Story Elements

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Story Elements
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Characters
A dynamic character is one who goes through a
personality change due to the events in the
story. A static character is one whose
personality does not change throughout the story.
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Round Characters
A round character is one whose personality,
background, motives, and other features are fully
described or explained by the author. In general,
main characters are round because many insights
are given.
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Flat Characters
A flat character is one who is not fully
described but is useful in carrying out some
narrative purpose of the author. They tend to be
minor characters.
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Dynamic and Round
In most books the main character is both dynamic
and round.
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Round and Static
Characters can be round and static. For example,
think about the character James Bond. We know a
great deal about this characters personality
(round), yet he does not go through an inner
personality change from the beginning to the end
of the story (static). Often the side-kick in a
story is round and static.
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Dynamic and Flat
Characters cannot be dynamic and flat, because in
a flat character we do not know enough about them
to recognize a change.
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Dynamic or StaticRound or Flat
Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens's A
Christmas Carol
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Dynamic and Round
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Dynamic or Static Round or Flat
Billy Coleman from Wilson RawlsWhere the Red
Fern Grows
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Dynamic and Round
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Dynamic or Static Round or Flat
Will Coleman (Billys dad) from Wilson
RawlsWhere the Red Fern Grows  
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Static and Flat  
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Dynamic or Static Round or Flat
Mayor Cole from Jeanne DuPraus   The City of
Ember
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Static and Flat
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Dynamic or Static Round or Flat
Lina Mayfleet from Jeanne DuPraus   The City
of Ember
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Dynamic and Round
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Dynamic or Static Round or Flat
Robin from Batman
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Static and Round
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Assignment

• Think about these characters in The Cay.
• Phillip Enright
• Timothy
• Mrs. Enright (Grace)
• Mr. Enright (Phillip)
• Henrik van Boven
• Are they dynamic or static round or flat.

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Assignment - Answer Key

• Phillip Enright dynamic round
• Timothy static round
• Mrs. Enright (Grace) static flat
• Mr. Enright (Phillip) static flat
• Henrik van Boven static flat

