To create a fictional world that seems real to readers, writers use a minimum of six key elements:

1. Plot, Story and Structure
2. Setting
3. Characters
4. Point of View
5. Prose
6. Theme and Subject

PLOT, STORY AND STRUCTURE

PLOT is the sequence of events in a story as the author chooses to arrange them. It is a chain of events, each event the result of some prior events and the cause of some subsequent events. Its purpose is to get readers involved by creating tension so they feel a need to know what happens next. The hero and the villain each keep thwarting the other, forcing each to improvise under pressure. This continues until finally one gains the upper hand.

If the plot is organized around a single central problem, it usually ends when that problem is resolved. If the plot deals with a series of problems, it ends when the last problem is dealt with.^2,9-15

STORY, unlike plot, is the sequence of events in a work of fiction in the order they actually occur. Story and plot may differ because writers use devices like flashbacks, recollections, introspections, and flash forwards so that the plot does not always proceed in a chronological order. A story persists as long as there are problems to be resolved.^2,9-15

STRUCTURE is the framework of a novel. It is the way the plot is arranged in both a logical and a dramatic manner to create maximum suspense. In all cases it consists of (1) a title, (2) a beginning, (3) a middle, and (4) an end. In addition, some novels have prologues, fewer have epilogues, and even fewer have both.

Title. You can choose almost anything you want as a title as long as it isn’t overly long. It certainly can’t be too short, since many titles consist only of a single word.^9,15-17

Beginning. Every beginning makes a promise to readers. A romance novel promises to entertain and titillate them, a mystery novel makes a promise to intellectually challenge them, a thriller novel makes a promise to excite and keep them wondering what is going to happen next, and a horror novel promises to scare them. If you as a writer don’t live up to our promise in subsequent pages, readers will be bitterly disappointed.

Usually readers are brought into the story at the moment the status quo is threatened. The closer the opening scene is to the precipitating event, the more force and emergency it will have. Ideally, readers should find characters in difficulty in the first chapter, the first page, or even better in the first paragraph.^9,15-17

Middle. The middle increases conflict, further develops the main characters, and introduces other characters. It is composed of complications in which things progressively get worse for the hero and a crisis in which he must make a decision that can lead to either success or failure in achieving his ultimate goal. With complications, every attempt by the hero to solve a problem usually makes the problem worse or creates a new, more tenacious problem. Even if his situation improves, the forces arrayed against him grow comparably in magnitude. By the end of the middle, all the various forces that will collide at the story’s climax should have been put in place.^15,18

End. The story narrows down as the end approaches so the ending can take place clearly and decisively. Any subplots and side issues should have been disposed of. If the novel has parallel plots, they should have already converged into a single plot line. All the subordinate characters should be “offstage,” their work done, to leave the main characters alone in the “spotlight” to do the final battle.

The end consists of a climax and a resolution. The climax, also known as the showdown, is the decisive event that resolves the conflict. Although a genre novel has a number of high points of tension and action, the climax is the highest point. It is the logical coming together of the facts and events that took place earlier in the novel. It can be thought of as the ultimate surprise, revealing the answer to the central mystery. It is the moment that relieves all the tension that has built up through the beginning and middle of the story.

Once the climax is finished, the falling action leads quickly toward the story’s resolution, which refers to the final outcome of a plot. It is the final explanation of events. Its function is to wrap up the story. Resolution is also known as the denouement, which literally means “unknotting.^14,17,19

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SETTING

The setting of a novel is the background on which the writer builds the plot and characters. It involves the entire environment: (1) time, (2) place, (3) experience, and (4) mood. Setting can be revealed through narration and dialogue and illustrated by the characters' actions, thoughts, and speech patterns.^2,20-22

TIME is important to every story. Is it day or night? Is it just after the Civil War, during the great depression, or 50 years in the future? Does the story take place in New York City in 2006 or in New York City in 1880?

