Fiction Terms

The time and place of a literary work that establish its context

The conclusion of the story, the emotional release of a story's ending.

The first stage of a fictional plot, in which necessary background information is provided

Some circumstance that shakes up the stable situation and begins the rising action of the story

A brief story with an explicit moral provided by the author

The action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement

The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details in the form of a generalization

The angle of vision from which a story is narrated

A character or force against which the main character struggles.

Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story.

The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual author

Interruption of chronology to present an incident that occurred prior to the story's timeframe

A set of conflicts/crises that constitute the part of astory's plot leading up to the climax

The unified structure of incidents in a literary work

The conversation of characters in a literary work.

"into the middle of things"--describes a story that begins somewhere in the middle

when the reader becomes aware of something important of which the characters are not aware

A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story

The main character of a literary work

The turning point of the action in the plot of a story, the point of greatest tension