What makes a Good Story?

1
What makes a Good Story?

• Parts of a Story

2
Can the hero save the city from danger?
Will the lost hikers find their way home?
Will Plankton steal the secret recipe for the
crabby patty?
3

• Is the time and place of the action.
• The time can be past, present, or future.
• It can be a particular season or time of the day.
• The place can be anywhere in the world or in your
  imagination.

Setting
4

• The people, animals, or imaginary creatures who
  take part in the action.
• The most important characters are the main
  characters.
• Less important characters are minor characters.
• Examples
• A 12-year-old girl
• A wizard with mysterious powers
• A baseball coach
• A familys pet dog

Characters
5
Protagonist

• The good guy in the story.

6
Antagonist

• The Bad guy in the story.

7

• The struggle that a character faces in a story.
• Character vs. character
• Character vs. nature
• Character vs. society
• Character vs. self

Conflict
8
External Conflict

• External conflict exists when a character
  struggles against some outside force, such as
  another character, nature, society, or fate.
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Society

9
Internal Conflict

• Internal conflict exists within the mind of a
  character who is torn between different courses
  of action.
• Man vs. Himself

10
Theme

• The message that the author is trying to send
  through the characters and events in the story.
• Example In Shrek, the theme of the story is that
  of not judging people for their appearance but
  for what is in their hearts.

11
Guess the point of view!
12
3rd Person Point of View

• As she walked up the hill, she realized that
  the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no
  sound from the cardinal who she so often heard
  singing from the top of the maple tree. She
  thought she saw a shadow move high up on the
  slope, but when she looked again it was gone.
  Nevertheless, she shuddered as she felt a silent
  threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud
  creeping over the sun.

13
Omniscient

• As the girl walked up the hill, she realized that
  the atmosphere was just too quiet.
•             The cardinal tipped his head back and
  drew breath to sing, but just as the first note
  passed his beak he heard the crack of a dead
  branch far below his perch high in the maple
  tree. Startled, he looked down, cocking his head
  to one side and watching with great interest
  while the man rattled the blades of grass as he
  tried to hide himself behind the tree.
•             As the man saw her start up the hill,
  he moved quickly into the shelter of the huge old
  maple tree. If she saw him now, everything would
  be ruined.
•             She thought she saw a shadow move
  high up on the slope, but when she looked again
  it was gone.
•             The man thought if he could stay
  hidden until she came within range, she'd have to
  talk to him. Wouldn't she?
•             The girl shuddered as she felt a
  silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud
  creeping over the sun.

14
1st Person Point of View

• As I walked up the hill, I realized that the
  atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound
  from the cardinal who was nearly always singing
  from the top of the maple tree. I thought I saw a
  shadow move high up on the slope, but when I
  looked again it was gone. Still, I shuddered as I
  felt a silent threat pass over me like a cloud
  over the sun.

15
Parts of a Plot
16
What is a Plot???

• Plot is the sequence of
• events.
• It involves
• Both characters and a
• central conflict.

Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
17
The Plot of Your Life
18
PLOTLINE
Climax
Rising Action
Falling Action
Resolution
Exposition
Conflict Introduced
19
Exposition

• The Exposition is the introduction.
• Introduces
• the characters
• Setting
• basic situation.

20
Rising Action

• Rising Action is the part of the plot that
  begins to occur as soon as the conflict is
  introduced.
• Adds
• complications to the conflict
• increases reader interest.

21
Climax

• The Climax is the point of greatest emotional
  intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a
  narrative.
• The climax typically comes at the turning point
  in a story or drama.

22
Falling Action

• Falling Action is the action that typically
  follows the climax and reveals its results.

23
Resolution

• The Resolution is the part of the plot that
  concludes the falling action by revealing or
  suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

24
Conflict

• Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces
  in a story or play. There are two types of
  conflict that exist in literature.

25
Point of View

• Point of View is the perspective, or vantage
  point, from which a story is told. It is the
  relationship of the narrator to the story.
• First-person is told by a character who uses the
  first-person pronoun I.
• Third-person point of view is the point of view
  where the narrator uses third-person pronouns
  such as he and she to refer to the
  characters.
• Omniscient-the narrator seems to know all the
  characters actions and thoughts
• Limited omniscience-the narrator knows one
  persons thoughts

26
Theme

• The theme of a literary work is its central
  message, concern, or purpose. A theme can
  usually be expressed as a generalization, or
  general statement, about people or life. The
  theme may be stated directly by the writer
  although it is more often presented indirectly.
  When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader
  must figure out the theme by looking carefully at
  what the work reveals about the people or about
  life.

27
Flashback

• A flashback is a literary device in which an
  earlier episode, conversation, or event is
  inserted into the sequence of events. Often
  flashbacks are presented as a memory of the
  narrator or of another character.

28
Flashback continued

• The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a
  flashback.
• What are some other films that contain flashback
  to help tell stories?
• Holes
• Willy Wonka
• Think of some more

29
Deus ex machina

• (Day-oose ex makina) God from the machine
• Derived from classical dramas in which a god
  intervenes to resolve a conflict
• Used to describe situations when a story ends
  with an unlikely miracle.

30
In medias res

• an author may begin the story in the middle of
  things, in the middle of the story.

31
Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing is the authors use of clues to
  hint at what might happen later in the story.
  Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers
  expectations and to create suspense. This is
  used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

32
Can you think of an element of foreshadowing?
33
Suspense

• Suspense is the growing interest and excitement
  readers experience while awaiting a climax or
  resolution in a work of literature. It is a
  feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome
  of events. Writers create suspense by raising
  questions in the minds of their readers.

34
MOOD

• Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in
  the reader by a literary work or passage.
  Writers use many devices to create mood,
  including images, dialogue, setting, and plot.
  Often, a writer creates a mood at the beginning
  of a work and then sustains the mood throughout.
  Sometimes, however, the mood of the work changes
  dramatically.

35
Tone

• Tone is a reflection of a writers or speakers
  attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or
  other literary work. Tone may be communicated
  through words and details that express particular
  emotions and that evoke and emotional response
  from the reader.
• For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to
  convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or
  sarcasm.

36
Style

• Style is the distinctive way in which an author
  uses language.
• Word choice, phrasing, sentence length, tone,
  dialogue, purpose, and attitude toward the
  audience and subject can all contribute to an
  authors writing style.

37
Imagery

• Imagery is words or phrases that appeal to one or
  more of the five senses. Writers use imagery to
  describe how their subjects look, sound, feel,
  taste, and smell.