ELEMENTS OF FICTION

OVERVIEW OF FICTION
Fiction has five characteristics.

a) It is fiction in the broad literary sense. It is something invented by the

writer.
b) It is non-dramatic.
c) It is narrative.
d) It is descriptive
e) It is prose.
In this narrow literary sense, fiction - on the basis of length - is divided into
three kinds: Novel, Novella and Short Stories

A. CHARACTERIZATION: The portrayal of characters:

- Direct: through description

- Indirect: when the characters are displayed in action.

Types of characters

a) Flat character: simple, unchanged

✓ It is a type rather an individual: typifying a social or economic class

✓ It may typify a virtue or vice.

✓ It is not liable to change throughout the story.

b) Round character: complex, changing

✓ It is not dominated by a single psychological mood.

✓ It must go through changes of fortune.

 ✓ A round character can sometimes be flat at a certain moment.

c) Static & Dynamic character: Flat characters are nearly always static
and Round characters – dynamic.

Note: The nature and use of characters in the story are determined by the
purpose of the writer.

B. PLOT

- It is the structure of actions having cause and effect relationship and not
mere simple sequence of chronological events.
- A plot consists of 4 major parts, namely Complications, Conflict, Climax and
Ending.
➢ Complications or Exposition: events or actions that establish the
conflict(s) in the story.

➢ Conflict: a struggle between internal and external forces in the story:

❖ Internal conflict happens within the individual

❖ External conflict happens (1) between individuals, (2) between
individual(s) and social force, (3) between individual(s) and natural
force.
➢ Climax: the turning point, often signified by a character’s making a
significant decision or taking action to solve a conflict.

➢ Ending or Resolution: the ending which often shows the effects of the
climactic action.

A more detailed analysis of a plot may also include the Rising action and Falling
action which happen before and after the Climax respectively as shown in the
figure below.
 Types of plot

❖ Closed plot: It runs the customary course of the four major parts
described above.
❖ Open plot: It has little or no resolution.

C. THEME

- It is the central, unifying concept of the story, a generalization

- There is no one way of stating the theme.

D. SETTING

- It is the time and place of the story, the background for the characters’
actions.
- Setting can be used to emphasize the idea of the story, accentuate the
theme, to bring all the characters into proper perspective.

Flashback: an interruption in the chronological order of the story by

description of earlier occurrences.
 E. NARRATIVE MANNER or POINT OF VIEW

It is how the story is narrated or to put it in a simple way, it is who the

narrator is. His view or description of the events may influence the readers’
response, and consequently, is a very important aspect for the analysis of a story.

Types of narrative manner

➢ First-person narrator: The narrator is the author. First-person narrators

can report their own thoughts but not the thoughts of the others. They
may offer evaluations and judgements of other characters and events.

a. First-person narrator actor: autobiographical method

b. First-person observer: The narrator is not the main character but

an observer of the experience acting as a foil or contrast to set
forth the characteristics of the characters.

➢ Third-person narrator (or Objective point of view): The narrator who,

like a camera, shows external events and conversations but cannot look
inside the minds of characters or offer evaluations and judgements.

➢ Limited omniscient narrator: The narrator who can report external

actions and conversations as well as the inner thoughts of only one
character. He may offer evaluations and judgements of other characters
and events.

➢ Omniscient narrator: The narrator who can report both external actions
and conversations as well as the inner thoughts of all characters and who
often provides evaluations and judgements of other characters and
events.
 THE SHORT STORY
Some definitions

✓ A short story is a narrative that can be read at one setting and is limited to
a certain single effect to which every detail is subordinate (Edgar Allan Poe).
✓ It is a brief piece of fictional narrative with a beginning, a middle and an
end.
✓ It is a brief piece of fictional narrative with a middle but no beginning and
no ending.
✓ A short piece of fiction in which the protagonist is confronted with a conflict
and is forced to bring that conflict to some sort of resolution.
✓ No complete definition.

The short story is a short fictional narrative which aims to produce

a single effect.

How short is a short story?

There are various answers, such as

- It is short enough to be read at one sitting.

- It is from two to three pages long.
- It could be read in about 15 minutes.

However, there are stories of one page only and many of more than three
pages. To foreign readers, it may take longer time to finish reading a story.

Besides, to produce one major effect or point, a short story must have unity
because everything in it should contribute to achieving the goal which the writer
had in mind.