CREATIVE

READING AND
WRITING
WRITING
FICTION
PREPARED BY MARY ROSE CEA MERCADO MAED-
ENGLISH
 FICTION
• A series of imagined facts which
illustrates truths about human life.
• Does not require the presentation of
actual people and situations, but
characters and incidents may be based
on actual people and real life events.
Principal Types of Fiction

1. Short Story is a brief, artistic form of

prose fiction which centers on a single
main incident and intends to produce a
single dominant impression.
■Economy, compression, and emphasis
characterize the short story.
 Principal Types of Fiction
2. Novel is an extensive prose
narrative, a book-length story
written in prose usually comprising
75, 000 to 100, 000 words.
 Different Genres of Fiction
■a. Fable - it is a brief story that offers
some pointed statements of truth or
explicitly states a moral. The characters in
fables are anthropomorphized animals or
natural forces, or animals or natural forces
with human traits or characteristics.
■Ex. Aesop's The Hare and the Tortoise
 Different Genres of Fiction
b. Parable - it is a brief narrative with
a realistic plot. It implicitly teaches a
moral. The Holy bible is a rich source of
timeless parables by Jesus Christ.

■Ex. The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Different Genres of Fiction
c. Tale - a tale contains strange and
wonderful events without detailed
characterization-the ones you read in
fairy tales.
Ex. Jack and the Beanstalk
Different Genres of Fiction

d. Romantic Fiction - it is a narrative that

focuses on adventurous and daring
actions. It is usually set in remote time and
place with a dashing hero who saves a
beautiful maiden in distress.

■Ex. Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

Different Genres of Fiction

e. Realistic Fiction - the characters

are ordinary men and women, like
the people we encounter a daily
basis-those with real issues
realistically dealt with.
■Ex. Novels of Sinclair Lewis and
the James.
Different Genres of Fiction

f. Naturalistic Fiction - it is also

called extreme or ultra realism.
Characters are portrayed as having
little or no free will.
■Ex. Guy de Maupassant's The
Necklace
Different Genres of Fiction
g. Historical Novel - is a detailed
reconstruction of life in another time
and perhaps in another place.
■Recaptures the spirit and
atmosphere of an age or era in the
past.
■Ex. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe
Different Genres of Fiction

i. Science Fiction - it deals with

futuristic concept ~ such as new world
settings, futuristic science and
technology, space and time travel,
intergalactic warfare, extraterrestrial life,
alien abduction and parallel universe.
■Ex. Michael Faber's Under the Skin
Different Genres of Fiction
i. Non-realistic fiction - stories that
have supernatural or magic elements
which are classified under the genre of
fantasy and even horror.

■Ex. Joyce Carol Oates' The Accursed

Different Genres of Fiction

j. Nonfiction novel/
Fictionalized Account – also
known as reconstructed biography, it
is a novel based on the true story of
real people and real life events.
■Ex. Truman Capote's Cold Blood
 Different Genres of Fiction
k. Epistolary Novel - it is an early form of
fiction told in epistles or letters. Usually
contain letters by only one character, but at
times can also contain letters by several
characters in the book.
■Ex. Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's
Dangerous Liaisons
Different Genres of Fiction
l. Bildungsroman/ Apprenticeship Novel
- Bildungsroman is a German term for a
"novel of growth or development". It is a
novel in which a youngster struggles toward
maturity, seeking perhaps some consistent
worldview or philosophy of life.
■Ex. Charles Dickens's Great Expectation
 Elements of the Genre
1.Character
2.Point of View
3.Plot
4.Setting and Atmosphere
5.Conflict
6.Irony
7.Theme
 1. Character
• Is an imagined person who inhabits a
story, characters may also be based on
real people whom the writer uses as a
models. Characters are not limited to
human beings.
• It is the first essential ingredient in any
successful story.
Types of Characters
■1. Stock characters or stereotyped characters
these are characters that require less- detailed portrayal.
■2. Hero
-the hero is the good guy or leading male character who
opposes the villain or the bad guy.
Heroine
The leading female character is the heroine. In most modern
fiction, however, the lead character is just an ordinary human
being like the rest of us.
Types of Characters

■3. Protagonist
- It is an older and more neutral term
than "hero" for the leading character
which does not imply either the presence
or the absence of outstanding virtue. The
protagonist's opponent is the antagonist.
Types of Characters
■4. Major or Main Characters
- They are also called lead characters, think of them
as more complex than the minor characters, the other
figures who appear in a story.

