Academic Vocabulary: Fiction

a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

additional meaning associated with the word (emotions, ideas, and other words)

a character that changes throughout the course of the narrative

a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

direct and specific meaning

the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved

a realistic character that displays multiple traits

literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people.

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary

introduces background information about events, settings, characters etc. to the audience or readers

a character that does not change throughout the narrative

the point in a narrative at which the conflict or tension hits the highest point.

an author’s purposeful reference to something else in a literary work

the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text

feeling(s) evoked in the reader as a reaction to the narrative

clues by the author that allude to later events

the events that make up a storyline

moments identified by the author that relate to previous events

author’s attitude toward the subject/topic

the narrator's position in relation to the story being told

the event that sets the central conflict in motion

a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly

the point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out

a struggle between two opposing forces

characters that are two-dimensional and are relatively uncomplicated