Developing Fiction

Plot
 The Plot Thickens
• We began defining fiction as an imagined narrative or a story – a series of causes and
effects that chain events together to create a cohesive whole. Sometimes, the word
story and plot are interchanged, or assumed to mean the same thing. For instance, if
someone asks you, “What’s the story of the book you are reading?” You will probably
give them the summary of the events that happened and how each event is related to
the next. Your mind organizes these events in such a way that you try and make sense
of them.
• If you can think of each event or scene as a piece of barbeque, then the bamboo stick
that goes through all the pieces of meat and keeps them in place is the plot.
The writer, E.M. Forster, famously
differentiated plot and story like this : An
example of a story is, “The king died and
the queen died.” Plot, on the other hand, is
“The king died and so the queen died of
grief.” In other words, plot examines the
causality of each event, usually connected
by the phrase “and so”. Plot provides us
with a more in-depth understanding of
how and why each event follows the other,
and provides us with a logical framework
or a pattern to explain why these events
occur in a certain order.
In ancient Greek drama, this was known
as the mythos, and the philosopher
Aristotle considered mythos to be the
most important element of drama. This
can be seen in traditional Greek drama,
which is usually divided into three parts:
Act I or the protasis, Act II or the
epitasis, and Act III, the catastrophe.
This consideration was carried over into
modern dramatic structure, which is
essential in crafting the structure of the
plot. Gustav Freytag, a German dramatist
in the nineteenth century, used Aristotle
as a jumping off point and restructured
the dramatic plot, which he said can be
divided into five parts.
 Parts of a Plot
1. Exposition – This is also known as the introduction. The setting, point of view, and the main
character’s situation at the beginning of the story are introduced here.

2. Rising action- This is where the inciting incident occurs: The moment that starts the story
moving along, and the main character encounters more and more difficulties the further
along the story he or she progresses.

3. Climax – This is the pinnacle of the story, where all the events in the rising action arrive at
this point. This is usually where your character needs to make a choice that would have
long-lasting consequences.

4. Falling action – Also known as denouement or the “untangling of knots” in a story. This is
when the consequences of the choices made by the characters are finally dealt with.

5. Resolution – The ending of a story. This may be open-ended, with an option to be continued
in the imagination of the reader, or closed , with every plot point accounted for by the end of
the story.
• The plot moves because of the character’s motivation, or what the main character wants. If
a character does not want anything, then the story does not progress. The main character’s
motivation is usually hindered or halted by someone else’s motivation that runs corollary
to the main character. This creates conflict which moves not only the story along, but also
forces the main character to act, make decisions, and deal with the consequences of these
decisions. Conflict can be classified as internal or external, and can be further subdivided
into three types:

• 1. Man vs. Himself – An internal conflict, in which the characters struggle with themselves
regarding moral or ethical choices.

• 2. Man vs. Man – An external conflict, in which two or more characters are up against each
other because of different motivations.

• 3. Man vs. Nature – An external conflict, in which the characters are up against the forces
of nature or circumstances in which they have no control.

• As we can see, plot is not just the sequence of events or a series of cause-and-effect
moments, but an understanding of how each decision is connected to each other and how
each cause my have consequences.
Creating a
Character
 Creating a Character
• When you think of famous characters, you can immediately think of something associated
wit them, perhaps an object, a way of moving, the sound of their voices or a particular outfit.
And even when you think of everyday people, you can still imagine what they might look
like.

• Even you are a character: You have a hand in creating yourself and what you present to
other people. You take on different roles as well: as daughter or son, as an older or younger
sibling, as a student, as a friend and so on. You are all of these things, but maybe not all at
once. You take on certain traits, attitudes, and even actions to fulfill the role your character
demands. Similarly, characters in fiction are also created to be believable and empathetic.
This means that you can believe that they could exist in the world we live in, and that as the
reader, you want them to get what they want.

• Fictional characters are usually made up of three parts: appearance, attributes and
aspirations. Appearance refers to the physicality of the character. This does not just refer to
what they look like on a visual level – hair color, eye color, body shape and size – but other
sensory details as well. You can describe the way they move, the way their voice sounds like,
how they feel to the touch, or how they smell like.
Creating a Character
• Attributes refer to the personality and preferences of your character. They can
be kind or mean, selfish or selfless, an introvert or an extrovert. They might like
ice cream or hate the taste of onions. They might know every word to their
favorite song or they might spend all their time watching online videos. In other
words, attributes describe what your character is like outside of the plot of your
story.