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First-Person Point of View
In the first-person point of view one character
tells the story. This character reveals only
personal thoughts and feelings of what s/he sees.
The writer uses pronouns such as "I, "me,
mine, or "my". ExampleI woke up this morning
feeling terrific. I hopped out of bed excited to
start the new day. I knew that today was the day
my big surprise would come.
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Second-Person Point of View
With the second-person point of view the narrator
tells the story using the pronoun "you".  The
character is someone similar to you.
ExampleYou wake up feeling really terrific.
Then you hop out of bed excited to start the new
day. You know that today is the day that your big
surprise will come. This is rarely used in
literature. It can be seen in Choose Your Own
Adventure books.
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Third-Person Point of View
The third-person point of view is the most
commonly used in fiction. When writing in the
third-person you will use pronouns such as "he",
"she", or "it". ExampleBrian woke up feeling
terrific. He hopped out of bed excited to start
the new day. He knew that today was the day that
his big surprise would come.
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Group Practice
Using your index cards, determine if each of the
following excerpts are written in first, second,
or third-point of view.
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary PaulsenI go up to
the front of the team in the darkness and drag
them around, realizing we are lost. My clothes
have been ripped on tree limbs and my face is
bleeding from cuts, and when I look back down the
side of the mountain we have just climbed I see
twenty-seven head lamps bobbing up the trail.
Twenty-seven teams have taken our smell as the
valid trail and are following us. Twenty-seven
teams must be met head on in the narrow brush and
passed and told to turn around.
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Excerpt from Woodsong by Gary
Paulsen First-Person Point of View
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Soldier's Heart by Gary
PaulsenThere would be a shooting war. There were
rebels who had violated the law and fired on Fort
Sumter and the only thing they'd respect was
steel, it was said, and he knew they were right,
and the Union was right, and one other thing they
said as well--if a man didn't hurry he'd miss it.
The only shooting war to come in a man's life and
if a man didn't step right along he'd miss the
whole thing.Charley didn't figure to miss it.
The only problem was that Charley wasn't rightly
a man yet, at least not to the army. He was
fifteen and while he worked as a man worked, in
the fields all of a day and into night, and
looked like a man standing tall and just a bit
thin with hands so big they covered a stove lid,
he didn't make a beard yet and his voice had only
just dropped enough so he could talk with men.
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Excerpted from Soldier's Heart by Gary
Paulsen Third-Person Point of View
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
"You saw", "You think". to understand the second
person perspective, imagine you are giving a
speech to your classmates about how to bake a
cake, instructions are usually given in the
second person point of view because it tells the
reader what to think, feel, or do. The second
person can also be used when a writer is
addressing a familiar audience.
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen        
A        "Tonight we just do A." He
sat back on his heels and pointed. "There it
be."        I looked at it, wondered how it
stood. "Where's the bottom to it?"        "There
it stands on two feet, just like
you."        "What does it mean?"        "It
means A--just like I said. It's the first letter
in the alphabet. And when you see it you make a
sound like this ayyy, or ahhhh."        "That's
reading? To make that sound?"        He
nodded. "When you see that letter on paper or a
sack or in the dirt you make one of those sounds.
That's reading."
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Excerpted from Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen
        Third-Person Point of View
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen
I drove to California that very day, straight to
the coast, then north, away from people, to a
small town named Guadalupe, near Santa Maria.
There I bought some cans of beans and bread and
Spam and fruit cocktail and a cheap sleeping bag
and then walked out through the sand dunes, where
I could hear the surf crashing. I walked until I
could see the water coming in, rolling in from
the vastness, and I sat down and let the sea heal
me.
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Excerpted from Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen I have spent
an inordinate amount of time in wilderness woods,
much of it in northern Minnesota, some in Canada
and some in the Alaskan wilds. I have hunted and
trapped and fished and have been exposed to
almost all kinds of wilderness animals Ive had
bear come at me, been stalked by a mountain lion,
been bitten by snakes and punctured by porcupines
and torn by foxes and once pecked by an attacking
raven, but I have never seen anything rivaling
the madness that seems to infect a large portion
of the moose family.
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Excerpted from Guts by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
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1st, 2nd, or 3rd Point of View
Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen And I
would like to stop the story of Duda here and
tell how he got his divorce and married Bonnie
and they adopted me and we bought a farm . . . .
That's how it would end in a movie, with Rock
Hudson playing Duda and Doris Day playing Bonnie,
and that's how it should end, and that's how I
dream of it ending almost every night, until I
wake up sweating and remember that it isn't a
movie and it doesn't end that way.
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Excerpted from Winterkill by Gary Paulsen
First-Person Point of View
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Third-Person Point of View
Third-person point of view may be written using
several variations. In the third-person
objective the story is told without describing
any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings.
Think of this as seeing what a camera can see. A
camera can not see what is going on inside
someones mind.
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Third-Person Objective
Third-person objective is rarely used except in
easy picture books. Example The alarm clock
sounded. Brian cut off the clock and jumped out
of bed. He had a smile on his face.
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Third-Person Point of View
In the third-person omniscient, the reader knows
exactly what is going on inside various
characters heads in regards to their thoughts
and feelings.
Rob is surprised.
Tim is sneaky.
Joe is sad.
Pete is in love.
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Third-Person Omniscient
Example from Woods Runner by Gary
Paulsen Although Samuel's parents lived in the
wilderness, they were not a part of it. They had
been raised in towns and had been educated in
schools where they'd been taught to read and
write and play musical instruments. They moved
west when Samuel was a baby, so that they could
devote themselves to a quiet life of hard
physical work and contemplation. They loved the
woods, but they did not understand them. Not like
Samuel.   (Here the reader knows both the
parents and Samuels feelings.)
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Third-Person Point of View
In third-person limited, the reader knows only
one character's mind, either throughout the
entire work or in a specific section. The
narration is limited to what can be known, seen,
thought, or judged from a single character's
perspective.
Sally wondered what the boys were thinking.