GROUP 2

LESSON 1: CLASSIC AND

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

What Is Fiction?
Fiction is make-believe, invented stories. They may be short stories, fables, vignettes,
plays, novellas, or novels. Although writers may base a character on people they have
met in real life, the characters and the experiences that the character faces in the story
are not real.

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
The six major elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view, setting, style, and
theme.

1.. Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E. M.

Forester makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat characters are
types or caricatures defined by a single idea of quality, whereas round characters have
the three-dimensional complexity of real people.

2. Plot –- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the sequence of
major events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation.

3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is
typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view. In a narrative told
from a first-person perspective, the author tells the story through a character who
refers to himself or herself as "I." Third –person narratives come in two types:
omniscient and limited. An author taking an omniscient point of view assumes the
vantage point of an all-knowing narrator able not only to recount the action
thoroughly and reliably but also to enter the mind of any character in the work or any
time in order to reveal his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader.
An author using the limited point of view recounts the story through the eyes of a
single character (or occasionally more than one, but not all or the narrator would be an
omniscient narrator).
4. Setting –- That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that
provides the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The
general setting of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene or
event.

5.Style -- The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of

words), and other linguistic features of a work.

6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The term
also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.

Source: https://web.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.html

However, as the making of these stories, evolve, other varied types have evolved.
Other than the classical way of writing fictional stories, we now have other forms
which are still considered as stories. One of which is flash fiction.

What Is Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction is a genre of fiction, defined as a very short story. While there is
no set word count that separates flash fiction from more traditional short stories, flash
fiction stories can be as short as a few words (while short stories typically run for
several pages). Flash fiction is also known as sudden fiction, short-short stories,
microfiction, or microstories.
As a general rule, flash fiction is considered to be less than 1,000 words long.
And believe it or not, you can study how to write it. I did a web search for “how to
write a flash fiction story” and got five million hits, including some for courses that
would take way longer to complete than would simply writing a bunch of flash pieces
until you get the hang of it.

3 Characteristics of Flash Fiction

Flash fiction stories share a number of common characteristics.

 Brevity. Flash fiction compresses an entire story into the space of a few
paragraphs. There is no defined word count for flash fiction, but some commonly
used word limits in flash fiction range from just six words on the short end to
around 1,000 words on the longer end.
 A complete plot. A flash fiction story is indeed a story, with a beginning, middle,
and end. This sets it apart from a prose poem or vignette, which can explore an
emotion, memory, or thought without a plot.
 Surprise. Great flash fiction often incorporates surprise, usually in the form of a
twist ending or an unexpected last line. This is not a gimmick: the aim is to
prompt the reader to think deeply about the true meaning of the story.

ELEMENTS OF FLASH FICTION

1. A plot. To be clear, a flash fiction piece is a complete story. Just like a longer piece
of fiction, your flash piece needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending. I saw one
website that recommended writing an outline for each flash story. I think that’s going
a little overboard; your outline could end up longer than the story. But if your story
doesn’t have an ending – if, say, you find you’ve written a scene that could be part of
a longer story, or even part of a novel – then it’s not technically flash fiction.

2. Characters. You don’t have a lot of space to describe your characters, obviously,
but readers should still be able to tell them apart. Use telling details that you can
describe in a few words. Keep your character count low, and stick with one point-of-
view.

3. A hook. A flash story should start with a compelling scene and keep going. Just as
in any other type of story, you need to include some kind of conflict – an internal or
external (or both) challenge that your characters have to meet.

4. A slam-bang finish. Remember what I said about flash fiction needing an ending?
A lot of successful flash pieces employ a twist at the end. Think of structuring your
story as you would a joke; although your ending doesn’t need to be funny, it ought to
be something that the reader didn’t see coming.