1. Roller Coasting Through a Good Book
The Elements of a Fiction Plot

2. Millennium Force at Cedar Point
in Ohio

3. The Plot of a Great Fiction Book Can Be Like Riding a Rollercoaster

4. Plot
Plot is the action of a story. It is the series of related events from the beginning of the story to the end. Most plots follow a chronological order. In other words, they proceed in the order in which the events happened.

5. The Elements of a Plot Climax Falling Action Rising Action (Conflict)
Resolution
Exposition

6. A Plot Curve of a Fiction Book Looks Like a Rollercoaster

7. Exposition The first part of the plot.
Here the author describes the setting, introduces the characters, and gives the situation.

8. Exposition Setting Situation The time and place of the story.
The circumstances the character is experiencing.

9. Exposition Characters
A character is a person, an animal, or an imaginary creature that takes part in the action of the story.

10. Exposition: Character Strength
Major
Minor
Characters that are critical to the main story line
Characters that add to the story, but do not play a major role in the story.

11. Exposition: Characterization
Characterization is how an author shows what a character is like, for instance the way they act, look, talk, or think.
There are two kinds of characterization.
Direct: writer tells directly what the character is, usually through descriptions.
Indirect: writer gives actual words of characters, tells character’s thoughts or feelings, tells about the character’s actions, or tells how others respond to the character.

12. Exposition: Character Types
Protagonist
Antagonist
The main character or the most important character.
The person or thing that is working against the protagonist. This is also another major or main character in the plot.

13. Exposition: Character Development
Flat/Round
Dynamic/Static
Flat characters are characters that are not fully developed, described, or revealed. Their thoughts remain hidden.
Round characters are characters that are fully described or revealed.
Static characters are characters that remain the same. Things happen to static characters, but they do not change.
Dynamic characters change or grow.

14. Characters: Dialogue and Motive
Dialogue: When characters speak to each other. Quotation marks are used around the words that characters speak.
Motive: The reason behind an individual’s actions.

15. Exposition: Point of View
Narrator
First-Person
A narrator is the person who is telling the story.
The story is told by one of the characters. The character uses pronouns such as “I” or “we” and usually participates in much of the action.

16. Exposition: Point of View
Third-Person
Third-Person Omniscient
The story is told by a narrator who is not a character in the story. Pronouns such as “he”, “she”, and “they” are used.
There are two kinds of third-person.
The narrator will relate the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.
Third-Person Limited
The narrator will relate the thoughts and feelings of just one character, usually the protagonist.

17. Rising Action
Events that show the conflict (problem) that the characters must face.
In most stories, the characters don’t solve the problem on their first try.
As they struggle, the tensions rise.
conflict – problems in the story

18. Rising Action: Types of Conflict
Character vs. Character Character vs. Self Character vs. Society Character vs. Nature

19. Conflict: External/Internal
Character vs. Character
Character vs. Nature
Character vs. Society
Character vs. Self

20. Climax
*turning point in the story *point of highest tension when the conflict is at its worst point *characters may have begun to think of a way to solve the conflict *occurs close to the end of the book.

21. Falling Action
*events that occur after the climax *author describes how the conflict is solved

22. Resolution
The resolution tells what the main characters feel or do now that the conflict is over and brings the story to a satisfactory end.

23. Theme
The theme is the writer’s message or central idea throughout the story. It is what the author is trying to teach you. It is woven throughout the story.