• Finally, aspirations refer to the motivation of your character. In other words, this
answers the question. “What do they want?’ Do they want to avenge the death of
their father at the hands of their uncle, like Hamlet? Do they want to lift the
curse on their kingdom and find the murderer of a king, like Oedipus? Do they
want to fulfill their destiny and rid the world of evil, like Harry Potter?
Furthermore, most stories usually have a cast of characters to provide for different
points of view or to move the plot along. They can be classified in different ways.
You can refer to the chart below to figure out where your characters might belong:
Presence Position Characterization Movement
Refers to how often Refers to whether The manner of How far the plot of
we see the the reader is for or creating or your character
character/s in the against the portraying a moves along.
story motivation of the character in a story.
character.
Major Protagonist Round Dynamic
Major characters are The major character Round characters are Dynamic characters
usually point-of-view whose motivation the portrayed using all usually exist throughout
characters and are audience believes and three aspects of a the entire plot. A change
central to the plot of the empathizes with. character: appearance, usually occurs in their
story. attributes and characterization.
aspirations.
Minor Antagonist Flat Static
Minor characters only The major character Flat characters are Static characters usually
appear in specific whose motivation the portrayed using only exist only during a
scenes or have specific audience does not one or two aspects of a certain section of the
role and are not central believe or empathize character. They exist to plot. Their
to the plot of the story. with. support round characterization does
characters. not change
Creating a Character
• Putting all of these things together to create characters is what we call
characterization. There are four major ways of characterizing anyone in your story.
These are:

1. Direct characterization – This is when you directly describe the characters in

terms of their appearance or even their attributes.

2. Indirect characterization – This is when you allow the audience to slowly

recognize who the characters are and what kind of person they are.

3. Comparative characterization – This is when you show the flaws or strengths of

your character compared to other characters in the story.

4. Active characterization – This is when you allow the character’s actions,

movements, or physicality to show the reader the person they are.
Creating a Character
• Whichever form of characterization you choose, you must remember to craft
your characters consistently. This means that your characters stay true to the
way you created them, and they do not do anything out of character. For
instance, it would be very odd if Crisostomo Ibarra started speaking with an
American accent, or began to fall in love with Sisa instead of Maria Clara. It is
not because these attributes are wrong, but because they were never part of his
character in the first place, and therefore is not a believable characterization.
Creating your characters with consistency shows your reader that they are
correct in trusting the characters in the first place, and that you created them in
a believable way.
Point of View
Point of View
• People may look at the same thing in different ways; sometimes, it is because of their
position, and other times, it is because of the angle. And more often than not, it is
influenced by their emotions and opinions toward the object. As writer, you may try and
inhabit these different points of view because you try to encompass as many of them as
you can in your writing. When you inhabit your characters, not only you are creating new
people, but you are also creating new viewpoints with which to look a the world you live
in.

• Stories employ a specific point of view depending on the kind of perspective a writer
wants to present to an audience. The writer can manipulate point of view like a video
camera, only showing the readers what he wants them to see within the narrative frame
of the story. The writer has the choice to withhold or share information depending on the
kind of story he wants to tell. If you are trying to figure out which point of view is most
suitable to the story you want to tell, you can take a look at the chart below to weigh the
advantages and disadvantages of each point of view.
Point of View
Points of View Pros
First - Intimacy
- Can create a deep bond
between the reader and
the character
Second - Places the reader in the
character’s shoes
- Requires technical control
Third (limited) - Not bound to one
Third (Omniscience) consciousness
- Distance is modulated by
the reader and the
consciousness
- The writer must limit or
select what the narrator
talks about
- Once you introduce a POV
character, be consistent
Cons
- Limited
- Based on observation
(and speculation) of the
consciousness
- Can be gimmicky
- Unorthodox
- Requires control of the
consciousness being used
- Multiple POVs can be
problematic unless the
writer sets out to mark
that for the readers
- What appears
unconventional might
remove the readers from
their suspension of
disbelief
Point of View
• Whichever you choose, you must remember that the narrator is
crucial to the success of your story. The narrator is the one whose
point of view is being used to show the story to the reader.
Because fiction is an artifice, the point of view can also be
considered as an artificial lens with which to view the narrative.
We can always assume that there is more to a story than meets the
eye – it just so happens that the writer wants us to follow a specific
angle or direction in the story. In other words, the narrator who
tells us the story may or may not be telling the truth of the story.
This makes the narrator either reliable or unreliable.
Point of View
• A reliable narrator is one whom the audience can believe in and who usually
fades into the background, allowing the events in the plot and the actions of the
characters to take center stage. He tells the story unobtrusively, and therefore,
because the readers forget he is there, he can be believed that he is telling the
truth.

