LESSON 1:

Popular types of fiction: Genres of Fiction

1. Adventure stories - tales that often include something exciting and extraordinary,
often a quest or a
mission.
2. Crime/ detective fiction: the classic whodunnit' story' and readers can help solve a
crime or mystery with vibrant characters.
3. Science fiction: usually set in space or in the future. It can include spaceships,
astronauts, machines, robots and aliens.
4. Thriller fiction -great for your adventurous and imaginative readers.
5. Fantasy fiction - taking inspiration from myth and legend, is set in a fictional universe and
features supernatural characters and mythical creatures.

Three Types of Fiction

Literary Fiction - usually uses heavy symbolism and deeper meanings. focuses on the
experiences, development and beliefs of the main character that we follow through the story.

Examples: contemporary literary fiction, realistic literary fiction, experimental literary fiction and
philosophical literary fiction.

Genre Fiction - one of the more popular types of fiction that you are your students will come
across.
• often our best sellers that you can find on the shelves of high street shops.
• plot and storylines are the main focus of these books and are mainly written for the purpose of
entertainment.

Examples: romance, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, and children's books

Mainstream Fiction - A fiction novel or a genre novel that's massively popular beyond its
intended and core audience. attracting new readers and bestseller status

Eight Rules for Writing Fiction

1. Show Don't Tell

When you tell rather than show, you inform your reader of information rather than allowing him
to deduce anything.
You're supplying information by simply stating it. You might report
that a character is "tall," or "angry," or "cold" or "tired.
Rather than telling that your character is angry, show it by describing his face flushing, his throat
tightening, his voice rising. his slamming a fist on the table. When you show, you don't have
to tell.
Cold? Don't tell me; show me. Your character pulls her collar up. tightens her scarf, shoves her
hands deep into her pockets, turns
her face away from the biting wind.
Tired? He can yawn, groan, stretch. His eyes can look puffy-His--shoulders could slump.
Another character might say, "Didn't you sleep last night? You look shot."

Create a Three-Dimensional Character

Say you're writing about a hard-charging banker who's having an extramarital affair.
This is a good start, but to avoid turning him into a cliché, you need to fill him out in three
dimensions. In every paragraph, tell the reader exactly how high, wide, and long he is.
For instance: "Benjamin Waller, a hard-charging banker who stood six feet one, with a size-
thirty-two waist and a chest girth of forty inches, was having an extramarital affair." Also mention
that he drives a flashy sports car.

2. Choose a Point Of View

Decide which point of view makes most sense for your story: first person;second person third
person either limited or the omniscient, godlike perspective.

3. Give Your CharactersMotivations

If you're having trouble fleshing out your characters, continually ask yourself in each scene.
"What does this character want?" Say this out loud enough, and soon someone nearby will ask
why you keep repeating that. Do not reply, but simply keep questioning aloud,
"What does this character want?"
Eventually you'll be committed to an asylum.
Asylums are great places to think without the distractions of the modern world. I'm sure you'll
figure out that pesky protagonist in no time.

4. Write What You know

For non-fiction writers, the phrase can be applied by writing a memoir based on your own
experiences and real-life stories, or writing about familiar subject matter.
When writing fiction-whether it be science fiction short stories or an epic historical fiction novel-
writing what you know means finding aspects of your story and characters that you deeply relate
to.

"No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader." - Robert Frost
if you want to affect the reader strongly, what you write has to have made that connection, in the
sense that it has to come from some kind of honest place in yourself.

THE 8 ELEMENTS OF A STORY

1. Setting
The first of the story elements is the story setting. All stories have a setting. The setting includes
the timejand place in which the story will be taking place.
There may be just one-story setting, such as in a short story that only takes place in a single
room of a house. Or, there may be many different settings spanning many locations and times,
such as stories that span generations or that have characters who travel the globe.
Common setting considerations are
• Time
• Place
• Alternative reality

2. Characters
The next of the elements of a story are the characters. Of course, characters are one of the
most important elements of a novel or short story.
Round Characters
Flat Characters

3. Conflict
Nobody wants to read a novel or short story without conflict - so you'll find every story will have
some sort of conflict.
What would be the point? The conflict in a story is the main challenge to overcome. It compels
the plot forward and is usually resolved during the plot's climax.
The main types of conflict you will come across in a story are:
• Protagonist vs Antagonist
• Protagonist vs Nature
• Protagonist vs Self
• Protagonist vs Society

4. Theme
The next of the story elements is theme. The theme is the author's central argument or big idea
they want to convey.
Themes are often associated with a moral of a story or an analogy (a hidden meaning in the
text).
They attempt to convey a piece of wisdom or fundamental truth about human nature for us to
think about. Even in a short story there will be a key theme.

Themes are often associated with a moral of a story or an analogy (a hidden meaning in the
text).
They attempt to convey a piece of wisdom or fundamental truth about human nature for us to
think about. Even in a short story there will be a key theme.

Common types of themes include:

• Good vs. evil
True love
The absurdity of life
The pain of war

5. Plot
The next of the story elements is the plot line. The plot is the sequence of events that tell the
story.
Sometimes we call it the 'narrative structure. Another way to use the term plot' is to make a
plan. For example, "There is a plot to rob a bank."
Plots usually follow a familiar structure. We tell children that plots have a 'Beginning,
"Middle' and End' - and that might be true for a short story:
Beginning: Introduce the characters and set the scene;
• Middle: Introduce a complication and tell the story of how it is overcome
• Ending: Resolve each character's individual story and provide a sense of closure.

As students get older, we go into a bit more depth and use more formal terms:
Exposition: The exposition begins the story. It provides the necessary background h information
like the setting and character details. It may also outline the relationships between characters
and any other important information. This section should set the scene but also entertain the
reader from page one.

