Glossary Creative Writing:

Action thriller :Where the dramatic mood and pace is punctuated by a rapid series of high-tension
events and actions.

Back story : The wider context or background, which sheds light on the current story.

Causality : Causality the relationship between one event (called cause) and another event (called
effect).

Character : A fictional person, with a specific identity and recognizable traits, depicted in a novel
or drama.

Crime : An action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law.

Dialogue : The lines spoken by characters in novels, plays and films.

Dirty realism :Originally applied to a particular kind of writing emerging from America in the early
1980s, though it was much in evidence before the term was coined, this is fiction that
engages particularly with subjects considered marginal to ‘traditional’ literary
material. (Including ‘everyday’ subjects, for example, a scene at a Laundromat; or
‘dirty realities’, such as the life of a vagrant or prisoner.)

Enigma : A person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand.

Fairy tale : Often drawing on myths handed down orally through the world’s various different
cultures, fairy tales feature a number of recognizable formula and character ‘types’. A
‘fairy-tale’ ending is meant to imply a happy ending to a story, however this isn’t
always the case, and often a fairy tale evokes a complex moral lesson.

Family saga :Where the story focuses on the activities and histories of one or more families, shown
over time, often related in a series of lined novels, dealing with different periods in the
family’s history.

Genre : A literary or artistic type or style, e.g. thriller or romance.

Gothic : Style popular in 18th and 19th century novels, involving supernatural or horrifying
events.

Grammar : Established rules and conventions for using language.

Historical : Where the action takes place usually at least an entire lifetime ago, often but not
always related in the vernacular of the particular period being evoked.

Humour : Fiction of any kind where the mood is, before everything, intended to be humorous,
although it might also be said to be ‘dark’ or ‘black’ or ‘biting’, where the ‘joke’ of the
fiction is something more than merely funny.

In medias res :Literally, ‘in the middle of things’. A story that begins ‘in the middle of the action’,
without any form of introductory passage.

Interior monologue :The direct, unmediated thought processes of a particular character. A piece of
writing expressing a character's inner thoughts.
Legal thriller :Where the drama involves action perceived in relation to the law, usually involving
specific legal details, and closely allied to the ‘courtroom drama’ genre, where most
of the action revolves around scenes unfolding in a courtroom.

Magic realism :Aims to convey events in a realistic manner, yet also involving a degree of ‘surreal’
occurrences, or scenes where the laws of ‘everyday reality’ do not apply.

Maximalist : A person who holds extreme views and is not prepared to compromise.

Narrative : A written or spoken account of a series of events. The part of a literary work that deals
with events and action, rather than dialogue.

Novel : A long printed story about imaginary characters and events.

Novella : A short novel of between approximately 20,000 and 45,000 words.

Omniscience :The state of knowing everything.

Place : A particular part of space, described and identified with certain characteristics and
qualities, possibly named, though by no means necessarily real.

Plot : The main events of a play, novel, film, or similar work, devised and presented by the
writer as an interrelated sequence.
Plot line : The mental map of a plot’s progression.

Point of view :The position from which one character views events.

Political fashion :Where the action centres around a real or invented political scenario, usually
nationally or internationally, perhaps taking place in a parliament, or during a
political campaign.

Psychological thriller :Where a mood of high tension and excitement is created mainly as the result
of psychological drama and dilemma.

Realism Fiction :Writing that aims to represent ‘everyday’ scenes, speech and behaviour through
faithful depiction of ‘real life’ details, without recourse to obvious literary devices
or conceits. Also known as ‘truth to nature’.

Romance : In its broader, historical sense, ‘romance’ refers to novels where the stories are
exaggerated or remote from everyday life. Now it is often more taken to refer to a
novel where the fiction centres on one or more love stories.

Science fiction :Where an alternative reality is created, usually in outer space, or on another planet,
often involving a high degree of scientific or technical data about that ‘other world’.

Setting : The environment and atmosphere in which characters operate.

Short story : A length of prose up to approximately 20,000 words in length, most usually of
 between 1,000 and 5,000 words.

Simile : A comparison usually using ‘like’ or ‘as’, e.g. ‘The clouds were like cotton wool’.

Story : A narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence.

Syntax : The grammatical structure in sentences.