• The unreliable narrator, on the other hand, is a point of view that is deliberately
inconsistent or opposite of what is happening in the plot. Usually, it includes
narrators that are involved in some way of form with the story as it unfolds, and
therefore provide another platform for the readers to figure out who is
believable and who is not believable. According to William Riggan, a German
author, there are five kinds of unreliable narrators:
Point of View
1. The Picaro – is an unreliable narrator who always exaggerates or brags about his own
abilities even though he may not have done them all. An example of this is the character
Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

2. The Madman - is an unreliable narrator who is either experiencing mental illness such
as schizophrenia, paranoia, or dissociative identity disorder, or is mentally defending
himself because of post-traumatic stress or other psychological disorders. An example of
this is the character of Esther Greenwald from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, who descends
into schizophrenia and requires psychological treatment as the novel progresses.

3. The Clown – is an unreliable narrator who does not take the narration he is
performing seriously and intentionally makes fun of characters, the narrative, or even
himself. An example of this is the character Bras Cubas from Joaquin Maria Machado de
Assis’ s The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas.
 Point of View
4. The Naïve – is an unreliable narrator whose perceptions are either too immature or limited
through his point of view, which makes the character seem either innocent or ignorant about the
events in the narrative. An example of this is the character of Nick in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald, who does not immediately see Gatsby as the man he really is and instead paints for the
reader a benign and a more admirable character .

5. The Liar – is usually an unreliable narrator who deliberately confuses the reader throughout the
narrative, usually to hide his shameful past. An example of this would be Holden Caulfield from JD
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, who consciously tells the reader about an invented character
background for the reader to sympathize with him.

As you may have noticed, point of view is strongly tied with characterization, as well as the
progression of a plot. An effective point of view is just as important as a well-structured plot or a
clearly characterized protagonist.
Voice and
Dialogue
 Voice and Dialogue
• Imagine the sound of the tone of your favorite singer. Is it smooth and low, or deep and bass-like? Is
it high and breathy or pitched just perfectly that you cannot help but sway along to the song? In
stories, the tone in which the story is being told is also very important.

• Tone is an attitude of the writer toward his subject matter or writing, and relies exclusively on the
writer’s personal feelings or opinions toward the topic he is writing about.

• However, the voice of the story refers to the tone or style of a particular literary piece. This is
different from tone because it refers to the specific diction or arrangement of words that each
writer is known for. In other words, tone might manifest in the way a writer approaches the subject
matter of the story (e.g. dry, humorous, serious) while voice manifests in the particular
arrangement of words and sentences in a story (e.g. poetic, simplistic, or embellished language).

• Voice and tone contribute to the execution of the story or the manner in which it is written.
Sometimes, the writer may be deliberately manipulating voice and tone to suit the subject matter
as he perceives it, but oftentimes, voice and tone are directly linked to the writer.
 Voice and Dialogue
• Think of it as a signature move or style – you know that when the writer uses it in a story, it is
consistent with his other works and you are able to see the pattern of a writer’s voice and tone when
you compare a certain literary piece with his other written works.

• However, tone and voice are also directly connected with the characters of the story, and their
manner of speaking and communicating. More often than not, we refer tot his as dialogue or a
conversational exchange between two or more people. Dialogue is usually used as a means of
characterization, as well as a technique to move the plot along. When we talk to people, there is
usually a purpose behind it. We need to communicate something, we need to listen and learn about
something, or we simply enjoy the exchange of ideas. Similarly, in a story, dialogue is also used
deliberately to inform characters of certain things, as well as to communicate something to either
other characters or to the readers themselves.

