 | Term | Definition |
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Action |
At the simplest, the thing or things that happen in a story’s plot – what the characters do and what is done to them. A story may have more than one action, but a successful short story usually has one identifiable central actions. |
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Allegory |
A narrative in which characters, places, things and events represent general qualities and their interactions are meant to reveal a general or abstract truth. Such characters, places, things, and events thus often function as symbols of the concepts or ideas referred to. |
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Allusion |
an implied or indirect reference to something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar. |
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Ambiguity |
a situation expressed in such a way as to admit more than one possible interpretation; also, the way of expressing such a situation Many short story writers intend some element of their work to be ambiguous, but careless or sloppy writing often creates unintentional ambiguity, or vagueness. |
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Character |
any person who plays a part in a narrative. |
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Climax |
The turning point in the action when the final outcome or resolution becomes inevitable. |
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Conflict |
The opposition presented to the main character of a narrative by another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some aspect of the protagonist’s own personality. |
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Description |
the use of language to present the features of a person, place, or thing. |
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Dialogue: |
The written presentation of words spoken by characters in a narrative; used to introduce the conflict, give some impressions of their lives an personalities of the characters who are speaking , and advance the action to its climax and resolution |
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Didactic: |
a term used to describe a narrative or other work of art that is presented in order to teach a specific lesson, convey a moral, or inspire and provide a model for proper behavior. |
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Epiphany: |
A sudden spiritual revelation or transcendent manifestation of the true nature of a character or situation |
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Fiction: |
A narrative drawn from an author’s imagination, made up of a plot of imagined events involving imagined characters in imagined or imaginatively reconstructed setting. |
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Figurative language: |
the use of a word or group of words that is literally inaccurate to describe or define a person, event or thing vividly by calling forth the sensation or response that person, event or thing evokes. |
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First-Person narration |
the telling of a story by a person who was involved in or directly observed the action narrated. |
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Focal Image: |
A scene or object described in a story that pulls together a number of thematic ideas of the story. |
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Genre: |
A type of literary work, such as short story, novel, essay, play or poem. The term may also be sued to classify literature within a type, such as science fiction |
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Imagery: |
: the use of images, especially of consistent pattern of related images – often figurative ones – to convey an overall sensory impression. |
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Leitmotif: |
recurring textual elements that carry thematically. |
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Mood: |
We as readers understand a situation in the story to be different, even opposite from, the way others characters n the story understand it. |
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Moral: |
The lesson to be drawn from a story, especially from a fable or fro ma heavily didactic story. |
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Motivation: |
The external forces and internal forces that compel a character to act as he or she does in a narrative. |
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Myth: |
a symbolic narrative, often a folktale arising out of a culture’s oral tradition and involving gods or superhumanly heroic figures, that is used to explain the way things are and the way things happen and to transmit the culture’s values and beliefs from generation to generation. |
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Narrative point of view: |
The perspective from which an author lets the reader view the action of a narrative. |
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Narrator: |
the teller of a story; usually either a character who participates in the sotry’s action or detached, anonymous observes who may or may not present himself or herself as omniscient of the story’s action from the beginning. |
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Plot: |
The sequence of events in a story related in terms of a conflict that is developed and the resolved. |
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Protagonist: |
The central character in a story who encounters some kind of conflict in his or her life. |
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Simile: |
a figurative comparison of one thing to another, especially to one that is not usually thought of as similar. The comparison is achieved by using connecting words such as like or as. |
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Symbol: |
A person, event, or thing that stands for or represents by association some other, usually broader, idea or range of ideas, in addition to maintaining its own literal meaning. |
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Theme |
A statement of the central meaning or idea that the author conveys through the story. |
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Third Person Narration: |
The telling of a story by a person who was not involved in the action narrated. There person knows the thoughts and emotion of only the protagonists. |
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Tone |
The expression of the author’s attitude toward his or her subject matter – the character, their setting, and the action they undertake or undergo. |
