ELEMENTS OF

CREATIVE
NONFICTION
 Plot

A sequence of
events that “has a A pattern of
beginning, a middle, actions, events
and an end” and situations
 Plot
Involves the sequence of
events in a story, showing
gives shape to the different how time moves, and is
parts of a story just like the linked by patterns of cause
and effect that lead to certain
framing of a house or
developments which
the skeleton of the body eventually bring out the
resolution
 Story Plot
A plot diagram is a graphical representation
of the plot of the story. A story plot diagram
is a line graph of the story's events, beginning
with the story's start on the left and
continuing toward the right, ending with the
story's conclusion.
 Most familiar Plots
Love Triangle – a love story involving three people

Quest – unified around a group of characters on a journey

Transformation – a weak or physically unattractive character changes radically in the

course of the story

Initiation Story – the rite of passage or “coming of age” story

 Character
may also be based on real the first essential
an imagined person ingredient in any
people whom the writer not limited to
who inhabits a story successful story
uses as models human beings
“Your idea won’t come alive, won’t begin
to become a story, until some characters
claim it as their own; the story comes out
of their motives, their desires, their
actions, and their interactions.”

- Margarette Lucke
 Types of Characters Description

• Characters that require less-detailed portrayal easily

Stock Characters or Stereotyped Characters identified since we know already know them well
because of their dominant virtues and vices

• The good guy or leading male character who opposes the

villain or the bad guy often stronger or better than most
Hero/Heroine human beings and possess godlike traits
and qualities.

• An older and more neutral term for ‘hero’ for the leading
character which does not imply either the presence or the
Protagonist
absence of outstanding virtue
• Opponent = Antagonist

• Also called the lead characters we think of them as more

complex than the minor characters
Major or Main Character • Often plays significant roles in the way we understood or
interpret the major characters
 Types of Characters Description

• Serves as the contrast to the major character to highlight

Foil
the particular qualities of the latter

• mostly in short stories

• Flat characters are stock characters or stereotypes who are
somehow capable of advancing the plot, but require the
barest outlines of descriptions
• Round characters are usually protagonists.
Flat Characters and Round Characters • They have more than just one trait.
• They are complex and at times complicated.
• They possess traits that may even seem contradictory.
• They seem very real to readers just like our friends,
neighbors, family

• Static Characters do not experience basic character changes

through the course of the story.
• Dynamic Characters experience changes throughout the
Static and Dynamic Characters
development of the story.
• DC may undergo sudden changes but these are usually
expected based on the events of the story.
 Characterization
The way a character speaks can inform
It is a writer’s tool, or “literary device” us of their background and
This gives the reader details about the
that occurs any time the author uses personality, like how educated they are,
characters involved, which include
details to teach us about a person. This is or what they consider to be important.
physical appearance, way of thinking,
used over the course of a story in Even the way other characters speak to
feeling, actions, and reactions to events.
order to tell the tale. and about our characters is a form of
characterization.
 Point of View

The vantage point where the writer’s special angle of

Refers to the narrator in the readers observe the events of vision, the one whose
story. the story perspective is told
 Narrator

Teller of the story from whose eyes we look through as we read

Through his/her eyes that the events in the story unfold
 First Person Point of view
• narrator is participant in the action
• uses the pronouns “I” or “We”
• narrator may either be a major character or a minor character who tells us directly his or her
own version of the events that happen
• narrator may also be merely watching the story involving someone else unfold he/she may be
close to the events he or she describes or distant from them
• limited though in the sense that the reader can only know details and thoughts from the
narrator, not from other characters
“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns
and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever
lived.”

- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

 Second Person Point of view
• used to tell a story to another character with the word “You”
• mostly told in future tense
• the reader may identify himself/herself as the person addressed by the writer
• used by a writer to make the readers feels that they are part of the story and they are
characters themselves
• Remember that it is hard to maintain the flow of a narrative using the 2nd
• person POV, shifting into another point of view will confuse the readers.
“Adjust the light so you won’t strain your eyes. Do it now, because
once you’re absorbed in reading there will be no budging you.
Make sure the page isn’t in shadow, a clotting of black letters on a
gray background, uniform as a pack of mice…”

- If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, Italo Calvin

 Third Person Point of view
• most common POV
• uses the pronouns “he,” “she,” and “they”
• employs a nonparticipant narrator who can usually move from place to place to describe the
action and report dialogue
• an be classified into two major types: all knowing and limited points of view
 “The fair boy began to pick his way as casually as possible toward
the water. He tried to be offhand and not too obviously
uninterested, but the fat boy hurried after him.