Rising Action: The rising action part is the part of the story where "the plot thickens".
Challenges, conflicts and complications are introduced during the rising action segment. This is
often the longest part of the story. Authors aim to create and build tension as long as possible to
entertain the reader and create a true page turner' of a story.

• Climax: After rising action comes climax. This is the turning point of the story where the
tensions in the plotline come to a head. A good climax may involve a twist or a big reveal. Other
examples of a climax might be a big battle, police chase or exposure of a love affair.

• Falling Action: After the climax comes falling action. I often find the falling action segment is
brief but may be necessary to conclude the key scenes that occurred in the climax. During the
falling action, tension starts to dissolve

• Resolution (denouement): The resolution gives a sense of closure to the reader. It may tie up
loose ends in character plotlines and explain what becomes of the key characters after the
story. To use The Lord of the Rings example, the resolution shows Frodo sailing to the Grey
Havens and Sam marrying Rosie Cotton.

6. Point of View
First person stories are told by the protagonist. You can tell a first-person story from the use of
first-person phrases like T and We. A benefit of first-person point of view is that you can get
inside the head of the main character. They can talk about what they're thinking and what their
opinion is of all the other characters throughout the piece.
Second person stories are narrated by an outsider (not a character in the story), but talk directly
to the reader. It is like we are in a conversation with the author. This is called breaking the fourth
wall'. An example of second person is when the author directly says you to the reader.
Third person stories do not talk directly to the reader and do not insert themselves into the story
either. This is the most common type of point of view. Most third person books have an
omniscient narrator. This means the narrator is an all-knowing person who can get into
characters' heads and explain their thoughts. The author tells the story as if looking through a
looking glass. They refer to the characters including the protagonist) using terms like he, she
and 'they.

7. Tone
Authors choose a tone to act as the backdrop to a story. The tone often overlaps with the
protagonist's mood or circumstance.
Tones include moods like:
•
Melancholy
•
Uplifting
•
Hopeful

Ominous

Intellectual

Tone can be conveyed through elements like weather conditions, time of day, and a soliloquy.
Tone is often conveyed through the weather conditions. Some stories are set in long, endless
summers. Others are anticipating an endless winter to come (e g. Game of Thrones). Rain is a
good idea for when a character is sad or moody. By contrast, sunshine will signify happy times.
Tone is often also set through the soliloquy of the narrator of a first-person text. A soliloquy is a
piece of writing (or speaking) where the author reflects on their moods and thoughts.

8. Style
Short sentences: | first came across very short sentences in Hemmingway's For Whom the Bell
Tolls. Hemmingway's curt writing style comes across as masculine, but is often very easy to
read.
• Highly Descriptive: When reading The Lord of the Rings, I was bemused at just how long it
took JRR Tolkien to describe a fireplace. While I personally prefer a short story, many of the
classics have this descriptive style.
Fast-Paced: If you like entertaining books, ensure your writing is always compelling the plot
forward and not getting into the weeds.

How to Write FlashFiction Stories: 4 Approaches

4 Approaches to Writing Flash Fiction

1. Ruthless Editing
2. Plot First
3. Start with Poetry
4. End with a Bang

How to Write a Short Story in 5 Steps

5 Steps in Writing a Short Story

Step 1
* Pick the mood you want to evoke
Step 2
Start with a strong opening
Step 3
Build your story, remembering that you only have a certain number of words
Step 4
Land the ending
Step 5
Edit, edit, edit.

Overview of Playwriting

1. Plotting - Intelligent plotting is essential. Most plays are constructed around the idea of
someone who wants something, who faces an obstacle (external or internal) and then
struggles with this obstacle until a result is reached. The playwright must provide desires
for their characters and then determine which ones will be fulfilled and which stymied. If
the obstacles are too small, the play will lack suspense; if they're unreasonably great,
the play will lack credibility. In a play with more than a few characters, the playwright
must manipulate the action so that all the various desires and struggles on the stage can
be interwoven. It's no coincidence that one of the definitions of drama is "conflict." The
playwright must know how to write thinkable conflicts and grab the spectator's attentions
therewith.
2. Characterization - Characterization is another skill that the writer for the stage must
come to master. In realistic drama-still the most popular sort-characters must be "round"
 and not "flat," meaning that they must have multiple dimensions, a thinkable combination
of virtues and vices, as well as the needs, hopes, inhibitions, and fears of real human
beings.
3. Dialogue - Here the playwright must strive to find a credible form of discourse that avoids
cliché and artificiality and that varies just as characters do: a professor of philosophy
shouldn't sound like a dog trainer, and a harried urban shop girl shouldn't sound like a
wealthy heiress. The secret of good dialogue is selectivity-finding the conversation that
most reveals the lives of the speakers, finding the expression that means more than
itself, finding the word that the audience can instantly absorb and interpret. The
playwright needs to be aware that "realistic" dialogue isn't always the most suitable
choice-that are sometimes more appropriate than the more "authentic" sounds of the
real world outside the theater. Further, "on-the-nose" dialogue, with which characters
say precisely what they mean, isn't nearly as interesting as "off-the-nose" dialogue, that
which proceeds through indirection and ambiguity.
4. Theme - It's not enough to present characters speaking interestingly with each other
while engaged in some action; the playwright must have something to say they must
have a purpose that the literary work embodies, a theme or conviction that the drama
communicates. Sometimes the idea might be: Socio-political - A Doll's House;
Psychological - Hedda Gabler. Metaphysical - The Master Builder. The primary
commandment for playwrights is "Thou shalt not waste the audience's time."