GLOSSARY OF FICTION TERMS

Action—an event or series of events in a story; an event may be verbal as well as physical, so that saying something or telling a story within the story may be an event.

Antagonist—a character in a story who deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character, or protagonist, in some way.

Antihero—a leading character who is not, like a hero, perfect or even outstanding, but is rather ordinary and representative of the more or less average person.

Bildungsroman—a German word meaning "novel of development." The bildungsroman is a study of the maturation of a youthful character, typically brought about through a series of social or sexual encounters that lead to self-awareness.

Character—a person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creating a mood. The different attitudes, mannerisms, and even appearances of characters can greatly influence the other major elements in a literary work, such as theme, setting, and tone. With this understanding of the character, a reader can become more aware of other aspects of literature, such as symbolism, giving the reader a more complete understanding of the work. The character is one of the most important tools available to the author.

Climax—the third part of plot structure, the point at which the action stops rising and begins falling or reversing. Also called the turning point, the moment when the conflict is at its most intense. Typically, the structure of stories is one of rising action, in which tension builds to the climax, followed by falling action, in which tension lessens as the story moves to its resolution.

Conflict—is the struggle between opposing forces found in fiction. The conflict in a work of fiction is the issue to be resolved in the story. It usually occurs between two characters, the protagonist and the antagonist, or between the protagonist and society or the protagonist and himself or herself.

Description—used to allow a reader to picture the scene or setting in which the action of a story takes place. The form this description takes often evokes an intended emotional response. For example, a dark, spooky graveyard will evoke fear, and a peaceful, sunny meadow will evoke calmness.

Dialogue—the conversation between characters in a narrative.

Dramatic irony—occurs when something happens in a story that a character does not expect but that readers have anticipated because their knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the character's; also, when facts are not known to the characters in a work of literature but are known by the audience.

Falling action—the fourth part of plot structure, in which the complications of the rising action are untangled and all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot are revealed.

Fiction—any story that is the product of imagination rather than a documentation of fact. Characters and events in such narratives may be based in real life but their ultimate form and configuration is a creation of the author.

First person point of view—when a story relates events as they are perceived by a single character. The main character "tells" the story and may offer opinions about the action and characters which differ from those of the author. The character telling the story may be part of the action or an observer.  As readers, we cannot know or witness anything the narrator does not tell us.  We therefore share all the limitations of the narrator.  This technique has the advantage of a sharp and precise focus.  Moreover, you feel part of the story because the narrator's “I” echoes the “I’ already in your own mind.

Flashback—action that interrupts an ongoing narrative to present an event that occurred before the beginning of the story, often introduced as the dream or memory of one or more characters; used to show an event that happened at an earlier time which is necessary for better understanding of the story or to fill in the reader about a character or place, or about the background to a conflict.

Flat character—a fictional character, often but not always a minor character, who is relatively simple, who is presented as having few, though sometimes dominant, traits, and who thus does not change much in the course of a story.

Foil—a character in a work of literature whose physical or psychological qualities contrast strongly with, and therefore highlight, the corresponding qualities of another character. In his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle portrayed Dr. Watson as a man of normal habits and intelligence, making him a foil for the eccentric and wonderfully perceptive Sherlock Holmes.

Foreshadowing—the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in literature, create expectation, or set up an explanation of later developments.

Hero/heroine—the leading male/female character, usually larger than life, sometimes almost godlike.

In medias res—a Latin term meaning "in the midst of things," which refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, then using various flashback devices to reveal past details and previous action.

Interior Monologue—a narrative technique in which characters' thoughts are revealed in a way that appears to be uncontrolled by the author. The interior monologue typically aims to reveal the inner self of a character. It portrays emotional experiences as they occur at both a conscious and unconscious level.

Irony—a situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant.

Major characters—those characters whom we see and learn about the most.

Minor characters—those figures who fill out the story but who do not figure prominently in it.

Narration—the telling of a series of events, real or invented. A narration may be either a simple narrative, in which the events are recounted chronologically, or a narrative with a plot, in which the account is given in a style reflecting the author's artistic concept of the story. The recounting of scary stories around a campfire is a form of narration.

Narrative structure—the way a story is organized, based on sequences of connected events usually presented in a straightforward chronological framework.