-Lord of the Flies

 Third Person Omniscient
• most common POV
• uses the pronouns “he,” “she,” and “they”
• employs a nonparticipant narrator who can usually move from place to place to describe the
action and report dialogue
• an be classified into two major types: all knowing and limited points of view
 “As the campers settled into their tents, Zara hoped her eyes did
not betray her fear, and Lisa silently wished for the night to quickly
end”
 Limited Point of view
• also known as 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
• writers limit themselves to the thoughts and perceptions of one character and the reader sees
the events only from the perspective of the central intelligence
• with this setup, the reader forms interpretations and opinions based only on what the narrator
has experienced
"When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been
cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very
much she admired him. 'He is just what a young man ought to be, said she,
'sensible, good-humored, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! So much
ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

 Setting

with time, you tell your readers whether

Refers to the place and time where a story takes place is your story happens during daytime
and nighttime; on a sunny day or rainy
where and when an event also called its locale morning; a few months ago or a hundred
years ago
happens
 Physical Environment
• refers to all things or characteristics that are discernible, such as shapes, colors and textures,
natural features and landscapes
• may also include smaller details such as the size of a room, an unmade and dirty bed, or a
drop of water on the floor
 Sociological Environment
• refers to the cultural, economic, and political attributes of a place and its inhabitants
• reflects the inhabitants' understanding and experience of the world they live in
• their beliefs and attitudes about people and the roles they perform in society,
• the norms and taboos as well as the dynamics and dimensions of culture and traditions
 psychological Environment
• refers to the “personality” of a place used as the setting
• for example: the old mansion is dreary; the neighborhood is cheerful; the one across town is
sleepy
 Symbolism

It is the use of symbols to signify ideas Certain symbols may convey both
and qualities, by giving them symbolic positive and negative connotations
meanings that are different from their depending on how they are used,
literal sense. presented, and perceived.
 Irony

Used when words that are uttered, the intention here is to present a
either by the author or the character in difference between what is imagined
the will
story, are the opposites of what they happen and what actually happens
actually mean
 Verbal Irony
Takes place when the speaker says something in sharp contrast to his or her actual meaning. The
speaker regularly makes a statement that seems very direct, yet indicates that the opposite is in
fact true, or what the speaker really means.

Example: ―Well, isn‘t this nice.‖ Uttered by a man whose plane is going down. (From the song
―Ironic‖ of Alanis Morrissette
 Dramatic Irony
Happens when the audience has more information than one or more characters in a work of
literature.
 Situational Irony
Contains of a situation in which the outcome is very different from what was expected. There are
contradictions and contrasts present in situational irony.

Example: The movie ―The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‖ The citizens of the
Emerald City assume that Oz is great and all-powerful, yet the man behind the urtain is revealed
to be an old man with no special powers.
Figures of Speech
Refers to words or phrases which have a
different meaning from its literal or
ordinary meanings.
@reallygreatsite
Simile

Comparison that uses the expressions “like” and

“as”.

Ex. Her hair is as black as charcoal.

Personification

Giving human qualities to inanimate or non-living

objects.

Ex. The waves kiss the shore endlessly.

Metaphor

GIndirectly compares two things that belong to

different classes.

Ex. You are the song playing so softly in my heart.

I’m a mirrorball.
Hyperbole

The deliberate exaggeration of a fact or truth for the sake of emphasis.

Ex. ’ll love you dear, I’ll love you

Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain

-Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness

Onomatopoeia

A word that mimics the sound of the object or action it refers

to

Ex. The buzzing bee flew towards the scared child.

Metonymy

The substitution or replacement of the name of a concrete

object or thing that is closely associated or connected with a
word or concept for the word or concept itself.

Ex. Can I have a hand here?

Synecdoche

The use of a part of an object to represent a whole, or

inversely naming a whole to signify the part. Metonymy
refers to a thing by substituting another thing closely
associated with but not necessarily a part of it.

Ex. His parents bought him a new set of wheels.

Alliteration

The repetition of a consonant sound.

Ex. “Sally sells seashells on the seashore.

Antonomasia

A kind of metonymy in which a phrase takes the

place of a proper name.

Ex. Harry Potter is the “boy who lived”

Antonomasia

All to a person, a thing or a personified idea which is not really present .

Ex. “Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me,
crush sensation and memory; let me become as
nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.”

-Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

Epithet

The use of an adjective or descriptive phrase that is deployed to point

out the distinctive characteristic of deity, person, animal, or thing.

Ex. That red-lipped girl has been my brother’s crush for years.
Eponym

Refers to the name of a person or deity commonly associated with some

widely recognized trait or characteristic.

Ex.
Athena for wisdom
Odysseus for adventure
Penelope for faithfulness
Oxymoron

Combination of adjacent words that have meanings that are

diametrically opposite or contradictory.

Ex. Please send me the original copy of that document.

Paradox

A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or even

illogical but which can actually be true

Ex. “Everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die.”

 Dialogue
• The story moves because of the dialogue
• It is what the audience ultimately hears and sees in a performance
• it is important that the dialogues sound like a natural conversation
• since it is performative in nature, the tone of the play and the characters are revealed through the
dialogues between the characters a change in the character’s attitude or reactions, whether the character
gets ecstatic or surprised can only be known only in the character’s dialogue and relationship with other
characters
• Dramatic action defines the behavior and disposition of the characters in establishing whether he/she is
static (unchanging) or developing (changing).
• The audience can actually witness the characters onstage and see their personality traits through their
facial expressions, bearing and body language.
Thank
You