■5. Foil
- Serves as a contrast to the major character to
highlight the particular qualities of the latter.
Types of Characters
■6. Flat Characters and Round
Characters
- Flat characters are stock characters stereotypes
who are somehow capable of advancing the plot,
but require only the barest outlines of description.

- Round characters are usually the protagonist.

They have more than just one trait. They are
complex and at times complicated.
Types of Characters

■7. Static and Dynamic Characters

- Static characters do not experience basic
character changes through the course of the
story. Dynamic characters experiences
changes throughout the development of the
story.
Writing Tips

How do you create a

character? How do you
bring your characters
to life?
1. According to Lagos Egri, the
author of The Art of Dramatic
Writing, a writer must know the 3
dimensions of fictional
characters:
3 dimensions of fictional
characters
* Physical - refers to
physical dimensions such as
body type, health, clothing,
and movement.
 3 dimensions of fictional characters

*Sociological - refers to the character's

nan* biographical details, social status,
economic stat race and ethnicity, family
members and relationships, residence,
education, profession, and beliefs.
 3 dimensions of fictional characters
*Psychological - refers to personality,
speech patterns, attitudes toward self and
others, hobbies and interests, talents, likes
and dislikes, habits, dreams and ambitions,
fears, sources of laughter, anger, worry or
stress, his/her attitude toward the opposite
sex, teachers, superiors, friends,
competition, etc.
1.Provide details of the character's
past.
2.Imagine them like they are real
people with emotions and
contradictions to make them
believable.
3. Show them in action.
2. Point of View
• Refers to the narrator in the story, the
vantage point from where readers
observe the events of the story, or the
writer's special angle of vision, the one
whose perspective is told.
• Every story has a narrator, the teller of
the story from whose eyes we look
through as we read.
■When we read a story, there is always
viewer or speaker between us and the even
& that occur. This mediation involves focus
and voice.
■Focus - functions like a camera; it is the
frame through which characters, events,
and other important details are viewed.
■Voice - refers to the words that embody
the story.
 First person
• In this point of view, the narrator is a participant in
the action. It uses the pronoun "I" or "we", and the
narrator may be either a major character or a minor
character who tells us directly his or her own
version of the events of the story.
• The first-person point of view is limited though in
the sense that the reader can only know details and
thoughts from the narrator, not from the other
characters.
Second Person
■- It is used to tell a story to another character
with the word "You". It is mostly told in the
future tense.
■It creates an effect similar to conversational
anecdotes. The reader may identify himself or
herself as the person addressed by the writer. A
writer uses this point of view to make the
readers feel that they are part of the story and
that they are character themselves.
 Third Person

■- It is the most common point

of view and uses the pronouns
■"he" "she", and "they".
Two major types:
■1. All-knowing Point of View sees into the
minds of all characters, moving from one
character to another when needed. The
narrator knows everything about the
characters, their past, their lives, their future,
their innermost thoughts. The narrator even
goes inside the heads of other characters to
express their thoughts, observations, and
feelings.
■2. Limited point of View, which is also
called selective omniscience Or central
intelligence - a term introduced by Henry
James-uses a major or minor character
as the sole viewpoint character in the
story. He/she is a nonparticipating
narrator who witnesses events as they
unfold.
3. Plot

