Dakota State University
Madison, SD, USA

Creative Writing: Fiction

Glossary

Abstract means to write about things in a general way.

Author intrusion is anything which the writer does that interrupts the story for the reader.

Characters are the people or animals who will be in the story.

Cliché is language or story elements which have been overused.

Concrete means to write about things in a specific way.

Convention is a writing device or technique which has become accepted by constant usage.

Dialogue is the spoken words of the characters in the story.

Exposition is the narrator telling the reader information instead of letting it happen in the story.

Imagery is language which conveys to the reader a sense of really experiencing the story.

Interior dialogue is the unspoken words of the characters.

Irony is a result different from the expected.

Foreshadowing is something which prepares the reader for an event later in the story.

Plot is the organization of events that will take place in the story.

Point of view is the relative identification of the narrator with the characters.

Setting is the place in which the story takes place.

Style is the writer's use of the language.

Theme is the main idea or meaning behind a story.

Unity is a sense of wholeness or relatedness in the story.

URL: http://homepages.dsu.edu/jankej/writing/glossary.htm
Page Manager: Jim Janke
Contact at: jim.janke@dsu.edu
Last update: July 27, 1999