Narrator—one who tells a story, the speaker or the “voice” of an oral or written work. Although it can be, the narrator is not usually the same person as the author. The narrator is one of three types of characters in a given work, (1) participant (protagonist or participant in any action that may take place in the story), (2) observer (someone who is indirectly involved in the action of a story), or (3) non participant (one who is not at all involved in any action of the story). The narrator is the direct window into a piece of work. Depending on the part of the character of the narrator plays in the story, the narrator may demonstrate bias when presenting a piece of work.

Point of View—the narrative perspective from which a literary work is presented to the reader. There are four traditional points of view: third person omniscient, third person, first person, and second person.

Plot—combines a story line (what happens) with motivation (why it happens) in order to build toward epiphany (what the reader/character/author learns or realizes as a result of the action in the story).

Plot structure—the arrangement, organization or order of the action in a story which guides the author in composing the work and helps the reader follow the work. Plot structure can be broken down into five parts: the situation, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.

Protagonist—the main character in a story, who may be male or female, heroic or not heroic and who serves as a focus for its themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development.

Resolution—the portion of a story in which the conflict is resolved; the fifth part of plot structure, the point at which the situation that was destabilized at the beginning of the story becomes stable once more. Also called the conclusion.

Rising action—the second of the five parts of plot structure, in which events complicate the situation that existed at the beginning of a work, intensifying the conflict or introducing new conflict; the part of a story where the plot becomes increasingly complicated, leading up to the climax, or turning point, of the story.

Round character—a complex character, often a major character, who can grow and change and "surprise convincingly"—that is, act in a way that you did not expect from what had gone before but now accept as possible, even probable, and "realistic."

Second person point of view—when the narrator speaks directly to the reader, telling the story as if it is happening to the reader, as in "You walk in the room and what do you see?" This point of view is rare primarily because it is artificial and self-conscious.  It seems to invite identification on the part of the reader with the narrator, but it often fails.

Setting—the time, place, and culture in which the action of a narrative takes place. The elements of setting may include geographic location, characters' physical and mental environments, prevailing cultural attitudes, or the historical time in which the action takes place. Setting includes time period (such as the 1970's), the place (such as Vietnam), the historical milieu (such as during the Vietnam War), as well as the social, political, and perhaps even spiritual realities. The setting is usually established primarily through description, though narration is used also. The setting enables the reader to better envision how a story unfolds by relating necessary physical details of a piece of literature. A setting may be simple or elaborate, used to create ambiance, lend credibility or realism, emphasize or accentuate, organize, or even distract the reader.

Scene—continuous action that occurs in one place in a story.

Situation—the context of the story's action, what is happening when the story begins, what rompts/necessitates/gives rise to the action of the story.

Situational irony—occurs when something contrary to expectation happens in a story. An example of situational irony would occur if a professional pickpocket had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone else's pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition by the audience of a reality in contrast with expectation or appearance

Stock character—one who appears in a number of stories such as the cruel stepmother, the annoying sibling, etc.

Style—a writer's distinctive manner of arranging words to suit his or her ideas and purpose in writing. The unique imprint of the author's personality upon his or her writing, style is the product of an author's way of arranging ideas and his or her use of diction, different sentence structures, rhythm, figures of speech, rhetorical principles, and other elements of composition.

Suspense—a literary device in which the author maintains the audience's attention through the buildup of events, the outcome of which will soon be revealed; the expectation of and doubt about what is going to happen next in a story.

Symbol—something in a story that maintains its individual “literal” meaning but which also has another meaning or even several meanings. For example, a sword may be a sword and also symbolize justice. A symbol may be said to embody an idea. There are two general types of symbols: universal symbols that embody universally recognizable meanings wherever used, such as light to symbolize knowledge, a skull to symbolize death, etc., and constructed symbols that are given symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work, as the white whale becomes a symbol of evil in Moby Dick.

Third person limited point of view—presents the events of the story from outside of any single character's perception, much like the omniscient point of view, but the reader must understand the action as it takes place and without any special insight into characters' minds or motivations.

Third person omniscient point of view—gives the reader a "godlike" perspective, unrestricted by time or place, from which to see actions and look into the minds of characters. This allows the author to comment openly on characters and events in the work.

Tone—the author's attitude toward his or her readers and subject matter, which may be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.

Verbal Irony—occurs when either the speaker means something totally different than what he is saying or the audience realizes, because of their knowledge of the particular situation to which the speaker is referring, that the opposite of what a character is saying is true. Verbal irony also occurs when a character says something in jest that, in actuality, is true.

Villain—the one who opposes the hero or heroine—the "bad guy."