The year in which the story takes place is not the only temporal aspect of setting to consider. The time of year might change the physical setting—winter (snow, ice, leafless trees, and unbearable cold), fall (warm days, cool nights, and an array of color in the trees), spring (sun-shiny days, flowers in full bloom, and birds chirping). In general, the winter is a more gloomy time than other seasons of the year, but not always. Children laughing and frolicking in the snow is certainly a happy scene.^2,20-22

PLACE includes the bigger picture (city, county, state, country) and the smaller picture (local businesses, places of residence and work, streets and avenues, and other local details). The place in which the story takes place may be real or fictitious.^2,20-22

Setting is “seen” through a character’s EXPERIENCE. Different characters may perceive the same surroundings in very different ways based on their familiarity with the setting. A man from a small town in the Mississippi Delta who is visiting Brooklyn for the first time might describe it differently than a man who has lived there all his life.^2,20-22

The MOOD or atmosphere of a story is the impression it creates and the emotions it arouses in readers. Writers create appropriate moods through their choices of specific details, images, and chosen words and phrases. The character’s five senses and the weather can be very helpful in establishing mood.

Filtering a scene through a character's feelings can profoundly influence what the reader experiences. For instance, the same setting may portray more than one mood depending on how the writer approaches it. A woman walking across a meadow may experience different feelings (happiness, sadness, anger, or fear) depending on the descriptive words the writer chooses to use.^2,20-22

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CHARACTERS

Characterization is the creation of imaginary people (characters) who appear to be real and believable to readers. In most stories, characters and their interactions drive the plot and create the suspense and tension. Readers rely on the characters to draw them into the story.

Characters are usually human, but can be animals, aliens, robots, or anything you want them to be. Characters have names, physical appearances, and personalities. They often wear certain kinds of clothes, speak using slang or jargon, and sometimes have accents. They communicate with each other verbally and nonverbally.

Characters are classified as either major or minor, depending on the magnitudes of their roles in the story. Some characters may be either major or minor, also depending on their roles in the story.^2,10,23-25

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Also known as round characters, major characters are three dimensional figures. Their goals, ambitions, and values change as a result of what happens to them. Therefore, they are referred to in literature as dynamic characters. A dynamic character progresses to a higher level of understanding in the course of the story. Like real people, they have particular fears, aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, secrets, and sensitivities. They are not all good or all bad. The two major characters in fiction are the protagonist and the antagonist.

The protagonist (hero) is the character who dominates the story. He is a complex character who usually has three attributes: (1) A need or a want (prevent the murder, solve the crime, win the heart a loved one, escape from prison, get revenge for his wife’s murder), (2) a strong point (courage, wisdom, persistence, kindness) that confers on him the potential for triumph, and (3) a flaw (alcoholism, prejudice, greed, fear of heights or crowds) that, unless overcome, may lead to his downfall.

The main character is the person the audience views the story through. Most of the time the main character is the protagonist; at other times the main character is a narrator, and at other times a secondary character. Each gives valuable insights into the protagonist from an outside prospective.

The antagonist (villain) is any character who opposes the efforts of the protagonist. He’s the bad guy. There wouldn't be much conflict for your protagonist to overcome without the antagonist to throw up roadblocks. Many stories have only a single antagonist, or one main one, while longer works, especially novels, may have more than one.

Like the protagonist, the antagonist is a three-dimensional character, and he must be a worthy opponent. He should be an intelligent, logical character who does what he does because his reasons make sense to him. No one sees himself as mean, evil, or insane; the antagonist doesn’t either. To him, his actions and his logic are perfectly sound.^1,13,23-27

MINOR CHARACTERS

Also known as flat characters, minor characters are almost always one or two-dimensional characters; that is, they only have one or two striking qualities. Unlike major characters, they usually are all good or all bad and intentionally lack depth. Minor characters are sometimes referred to as static characters because they don’t change in the course of the story. They can be bit players, stock characters, or sacrificial characters.

