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my mind it creates an image of big vans driven by guys in brown shorts. So, let's try another one. When I did a Google search using the key words "writing modes," I was reminded that the term is already being used to describe four broad types of writing: descriptive, expository, narrative, and persuasive. I vaguely recall these terms from my school days, so in deference to English teachers and their students, maybe we ought to leave writing modes to the classroom.

When I looked at the Googled writing modes a little closer, I saw that narrative writing refers to storytelling. Ah-ha! Maybe we should label the modes as narrative modes or narrative-writing modes. Both have appeal, but the word narrative bothers me somewhat because it is one of so many English words that mean different things to different people, especially writers. Maybe Evan Marshall has the right label, after all, with fiction-writing modes. Fiction-writing is consistent with the concept of narrative writing, but has little room for misunderstanding. Novel-writing modes might work, but that seems to exclude short stories, and the modes certainly transcend both forms of fiction. Until someone comes up with a better label, I'll use fiction-writing modes.

Now, let's look at the second and third questions. Are all of the modes listed by Marshall and Morrell appropriate to include on the list? Could there be even more? To answer that question, I combined both of their lists and then brainstormed for more. That resulted in the following list of mode candidates: action, summary, dialogue, feelings/thoughts, background, exposition, description, transition, recollection, flashbacks, narrative, introspection, sensation, emotion, scene, sequel, stimulus, and response.

I eliminated scene & sequel and stimulus & response, since I consider them to be structural components of plot:

* Macro-structure: beginning. middle, and end

* Midlevel-structure: scene and sequel

* Micro-structure: stimulus and response

I deleted flashbacks from the mode list because I consider a flashback to be a scene within a sequel or, less appropriately, within another scene.

Background didn't make my list either, since it's essentially the back story of a plot, and I view plot as having three temporal dimensions:

* Backstory: what happened before the beginning words of the written story

* Current story: what happens in the "now" of the story

* Future story: that part of the story that might come after "The End"

Backstory, current story,

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