ELEMENTS IN

NOVELS AND
SHORT STORIES
 Elements of Fictions
We lead

● Successful fiction depends on how interesting or

engaging the stories are

● Authors are responsible in weaving and intertwining

elements of the stories to make them able to draw the
readers in

● Those elements are :

a. Plot
b. Characters
c. Point of Views
d. Setting
e. Themes
 Plot
We lead

● Sequence of events unfolding in the stories. Causal arrangements of events

and actions in a story

● Requires readers’ intelligence to relate facts together and readers’ memory

to recall facts

● A plot consists of :
a. a beginning
b. a middle
c. an ending

● A short stories usually has 1 plot. A novel has several intertwining plots.

● 5 essential parts of a plot:

a. Introduction / Exposition
b. Rising Action
c. Climax
d. Falling Action
e. Denouement (Resolution)
 Plot
We lead

● Exposition / Introduction
- characters and setting are introduced

● Rising action
- events of the story begin to unfold
- conflict is introduced and developed
- building up of suspense and anticipation

● Climax
- the turning point of the story
- conflict reaches the highest point
- moment of great tension
- leaving readers to wonder – will it be resolved?
 Plot
We lead

● Falling action
- tension lessens
- conflict begins to resolve
- readers’ questions will be answered

● Denouement
- unraveling of the plot
- the outcome of the story is decided
- ending of the story – happy, sad , hanging, twisted
 Plot Structures
We lead

● Linear Plot

a. chronological order

b. flashback

c. in the middle of actions

 Plot Structure
We lead

Aristotelian Plot
 Plot Structure
We lead

Modification of Aristotle Pyramid by Freytag

 Conflict
We lead

● Struggle between the forces in the story. Without conflict,

there is no plot.

● Consists of :
a. External conflicts – protagonist against external factors
b. Internal conflicts – protagonist against inside forces

● Common conflicts
a. human vs human (physical)
b. human vs self (psychological)
c. human vs nature
d. human vs society (social)
e. human vs technology
f. human vs fate (classical)
Source :http://www.slideshare.net/KSmith15/introduction-to-the-short-story
 Characters
We lead

● Consists of :
a. people in the stories
b. characteristics of the people in the stories
c. in the form of non human – animals / things

● Protagonist
- the main character of the story
- sometimes seen as the Hero
- often faces conflict
- may undergo character changes
 Characters
We lead

● Antagonist :
- opposes the protagonist
- sometimes also seen as the Villain
- can be non human

● Secondary characters
- important to the storyline
- ‘flat’ characters
- have limited character traits
- do not undergo any changes
 Characters
We lead

● Foil characters :
- help the personality and characteristics of
the protagonist stand out
- can be in the form of enemy or friend
- often have conflicting personalities and
dissimilar physical features
(http://characterandcharacterization.webs.com/foil.htm)

● Background characters
- appear infrequently
- most of the time are not named
 Types of Characters
We lead

● Round characters :
- possess various traits
- undergo transformation or emotional growth
throughout the story
- readers can identify different sides of a round character

● Flat characters:
- reader can only see one side of the character
- usually are minor characters with limited traits

● Archetypes:
- stereotype characters
- common, generalized traits, repeatedly found in
different stories
 Types of Characters
We lead

● Dynamic characters :
- develop and change and not just round
- many sided personalities
- changes can be better or worse

● Static characters:
- one dimensional
- stay the same with no development
- readers know very little about them
- flat characters
 Points of view
We lead

● The narrator of the story

● Tone and mood of the story can change depending on who

is telling the story

● First person narrator

- the story is told through the eyes of someone who is
part of the whole story
- events confined to what the narrator experiences
directlyor knows from someone else
- limited to one person
- key words : “I” , “we”, “me”, “us”
 Points of view
We lead

● Omniscient
- third person narration
- have access to everyone’s thoughts, feeling and
actions
- narrator is not a character in the story
- omniscient limited : focuses only on the
experiences of one single character
- omniscient objective : no comments on the
characters thoughts
- reader has to make interpretation
 Points of view
We lead

● Why point of view is important?

- able to ‘listen’ to narrator through his ‘voice’

- the words narrator uses

- nature of the story depends on choice of

narrator’s words

- help readers to understand about the plot and

the characters
 Themes
We lead

● The author’s message or the work meaning that the author wants to
convey to the readers

● Moral of the story. A novel may have more that one themes.

● Conveying the themes through devices such as :

a. simile
b. metaphor
c. irony
d. allusion - casual reference to a person, place, or event
without actually being specific to the reference or incident.
e. symbolism – similar to the use in poetry
f. foreshadowing – a hint is given earlier in the story that refers to
something that will happen later in the story
 Setting
We lead

● The time and location where the story takes place

● Determines the mood and tone of the story

● Includes :

a. Geography
b. Time
c. Weather
d. Mood and atmosphere
e. Social conditions
f. Mannerisms, customs, culture, language
 Thank you

Presented by
Dr Amelia Abdullah | School of Educational Studies / USM