Bit players can be passing suspects in mysteries, incidental friends, coworkers, neighbors, waitresses, clerks, maintenance people, doormen, and so forth. The more important ones can be given some quirk or bit of color that lifts them somewhat above the masses (a maintenance man who spits snuff into a paper cup, a secretary who always wears black lipstick, a doorman who is always intoxicated).

A stock character is a stereotyped character, such as a mad scientist, an absent-minded professor, a spiteful mother-in-law, or a dumb blonde. In general, these characters should be avoided, unless you have a really good reason for using them.

Sacrificial characters (chauffeurs, double agents, crooked policemen, mistresses, and so forth) are killed in the course of the story for various reasons, including to keep them from revealing critical information to the protagonist. Also, the protagonist may kill one or more skilled opponents simply to demonstrate his prowess to the reader.^1,13,23-27

Some characters can be either major or minor depending on their roles in the story. These include foil characters, eccentrics, psychos, memorable characters, and phobics.

A foil is a piece of shiny metal put under gemstones to increase their brightness. Foil characters are closely associated with the character for whom they serve as a foil, usually a friend or lover whom he can confide in and thus disclose his innermost thoughts. They serve to bring out the brilliance of the character to whom they serve as a foil. Note that the foil can be a supporter of any of the characters, not just the protagonist. Some foil characters are included for comedy relief; others are included to reinforce the goal or the beliefs of the character they support. Still others are introduced to provide contrast. Foil characters also are known as confidants, sidekicks, or faithful followers.

Eccentrics follow their own rules of behavior. They know their code is right and everyone else’s is wrong. An eccentric might be miserly despite being a multimillionaire, arrange bills by serial number in his wallet, avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, believe the world is flat, or wear earmuffs in August.

The psycho character, on the surface, often appears normal, but the reader knows that he is not. In fact, the psycho may be normal in all aspects of his life but one, and that one is strange and bizarre, often hidden from the public. For instance, the psycho might appear to be a mild mannered accountant during the day, but wander through neighborhoods at night killing cats. Or worse, he brutally murders women who look like the old girlfriend who rejected him.

The memorable character may wear wildly colored clothes, have an extraordinary height or weight, be a priest who grows pot in the church’s rectory, or be an idiot savant. To create a memorable character, writers select some unique aspect of body, mind, or personality. They exaggerate it and make it striking and colorful.

A phobic character is one with a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels him to avoid the object of his phobia despite knowing that it is not dangerous. A character may be afraid of cats, bats, microbes, heights, closed spaces, or almost anything.^1,13,23-27

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POINT OF VIEW

The point of view of a novel is the perspective from which the reader is allowed to view the action and the characters. As a writer, there are a number of points of view to choose from, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Various authors have categorized them in different ways, but the system used in this book is the most common one. The points of view most often used in genre fiction are first person and third person.

With FIRST-PERSON POINT OF VIEW, a single character narrates the story from his point of view (I pulled the trigger). This point of view is used most often by writers of mystery novels and short stories.^2,28-31

THIRD-PERSON POINT OF VIEW is the one most commonly used by writers of genre fiction (He pulled the trigger). One problem with this point of view is that the character cannot describe himself physically, unless he describes his image in a mirror, but this has been used so much that it’s become a cliché and should be avoided.

A variant of third-person point of view used by most modern-day writers of genre fiction is to use the point of view of a single character, but let that character be different from scene to scene or chapter to chapter. For instance, in one scene the point of view might be that of the protagonist; in the next scene the point of view might be that of the antagonist; in a third scene it might be that of a foil character. A change in point of view in a published novel is usually indicated by skipped lines between scenes or by chapter breaks. In this way confusion is minimized.^2,28-31

SECOND-PERSON POINT OF VIEW is rarely used because it is extremely difficult to pull off (You pulled the trigger). The reader may feel that he is the one spoken to and will find it difficult to accept that he is doing the things the narrator tells him he is doing. If used, second-person point of view must be done very carefully.^2,28-31

