LESSON 2: TYPES AND

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION

• Conflict: a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or will.

 Man vs. Himself

 Man vs. Man

 Man vs. External Force (physical nature, society, or “fate”)

 Man vs. Nature (environment)

 Protagonist: central character in a conflict, sympathetic or unsympathetic

 Antagonist: any force against protagonist

• Suspense
Mystery: an unusual set of circumstances
for which the reader craves an explanation
Dilemma: a position in which he or she
must choose between two courses of
action, both undesirable
• Ending
• Is it logical within the story’s own terms and does it
afford a full, believable revelation?
Surprise Ending
Happy Ending
Unhappy Ending
Indeterminate Ending
• Artistic Unity
There must be nothing in the story that is
irrelevant.
Nothing that does not advance the central
intention of the story.
• Plot Manipulation: unjustified turn in the plot by the
situation or the characters.
• Deus ex machina: Latin for “god from a machine”—the
protagonist is rescued at the last moment from some
impossible situation by a god descending from heaven.
• Chance: the occurrence of an event that has no apparent
cause in previous events or in predisposition of character.
Coincidence: the chance occurrence of two events that may
have a peculiar correspondence. Consider the function of plot
in trying to understand the relationship of each incident to the
larger meaning of the story.
• Characterization
• Direct Presentation: readers are told straight out what
the characters are like, or they have another character in
the story describe them. Little emotional impact
• Indirect Presentation: the author shows us the characters
through their actions; we determine what they are like
by what they say or do. In good fiction, characters are
dramatized.
PRINCIPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION
• Flat Characters
• Round Characters
• Stock Characters
• Static Character
• Dynamic Character
 THEME
 The controlling idea or central insight

 The unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story

 Gives the story its unity

 What view of life does the author want readers to support?

Example:

• Motherhood sometimes has more frustrations than rewards.

• Loyalty to country often inspires heroic self-sacrifice.

 POINT OF VIEW

• Omniscient
• Third Person Limited
• First Person
• Objective Point of View
• Symbol: something that means more than what it suggests on
the surface. It may be an object, person, situation, action or
other elements.
• Name Symbolism: Adam, Phoenix
• Object Symbolism: flag, wedding ring, red, quilts
• Action Symbolism: journey
• Setting Symbolism: landscape, railway station
1. Allegory
2. Fantasy
3. Humor
4. Irony
5. Style
6. Theme(s)
EXPLORING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FICTION

Mystery
Mystery is a popular genre, boasting a huge
established audience. All mysteries focus on a
crime, usually murder. The action tends to center
on the attempts of a wily detective-type to solve
the crime.
 ROMANCE

Romance is a huge category aimed at diverting and

entertaining women. In romance novels, you have
elements of fantasy, love, naïveté, extravagance,
adventure, and always the heroic lover overcoming
impossible odds to be with his true love.
WOMEN’S FICTION

• genre fiction is popular among women

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

• Science fiction/fantasy novels depict

distant worlds and futuristic
technologies that whirl readers far away
from the here and now and yet provoke
contemplation of contemporary issues.
SUSPENSE/THRILLER

• Suspense novels and thrillers are tense,

exciting, often sensational works with
ingenious plotting, swift action, and
continuous suspense.
 WESTERN
• Known simply as westerns, these novels about life
on America’s post-Civil War western frontier usually
involve conflicts between cowboys and outlaws,
cowboys and Native Americans, or Easterners and
Westerners
HORROR

• Filled with gut-wrenching fear, this popular genre keeps readers

turning the blood-filled pages. From a writer’s perspective, the
defining characteristic is the intention to frighten readers by
exploiting their fears, both conscious and subconscious: fears of
supernatural forces, alien visitations, madness, death,
dismemberment, and other terrifying notions.
YOUNG ADULT

•any type of novel with a

protagonist in the 12 to 16 age
range that speaks to the concerns
of teenagers.