Senior High School Department

KING THOMAS LEARNING ACADEMY, INC. Creative Nonfiction

A decade of uplifting lives and build futures Week 1

UNIT TITLE: GETTING STARTED WITH CREATIVE NONFICTION

LESSON TITLE: Understanding Conventions of Traditional Genre in Fiction and Drama

Learning Competency:

✓ Analyze factual/non-fictional elements (Plot, Characters, Characterization, Point of View, Angle, Setting and
Atmosphere, Symbols and Symbolisms, Irony, Figures of speech, Dialogue, Scene, Other elements, and Devices) in
the texts

Learning Objectives:

✓ Identify dominant literary conventions of fiction and drama, namely, character, plot, setting, and theme;
✓ Compare and contrast how the conventions of fiction and drama are used and utilized;
✓ Analyze and interpret the themes and techniques used in particular texts; and
✓ Revise the written piece using the literary conventions of fiction and drama
✓
✓ ✓ Gaining Attention:

A Movie or Story in My Mind

Have you tried to remember a book, a story, a play, or a film that you have read or seen that has had the most impact
on you? It may be something that you have recently read or seen, or something that you read or seen in a long time but
you simply could not forget. Try to look on the following pictures. Can you identify what title of movies are presented?
And what do you think are the genres?

Photo Reference:
Electronicarts.com (2022) Photo retrieve from: https://www.ea.com/games/harry-potter
Disney.com No Photo date. Photo retrieve from: https://princess.disney.com/cinderella
Hubpages.com (2019). Shey Pornan [Photo]. Photo retrieve from: https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/Heneral-Luna-2015-A-Look-at-a-Life-of-a-Flawed-Hero-and-More

Presentation / Content: Remember!

You already have learned about fiction and drama in your
creative writing class last term. As a form of review, let’s refresh our
memory with some of the terms. Fiction is defined as “a series of imagined
facts which illustrates truths about human life.”

It is commonly called “stories,” and can either be short (short

story) or rather long (novella or novel). Drama also uses the traditional
Photo Reference:
conventions of fiction but has an additional distinctive characteristic of
Dreamstime.com [N.d] Jroblesart. Photo retrieve from:
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-drama-masks-image38191460
being performed and mounted on stage.

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 While Nonfiction is grounded on the truth, oftentimes using
literary language such as the kind used fiction to achieve a symbolic and
artistic effect.
Photo Reference:
Literary hub.com (2019) Emily Temple. Photo retrieve from:
https://lithub.com/the-20-best-works-of-nonfiction-of-the-decade/

➢ Genre originates from the French word meaning kind or type. As

a literary device, genre refers to a form, class, or type of literary
work.

➢ The Latin word fictus means “to form,” which seems like a good
source for the English word fiction, since fiction is formed in the
imagination.

➢ The world's first novel is thought to be The Tale of Genji, written

in 11th Century Japan by a woman known to us only as Murasaki
Shikibu.
➢ The term "drama" comes from a Greek word meaning "action". The two masks associated with drama represent
the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy.

➢ Henrik Ibsen is famously known as the Father of Modern Drama, and it is worth recognizing how literal an
assessment that is.
➢ Thespis, (flourished 6th century BC, Athens), Greek poet, said to have been born in the deme (district) of
Icaria. According to ancient tradition, Thespis was the first actor in Greek drama.

ELEMENTS OF FICTION AND DRAMA

Different works of fiction and drama may employ a number of elements, but generally, there are four
major elements that comprise a short story, a novel, or a play.

MATCH THEM!
A B
• the central idea, or thesis, or overall message that the story
• PLOT
conveys
• SETTING
• the sequence of events happening in a story.
• CHARACTERS
• the persons who inhabit a story
• THEME
• the place and time where and when an event happen
Why do we need to study them?

As you read different forms of literature you will need to know specialized vocabulary to be able to best
understand, interpret, and write about what you are reading.
Also, how you approach a literary text and what you focus on will depend on its literary form. For instance,
fiction and drama are typically anchored by a reader’s engagement with characters.

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 Simply put, in all stories great and small, there are people (characters) in a place (setting) dealing with a
problem or conflict (plot) that leads to a new understanding about life (theme).
These elements are utilized both in fiction and drama.

Thus, by analyzing a short story or novel, you gain a better understanding of the story. You also acquire a better
appreciation of fiction and literature. And, you can learn how the writer used the elements of fiction and various literary
techniques, such as simile, metaphor, and imagery to create a memorable story. Analyzing fiction will also help you learn
how to write your own stories.

On the other hand, by knowing and using the elements of drama, the skills needed in creating a successful
performance, as well as the skills required to analyze a drama, could be developed.

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF THE CONVENTIONS AND DEVICES BETWEEN

FICTION AND DRAMA

Fiction Nonfiction

1. Fiction is generally classified as short story or novel.
A short story is a brief artistic prose form that
centers on a single main incident and intends to
produce a single dominant impression. A novel is
an extensive prose narrative that contains chapters
and interludes.
Plays (drama), however, are generally classified into acts
or major divisions. The most common are one-act play,
which has one unit of time, one unit of place, and one
unit of action play; and three-act play, which showcases a
longer exposition of the theme and conflict.