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PROSE

Prose is ordinary written language—the language of fiction. It comes in several forms, among them (1) narrative, (2) description, and (3) dialogue. Each of these types of prose has a different function in fiction, and it is necessary to understand how each one works.^23,32

NARRATIVE, in contrast to action and dialogue, is essentially stagnant blocks of information. The character is telling what is happening—giving a summary of dialogue and action. Regardless of how engaging and well written narrative is it won't hold a reader's attention for long because nothing is actively going on in the story. There’s no action.

Narrative is useful when acting out the story with dialogue and action would do little to further the reader’s understanding of the characters or plot. It is information the reader needs to understand what is happening in the present, but not deemed by the writer to warrant the amount of space that action and dialogue would require. Narrative also can be used to foreshadow a coming major event.

Because narrative is summarizing, it lacks the excitement of dramatization. Therefore writers try to be certain that narrative doesn't drag down their novel's pacing. How do they accomplish this? By breaking it up with dialogue and action.

Narrative of dramatic situations, such as a car chase or a fight scene, is known a dramatic summary. With dramatic summary, material that might take several pages of action and dialogue may take only a few paragraphs.^2,18,23,32

Writing DESCRIPTION is painting a vivid picture with words. It can be used to set the scene, move the plot, set the mood, foreshadow events, give a sense of character, or whatever it has to do to keep the story moving. Without description, characters move about in vague buildings or fuzzy landscapes. However, some writers err in the other direction by including too much description; by doing so they run the risk of boring the reader.

By using description in combination with action and dialogue, writers break the description down into palatable pieces. For instance, instead of stopping a story to describe trees, flowers, and a waterfall in a plush lobby of an upscale office building, writers come up with a reason for this description to be in the story; that is, a reason for the characters to be interacting with that setting through action and dialogue.^33-35

Verbal communication, known as DIALOGUE, generally refers to anything spoken by a character, even if the character is not actually speaking to anyone.

• “What do you mean Vito’s disappeared with the money?” Angelo asked.

Sometimes the term is broadened to include the thoughts of a character.

• “If I tell him the truth he’ll kill me,” Pasquale thought.

Conversation, the way we speak to one another in daily living, isn’t dialogue. In real life, whether conversation is dull or interesting has little bearing. The opposite is true of dialogue; it has to be interesting. Dialogue is said to be a special kind of conversation; that is, conversation with drama.^1,2,36,37

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THEME AND SUBJECT

A THEME is the understanding that the author seeks to communicate through his work. It is the central and unifying idea about which the story is structured. It is the meaning or concept we are left with after reading a piece of fiction.

Examples of themes are “oppression leads to oppression,” “managed care is bad for patients,” “global warming is over-hyped,” and “love is difficult.” The theme for L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) might be stated “If you believe that you have the strength and ability to accomplish a goal, then you do have that strength and ability.” The theme of my novel Caduceus Awry (2000) is “Man can overcome personal demons to achieve a desired end.”

Theme directs a writer’s decisions about which path to take, which choice is right for the story, and which choice is wrong for it. With theme, the writer actually structures his writing on a concept that guides him from start to finish. A theme that best suits the story the writer wants to tell helps him express his central idea more clearly.

In some works the theme is a prominent element and unmistakable; in other works the theme is more elusive. A major theme is an idea the author returns to time and again. It becomes one of the most important ideas in the story. Minor themes are ideas that may appear from time to time, but are less important. All that said, because the major aim of genre novels is to entertain, not to express a point of view, not every genre novel has a theme.^{10,11,23,29,38,39}

The SUBJECT of a literary work is the topic on which an author has chosen to write, as opposed to the theme which expresses some opinion on that topic. For example, the subject of a story might be “war” while the theme might be the idea that “war is unnecessary” or “war is bad.²³

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References

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