Intro to Fiction:

Climax

Dramatic Structure: The Three Act Model

Literal definition: the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex.

The point with the most action. It is a decisive moment or a turning point in a storyline at which the rising action turns around into a falling action.

Exposition

Intro to Fiction:

Short fiction

Resolution

Crisis

Literal definition: a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.

Literal definition:

1. A time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.

2. A time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

Literal definition:

1. The action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.

2. A firm decision to do or not to do something.

The decisive moment for the protagonist and his course of action.

The introduction of the setting, characters, and situation.

Complication

Literal definition: a difficulty.

The point where the conflict is resolved.

Rising Action

The event that introduces the conflict. Also, an intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

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

"Give it Up" Kafka

“Untitled,” Adhiraj Singh

“im sorry, its a girl” said the doctor

to the father.

“no, im sorry, youre a sexist”

said the girl child to the world.

"Chapter V" Hemingway

Length

It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station. As I compared the tower clock with my watch I realized that it was already much later than I had thought, I had to hurry, the shock of this discovery made me unsure of the way, I did not yet know my way very well in this town; luckily, a policeman was nearby, I ran up to him and breathlessly asked him the way. He smiled and said: “From me you want to know the way?” “Yes,” I said, “since I cannot find it myself.” “Give it up! Give it up,” he said, and turned away with a sudden jerk, like people who want to be alone with their laughter.

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood very quietly against the wall. Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first volley he was sitting down in the water with his head on his knees.

Flash:

Written in a single burst of thought. Rarely does this story extend beyond 1000 words.

This complicates the concept of writing a complete story with any point or purpose.

the writer must balance complexity in thought and description with plot.

Easier said than done.

Short fiction has no set length but does follow a few traditions depending on the author, publisher, or critic.

Edgar Allan Poe stated that a short story could be finished in "one sitting" usually between a half an hour to two hours.

Modern estimates place a piece of short fiction between 1,000 and 10,000 words or 5-20 pages.

Time

Characteristics

The action in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours

Place

What is Short Fiction?

In its dramatic structure a short story will have a beginning, middle, and end.

Short stories may use exposition; complication; rising action; crisis; climax; resolution. Flash often do not.

Because of their length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition, more typically beginning in the middle of the action (in medias res).

A play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place.

Novel: 120,000 words average

Short Story: 5-10,000 words

Flash/Short-short: 1,000

Classical Unities

or how will the Greeks help me write a paper.

Action

Purpose

A play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots.

To tell a concise narrative utilizing the basic tenets of dramatic structure and to evoke a single "effect" or "mood."

a fictional prose tale of no specified length,but too short to be published as a volume on its own outside of journals, Short fiction will normally concentrate on a single event with only one or two characters,more economically than a novel's sustained exploration of social background.