2. All stories must have a point of view. The point of
view is the vantage point or the angle from which
the readers can see how the story unfolds. It can be
told from the perspective of a narrator, a main
supporting character, or an observer. It can also
from an omniscient (all-knowing) being.
Drama also employs point of view but this is not
apparent and evident in a play. What is visible is the
interplay of dialogue between and among the
characters. This is the component that moves the action
of the play. A dialogue is what the viewers see and hear
in a performance and these are the words uttered by the
characters in a dramatic play.

3. The development of plot in both fiction and drama has pattern. Generally, it contains the following:
✓ EXPOSITION introduces the characters and dramatic situation of the story or play
✓ RISING ACTION introduces the conflict of the story or play
✓ CLIMAX introduces the central moment of crisis that defines the conflict
✓ FALLING ACTION introduces the aftermath of conflict (whether it is resolved or not)
✓ RESOLUTION / DENOUEMENT introduces the moment of insight, discovery, or revelation of the
character after the falling action

In other more popular and modern types of fiction and drama, the development of plot is simply divided into
three general parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end.

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 NARRATIVE DEVICES

Refer to the strategies and techniques that writers use to relay their message.

Foreshadowing

It is used in fiction and drama as a guide or hint at what is to happen

next in the story.

Irony
It is also used both in fiction and drama when words that are uttered,
either by the author or the characters in the story, are the opposites of what they
actually mean. The intention here is to present a difference between what is
imagined will happen and what actually happens.

Flashback
It is employed by an author or a playwright through the use of a past
event that will help the readers understand the present. This is generally utilized
to achieve a dramatic effect or impact on the readers and audiences.

Conflict

It is both present in fiction and drama. It provides and showcases the

opposing objectives of the protagonist and the antagonist, or inside the
protagonist.

The use of DEUS EX MACHINA

Use of deus ex machina in both fiction and drama was once a noble
strategy. Today, it is a sign of weakness in the written work. Once referring to the
Greek practice of physically lowering a “god” to the stage at the end of the play to
https://www.google.com/search?q=symbolism+icon&tbm=isch&ved=2ah
UKEwju-6aWx5r5AhXozIsBHQPADFAQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=
solve all the problems, today it refers to a contrived element in the plot used to
solve a problem.

Tone
The tone may be humorous or serious, gentle or sarcastic, apologetic or
arrogant, casual or formal. Tone may be carried out through the narrator’s voice
or through dialogue.

Symbolism

Images, ideas, themes or character types that are

universally r recognized across cultures.

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 Story writing often begins with a question: What can I create out of this image, this memory, or this feeling?
▪ The image of a river littered with plastic and empty tin cans can grow into a story about protecting the
environment.
▪ The memory of a former schoolmate can evolve into a story about losing a friend.
▪ The feeling of gratitude can result in a story about parents.

These images, memories, and feelings could be good starting points for telling the stories you will write about,
and they could spark ideas for your story line or plot.

Everyone can agree that reading is an important component in developing a successful life. Consuming content sharpens your intellect and builds
your knowledge set. It seems almost universal that the more successful you are, the more you read.

But this focus on reading is one-dimensional. People get caught up in nonfiction — self-help books, business books, books on sales and health, and
psychology and relationships. These are all valid books to spend your time reading — they’re filled with information
that can help better you in your career and your life — but it’s a mistake to leave fiction in the dust.

Fiction is a forgotten gem, an untapped well of knowledge and information. A person developing and aiming
for success should steep themselves in fiction, and read it copiously.

Fiction has a power that no other form of communication does: the power to insert you fully and completely
in someone else’s mind. It is a meld between the mind of the reader and the writer, and the minds of the reader and
character.

When you read fiction, you’re seeing the world through a character’s eyes.

Watching a character interact with the world around them is powerful. When studying history, a history book gives you a series of dry facts and
anecdotes, but historical fiction sets you down in the middle of the period, allows you to touch and taste the world around you, interact with contemporaries,
solve problems. You understand the period contextually as you never could from the removed perspective of a history book.

Book Reference:

• Telling the Truth: The Art of Creative Nonfiction for Senior High School
• Authors: Jessie Saraza Barrot, Ph.D. and Philippe John Fresnillo Sipacio

Photo Reference:
• iStock.com (2022). KaJani. Photo retrieve from: https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/foot-in-shoe-step-on-banana-peel-leg-stepping-on-dangerous-slippery-yellow-
fruit-gm1370854204-440314184
• Standoutbooks.com (2019. Robert Wood. Photo retrieve from: https://www.standoutbooks.com/irony-and-sarcasm/Hubpages.com (2019). Shey Pornan
[Photo]. Photo retrieve from: https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/Heneral-Luna-2015-A-Look-at-a-Life-of-a-Flawed-Hero-and-More
• Eng.literature.com (2020). Somnath Sarkar. Photo retrieve from: https://www.eng-literature.com/2020/12/flashback-literature-definition-examples.html
• ResourceCenterPaperTrue.com (2022) Photo retrieve from: https://blog.papertrue.com/how-to-create-conflict-in-stories/
• Standoutbooks.com (2019. Robert Wood. Photo retrieve from: https://www.standoutbooks.com/deus-ex-machina/
• Pressbooks.com (n.d) Photo retrieve from: https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/scholarlywriting/chapter/tone-of-writing/

Prepared by:

MARY JOYCE N. RAMOS

Gmail account: mjramos229628@gmail.com

Revised by:
FLORIAN M. ECALNER
Gmail Account: florian@ktla.online