Short Story Techniques Flashcards
What is a Short Story?
A short story is a work of short, narrative prose that is usually centered around one single event. It is limited in scope and has an introduction, body and conclusion.
When thinking of Setting, what should one look for?
One should look for how the setting is created e.g. Geography, weather, time of day etc. and look at the role that the setting takes in the story. One should also look at the time it is set in.
When thinking of Characterisation, what should one look for?
One should investigate the way they speak, the physical appearances, the stereotypes and the way they change.
Characterization
The methods a writer uses to communicate information about characters to readers.
Direct Characterization
When an author tells the reader directly about a character.
Indirect Characterization
When the author shows the character in action and lets the reader draw their own conclusions.
Climax
The moment when the action comes to its highest point of dramatic conflict, Most often, the climax occurs before the actual ending of the story.
Complication
Any obstacle that increases tension of the story conflict.
Conflict
The central source of tension and drama in the story. Conflict is sometimes referred to as the story problem.
Description
Verbal representation of characters, scene, or action, used to make the story more vivid for the reader.
Dialogue
The actual words that characters speak. Authors use dialogue skillfully in the short story to portray character to dramatize conflict.
Diction
The author’s choice of word’s, the vocabulary level of the story.
Dramatic Irony
A technique that increases suspense by letting readers know more about the dramatic situation than the characters know,
Exposition
Background material about the characters, setting and dramatic situation which the author introduces the essentials of the story to the reader.
Falling Action
the part of the story, following the climax and leading to the resolution, in which there is a sharp decline in dramatic tension.
Foreshadowing
A writing technique that gives clues about events that will happen later in the story.
Hyperbole
An exaggerated statement used to make a strong effect.
Imagery
The use of selected details to describe one thing in terms of another. This helps suggest additional meaning and feelings.
Verbal Irony
A particular tone created when the speaker intends a meaning that is opposite to the words he or she says. Hyperbole and understatements are figures of speech used to create an ironic effect.
Mood
The overall feeling - light and happy or dark and brooding, for example - created by an author’s choice of words.
Narrator
The speaker who tells the story. If the narrator is also a character who participates in the story, it is important not to confuse the narrator with the author - who may, in fact, hold a different attitude toward the story.
Point of View
The perspective from which the story is told, Point of view is said to be omniscient if the author is outside the story and presents the thought of all the characters. Point of view is called limited when the story is told from the viewpoint of one character who can see only a part of the whole story.
Protagonist
The central character of the story.
Resolution
The conclusion of the story. The resolution includes the story’s action after the climax until the end of the story.
Rising Action
The part of the story, including exposition, in which the tension rises. Rising action builds to its highest point of tension at the story’s climax.
Setting
The environment in which the story takes place.
Structure
The framework that determines how a story is put together - its ‘skeleton’ The structure of many stories includes four basic parts: exposition, complication, climax and resolution.
Style
The characteristic ways that an individual author uses language - including word choice, length and complexity of sentences, patterns of sound and use of imagery and symbols.
Suspense
Techniques used by the author to keep readers interested in the story and wondering what will happen next.
Symbol
An image, object, character or action that stands for an idea (or ideas) beyond its literal meaning.
Theme
The story’s main ideas - the ‘message’ that the author intends to communicate by telling the story. Themes are often universal truths that are suggested by the specifics in the story.
Tone
The clues in a story that suggest the writer’s (or narrator’s) own attitude toward elements of his or her story.
Understatement
A figure of speech in which the speaker says less than what he or she actually feels.
What to think of when analyzing Imagery
What is the literary device and how does it affect the reader? Does it build?
Narrator
The speaker who tells the story. If the narrator is also a character who participates in the story, it is important not to confuse the narrator with the author, who may in fact hold a different attitude towards the story.
Point of View
The perspective from which the story is told.
Omniscient narration
Also known as ‘eye-of-God’ narration, this happens when the story is told from a perspective that is outside of the story by a speaker who knows everything about what is to happen and the characters.
Third person limited narration
This may be a character in the story or not, but is clear from the story that the speaker does not have all of the information about the story being told.
First person narration
When somebody within the story is telling the story from their perspective.
Direct Discourse
Dialogue that is reported exactly as it appears in the conversation.
Indirect Discourse
Dialogue that is reported, but sounds more like a description of what is said than a reporting of it.
Free Indirect Discourse
When information is shared in a story that is clearly coming from the character’s perspective because it uses the language of the character.
Stream of Conciousness
When the language of the character is used and moves according to their thoughts.
