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and future story can each be revealed in numerous ways: dialogue, exposition, narration, recollection, and flashbacks. That said, I've eliminated background from my personal list of fiction-writing modes.

Marshall's concept of thinking/feeling as a mode makes sense, but the term seems cumbersome. In its place I inserted introspection, recollection, emotion, and sensation.

Again, the term narration troubled me. Not only is it one of the four general writing modes, in a broad sense it also seems to encompass everything a fiction-writer produces. On the other hand, in a more narrow sense, narration is a specific type of writing where the narrator obtrusively communicates to the reader. With this more narrow application in mind, I've included narration as a fiction-writing mode.

Likewise, the term description in its broadest sense could be taken to include all fiction. What is dialogue but a description of conversation? Or action but a description of what is currently happening? But some writing is clearly focused on describing something specific and isn't easily categorized in another mode.

I also noticed that all the remaining items on my list of writing-mode candidates ended, or could end, with the suffix -tion, with the exception of dialogue. But the term dialogue could be taken to exclude monologue, so I changed it to conversation.

After combining the Marshall and Morrell lists, brainstorming for more candidates, winnowing the list, and then converting them to words ending in -tion, I arrived at the following list of fiction-writing modes: description, action, narration, conversation, exposition, summarization, introspection, sensation, transition, emotion, and recollection.

Fiction-Writing Modes (Arranged in order of the anagram D-A-N-C-E S-I-S-T-E-R):

* Description is the mode by which people, things, or concepts are described.

* Action is the mode of describing things happening, in detail, as they happen.

* Narration is the mode by which the narrator addresses the reader.

* Conversation is the mode of presenting characters talking.

* Exposition is the mode of conveying information.

* Summarization is the mode of restating or recapitulating actions or events.

* Introspection is the mode of conveying a character's thinking.

* Sensation is the mode of presenting the five senses, or maybe even six.

* Transition is the mode of moving from one place, time, or character to another.

* Emotion is the mode of conveying how a character feels.

* Recollection is the mode of describing a character recalling something.

The five basic elements of fiction are character, plot, setting, theme, and style. Style is a composite of the myriad of choices an author makes, consciously or subconsciously, in the process of writing a story. Choices of when, where, and how to utilize the fiction-writing modes are a significant component of a writer's style.

A master carpenter has many types of tools and the expertise to use them. If Hemingway is correct, as fiction writers we may never become masters of our craft. But we can all improve by honing our skills with such concepts as fiction-writing modes.

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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