• The word “dialogue” comes from the Greek words “dia” and “logos’, which can be literally translated
into “to speak across”, implying that there is an exchange of words between two or more speakers.
Dialogue facilitates the flow of meaning, which can be interpreted correctly or misinterpreted by
participants of the dialogue.
Voice and Dialogue
• In writing a story, dialogue relies on how the writer manages to capture the
tone of the characters and how it is translated on the page. If a dialogue is done
right, it just rolls off the tongue. You do not think about it because it sounds like
speaking, the way you and I speak to each other everyday. Good dialogue
sounds natural, effortless. Bad dialogue sounds awkward, stilted, and fake.

• When we use dialogue in a story, we usually use it for a reason. It could be to

impart information or exposition to have two or more characters communicate
with each other or to create a more holistic portrayal of a character. Because of
these reasons, we also have four ways of writing a dialogue.
 Voice and Dialogue
1. Direct Dialogue – usually happens in the moment. This is a dialogue that is usually enclosed in
double quotation marks and preceded by “He said” or “She said”. It is part of the action of the scene.
It can be interrupted by narration, characterization, or description, which can work to serve the
pace of the story.

2. Indirect or reported dialogue – is the dialogue that happens off-screen and is usually summarized
or reported by the narrator. It compresses unnecessary dialogue while at the same time establishes
that a conversation has taken place.

3. Stylized dialogue – usually tries to mimic the manner of speech of a character including the accents
and inflections that are usually abandoned by the writer in an effort to make the language conform
to its grammatical and syntactical rules. But since language is also fluid, using stylized dialogue
helps paint an even more effective characterization through speech patterns.

