Character and Plot
Commercial vs. Literary Fiction
Commercial fiction is solely used to entertain or make money
Literary Fiction has artistic intentions looking to yield and entertain but also understanding - broaden, deepen, and sharpen the reader’s awareness of life
Characters
Protagonist, Antagonist
Revealing Characters
Physical, emotional psychological, dialogue, behavior will all contribute to how a character is portrayed
Direct Characterization
When a narrator explicitly describes the background, motivation, temperament
Indirect Characterization
Author requires the audience to infer what a character is like through what the character says, thinks, or others say
Narrative Structure
Coming of age story (bildungsroman) - shows how the young character grows from innocence to experience
Epiphany
A pivotal realization about life
Commercial Fiction Characters
Main Character
- Less easily labeled and pigeonholed
- Could be wholly unsympathetic or even despicable
- Deals with characters who have both “good” and “evil” impulses; three -dimensional
- Allow the reader to observe human nature in complexity & multiplicity
- Good writers “show, not tell,” which allow the characters to be dramatized
Consistent with Behavior
- Attractive and sympathetic
- Not perfect, but fundamentally decent, honest good-hearted, and preferable good-looking
- May have larger-than-life qualities or defy laws of “ordinary “ people
- Vices must be willing to be accepted by the reader (e.g. James Bond)
Character Categories
Flat Characters
Only have one or two predominant traits; summed up in a sentence or two
Round Characters
Complex & many-sided
Tip
Most short stories will only have one or two round characters; minor characters must primarily remain flat
Stock Characters
- Stereotyped figures that appear in fiction, so we recognize them immediately
- The strong, silent sheriff, glamorous international spy, the cruel stepmother, mad scientist, brilliant, eccentric detective
Static Character
Remains the same person from beginning to end
Developing & Dynamic Character
Undergoes some distinct change of character, personality, or outlook
Setting
- Time and place, the when and where of a literary text
- “Bedrock” or “harmony” of a narrative on which the characters or soloists of the story are maneuvered
- Includes objective facts - community or nation, date and time, weather, and season
- Setting should illuminate character, not the other way around
- Author will often contrast character’s emotions with the setting
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Consider how the setting takes place to the story as whole by examining details that might seem physical and objective
Example
Winter transitions into spring - new beginnings
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Highlight the details - the sights and sounds, textures, and tones, colors, and shape - because they often depict more about the setting than a when and where
Plot and Structure
Authors arrange conflicts and resolutions to create logical patterns of cause-and-effect and to develop characters’ relationships with each other. Conflicts are then born from these relationships
Basic Narrative Structure
Exposition
Opening section that provide background information about characters, setting and basic situation
Rising Action
After an inciting incident or even, the conflict and complications the main character experiences begin to build
Climax
The emotional tension or suspense of the plot reaches its peak
Falling Action
Details the result (or fallout) of the climax or turning point
Denouement (Resolution)
“Untying the not” balance is restored to the world after conflict has been resolved - many authors leave this “unfinished” so readers can construct their own meaning at the end of the story
Strategies of Structure
Immediate Introduction
Conflict is introduced immediately, from the start
Flashbacks
Describe events that have already taken place
Foreshadowing
Hinting at events that will happen later in the story