■Plot or plot structure is a sequence of

events that "has a beginning, a middle, and
an end". It is a pattern of actions, events,
and situations. Plot structure gives shape to
the different parts of a story just like the
framing of a house or the skeleton of the
body.
1.Exposition- the writer introduces the
characters, situation, and usually, the time
and place of the narrative. You can begin a
story in medias res (in the middle of
things).
2.Rising Action- the body of a story
contains the conflict, where the rising
action is built to introduce complications
that are either external or internal.
c. Climax and Falling Action
- The central moment of crisis in
plot is the climax. It is the point
greatest tension which initiates
the falling action of the story.
d. Resolution/Denouement is the final
part a plot. The French term denouement
refers untying of a knot. The denouement
makes the characters return to a stable
situation. It is the moment of insight,
discovery, or revelation by which a
character's life, is greatly altered. It
maybe closed or open.
■Closed Denouement ties up
everything neatly and explains all
unanswered questions that readers
might have, just like in many mystery or
detective stories.
■Open Denouement leaves the readers
with a few thought-provoking loose
ends.
■4. Setting and Atmosphere
Setting refers to the place and time
where and when an events happens.
Where a story takes place is also called
locale. Atmosphere or mood is the
element that evokes certain feelings or
emotion in readers.
■Physical Environment refers to all
things or characteristics that are
discernible.
■Sociological Environment refers to
the cultural, economic, and political
attributes of a place and its inhabitants.
■Psychological Environment refers to
the personality of a placed used as the
setting.
5. Conflict

■- is an event, situation, or
circumstances that shakes up a
stable situation; it is a struggle
between two opposing forces.
■--External Conflict arises between the character
and an outside force. Examples are conflict and the
forces of nature; conflict against other characters;
and conflict against society.
■Man against Nature- struggle which positions the
protagonist against an animal or force of nature.
■Man against Man- involves stories where
characters are pitted against each other.
■Man against Society- involves stories where man
stands against a man-made institutions.
■--Internal Conflict arises within
character himself.
■Man against Self- a struggle that
involves a character trying to
overcome his/her own nature or
make a choice between two or
more paths.
6. Irony
■- is a figure of speech in which words
are used to mean the opposite of their
actual meanings. An irony presents a
difference between the appearance of
the expectation and the reality of the
outcome.
■Verbal Irony is used when a character say
what he or she does not actually mean.
■Situational Irony occurs when, for instance, a
man chuckles at the misfortune of another, even
when the same misfortune befalls him.
■Dramatic Irony, the characters are unaware of
the situation but the readers are not. In Romeo
and Juliet, the readers know much earlier that
the characters will die towards the end of the
play.
7. Theme

■Theme refers to the central

idea, the thesis, the message a
story conveys, or a
generalization or an abstraction
from it.
■To understand the theme of a story you
may look carefully of the following.
■a. Dramatic issue - a story has a
dramatic premise w/c sets its core
dramatic issue. The issue then moves
toward resolution, w/c sets up the
fulfilment. It is the heart of a story's
premise and revolves around human
needs.
■b. Moral - it is what a story shows us-
an objective, universal truth that we
were unaware of before reading a story.
We get to realize that message are
actually important lessons in life.
■c. Insight - is the capacity to gain an
accurate and deep intuitive
understanding of a person or thing.
Narrative Devices
■Stream of Consciousness is a narration with
technique intended to render the flow of myriad
impressions-visual, auditory, physical, associative,
and subliminal, as they occur in the narrator's
mind and not in a smooth, sequential, or flowing
way.
■Interior monologue is device used by writers to
make the character speak out loud like delivering
a speech for the readers to overhear.
Narrative Devices
■Foreshadowing is the hint of what is
about to take place later. It also serves as a
signpost that gives the sensitive reader an
idea of what may happen in the story.
■Symbol is a thing that suggests more than
its literal meaning. It is a concrete thing that
represents a something in abstract.
Narrative Devices
■Mood - the attitude of the poet towards
subject matter. It refers to the emotional and
intellectual attitudes of the author towards
his/her subject matter in a given literary work.
■Tone - the attitude of the poet towards the
audience. It refers to the intellectual and
emotional attitudes of the poet towards his or
her intended audience.