4. Asynchronous dialogue – is dialogue that does not more than convey information or an exchange of
ideas, but also functions on a figurative or metaphorical scale. This usually works in conjunction
with the other actions of the characters or the way events are unfolding.
Setting the
Scene
 Setting
• Setting refers to the place and time where the story takes place.
This grounds the story in a physical sense. It creates the
parameters of the fictional dream. The setting can be something as
simple as describing the room a character walks into, to something
as complex and complicated as creating fictional world.
• Whether you are writing a fictional world, or remembering a real
place in the real world, the setting needs to be believable to the
reader. If the reader points out, “This can’t happen like this!” then
it means that your setting is too unbelievable and therefore, not
functional and effective.
 Setting
• When we talk about setting, we usually start with the mise-en-scene or
the establishing of scene. This is the first description of the setting that
allows the reader to believe in the space you are creating.
1. Place and Space – Place refers to the physical world inhabited by a
character or where the story takes place. This refers to either the
geographic or topographic features of the setting, which in turn influences
how the character moves or acts in the space. This can also refer to the
spatial understanding of the character of the world they inhabit, or how
they interact with the place
 Setting
2. Time – Time can refer to three things: the historical period or kind of society that the
story is taking place, the passage of time within the story, or how the character perceives
the movement of time in the story. Socio-historical details create the believability of the
story – the way the characters speak, move or make decisions that contribute to the
progression of the plot.
Passage of time indicates how long the story takes place: hours, days, weeks, years, or any
combinations thereof. This also indicates the season or weather in the story – this again,
dictates the way the story progresses. Your character can also perceive how time moves
in the narrative. This is tied to point of view because this is how the character interacts
with time- it is slowing down, perhaps because of a feeling of nervousness, or is it
speeding up, perhaps because of the character’s own action or motion?
A combination of time and space or place is usually referred to as the milieu of the story.
 Setting
3. Mood/Atmosphere – Mood or atmosphere is the combination of time
and space (and even point if view) to create an emotional landscape felt
throughout the story. The writer highlights selected details of a scene;
sometimes through the eyes of the narrator, sometimes objectively,
sometimes dramatically to emphasize or underscore the emotional tone of
the scene.
Thematic
Elements
 Theme
• As a reader, we have always been asked to discuss the theme of a
certain work of literature. Usually, this is encapsulated by a word or
phrase, a sentence at most, that sums up the entire literary work.
However, as a writer, the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It is only at that
point, when we can see the entire picture, that we can say what the
theme is all about.
• Theme is essentially the central idea in your story. It is the
overarching narrative of emotional or symbolic resonance in your
story and usually answers the question, “What is your story about?”
 Theme
• The theme of any literary work can be divided into its thematic statement and
thematic concept.
• The thematic statement is the writer’s intention about the theme. Essentially, it
is trying to convey what the writer thinks or feels about the subject he or she is
writing about.
• The thematic concept on the other hand, is what the reader thinks the work is
about, based on the clues that the writer left behind.
• All the elements that you use in the story contribute toward your theme. However,
because creative writing is all about the imagined world, you can control the
direction your narrative takes by using its connections to the world you are
building and the world around you.
 Theme
• One of the best and most obvious ways writers exercise control is by
using symbols or an object that represents, stands for, or suggests an
idea, belief, concept, and abstraction that may not otherwise be
rendered into concrete images. Symbols take the form of words,
sounds, gestures, or visual images and are used to convey ideas and
beliefs. Symbols are important not just in literary texts, but in real life
as well. They help us understand the world we live in by identifying
messages and fostering cooperation in society.
 Theme
• There are several kinds of symbolisms used in literary texts. Here are some
of the most basic ones that you can use in your writing.
1. Motif/Leitmotif – is a repetition of a symbol in a story. It can be an object,
an action, a word or phrase, or even a description. Motifs are dependent
on the fictional world of the story, and may not carry any meaning in the
real world.
2. Tropes – are common literary devices, motifs, or figurative language that
occur across several creative works. Tropes can be identified by the way
they are commonly used by creators. Examples of common tropes in
stories are: a boy falls in love with a girl who does not love him back; the
monster in the closet; or the ordinary, everyday person becomes the hero.
 Theme
3. Archetypes – usually refer to character templates in a story that fulfills
a certain function. For instance, we know that the hero is usually the
protagonist of the story or that the wise old man is a figure of wisdom
and full of advice. They do not really look a certain way, but rather, fulfill a
role or functions in the story.
4. Allusions – reference events or objects beyond the story that the
writer assumes the reader knows about. The reader is the one who
connects the reference in the fictional piece to its corresponding
reference in the real world. Cultural learnings and understanding create
the context in which the audience can understand an allusion. Using
allusions contributes toward creating layers of a meaning in a text.
 Theme
5. Allegory – is also known as an extended metaphor and uses
characters and events in literary or other art forms to represent and
symbolize abstractions. Many mythologies and religious texts use
allegories to concretize an abstract concept or idea.
 Narrative
Techniques
 Narrative Techniques
• Each work of fiction is composed of scenes and summaries. A scene is a dramatic unit
that begins at one fixed point in time and ends in another. It is composed of a sequence
of actions that affect one another directly. Usually, this has a character or characters
struggling to get something they want or resisting something that is already there.
• But while scenes allow the reader to see the characters move and speak in the present, a
story cannot function without transitions, between the scenes. These transitions are
called summaries and are essentially narratives of the passage of time. Summaries
compress time and accelerate narrative, presenting the reader with the necessary
information before a scene begins. An efficient summary reduces redundancies and
provides information for the reader that he or she might need to understand the context
of a story. A balanced mix of summaries and scenes moves the plot along, provides
context and motivation for character development, and allows the reader to experience
pleasure as well as a deeper insight into the human experience.
 Narrative Techniques
• Furthermore, since the writer can manipulate time and pacing in a story, there are different
techniques that can be used to move forward and backward in time. These are the following:

1. Foreshadowing – means to provide hints of future events. Usually, the logic of storytelling
dictates that for every decision, there is always a consequence. Foreshadowing provides a hint
of that consequence.

2. In medias res – literally means “in the middle of things” . Usually, the exposition begins right
in the middle of the action without an explanation as to how the story got there. There is a
minimal background description or setting, instead leaving the explanation of the action
toward the middle of the story.

3. Flashback – is when the narrative moves backward in time, usually as a memory or

remembrance of how the past influenced the current goings-on in the narrative, while flash
forward is when the narrative moves forward in time, usually providing a glimpse of the
consequences of the present-day action or activities of the characters.
 End of
Presentation