plan that “could topple civilizations and plunge the planet into a cross-species war,” all at the age of twelve (Colfer 2). This does not only make Artemis Fowl stand out, but he is a very memorable character even beyond the last chapter. As romantic as Artemis sounds, being a child genius, Artemis is far from perfect.
Though every reader or writer will have their own opinion of the aspects of good fiction, it should all boils down to one thing: good fiction must reveal the truth or as Kim Edwards states,
Setting is a crucial aspect of fiction because setting is the time period and/or place where the story takes place. Setting is not just the background or the scenery where the narrative takes place, it is the “part and parcel of the significant, it is heritage and culture” (Burroway 136). The setting determines the plot and characterization of a character. When it came to my short story, “String Theory,” I had to think about where Kris and her mother would live and what kind of life style they would have. I chose to have my characters live in a city because I was able to take full advantage of the scenery for my strings. If I were to have Kris live in the suburbs, then I could not be able to create the beautiful scenery of tangled yarn draping down from skyscrapers and high windows. Plus, the scenery required a lot of people in a single space since every one individual had a string attached to them. The time period is crucial to my story as well. String Theory is based upon the scientific theory where particles are replaced with string, and that these strings determines how molecules moves, etc. depending on their vibration. Taking this idea, I expanded on it adding a human component to the idea, but it would have not made sense if Kris and her mom lived in Middle Ages when science was still …show more content…
Characters are the key component to any story because they carry the reader through out the narrative and they are, as John Gardner claims, “the first reason a reader reads a book” (Edwards 46). First, before a reader can follow a character through their journey, the reader must care about the character and what they are going through. Edwards writes that a reader must “feel a certain empathy so that a character’s actions seem both unique and understandable” (45). Just as a person does not care for anyone they have not met yet, no one will care for a character in a new book. For a reader to be interested in the character, he or she must stand out. The uniqueness of a character will draw the reader’s attention toward that character. For example, in the series Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer, the main character Artemis is known as a child prodigy, yet his idiosyncratic nature does not stop there. Artemis is also created a plan that “could topple civilizations and plunge the planet into a cross-species war,” all at the age of twelve (Colfer 2). This does not only make Artemis Fowl stand out, but he is a very memorable character even beyond the last chapter. As romantic as Artemis sounds, being a child genius, Artemis is far from perfect.
Though every reader or writer will have their own opinion of the aspects of good fiction, it should all boils down to one thing: good fiction must reveal the truth or as Kim Edwards states,