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Writing fiction can seem like a daunting task at the beginning. However, like any other craft, there are key elements that make up the finished work that, when looked at individually, make the process much more manageable. Often these various aspects are needlessly shrouded in academic mystery. For example, do a search on amazon.com and see how many books deal with nothing but plot. It can be overwhelming, discouraging, and infuriating trying to keep all of these pieces straight in your mind. It is also unnecessary.

The major elements of writing fiction can be summed up with very simple definitions:

Setting: This is where the story takes place. It includes many things, but an example would be an apartment building in midtown Manhattan in 1968. Setting is often used to give a story mood and atmosphere.

Character: A character is any participant in the story, usually a human being, but occasionally an animal or other creature. There are a few types of characters, including round (fully developed, true to life characters), flat (wooden, one-dimensional, and often stereotypical), dynamic (characters that change during the story), and static (characters that do not change during the story).

Plot: The series of events that form the structure of the story. The story itself rises out of the conflict experienced by the main character. Conflict is the struggle between the protagonist and antagonist. Plot consists of rising action (beginning), climax (middle), and resolution (end).

Protagonist: The main character of the story. There is typically only one protagonist, even when there are several major characters.

Antagonist: The character in conflict with the protagonist. This is not always another person; it may be an animal or force of nature standing between the protagonist and his goal.

Point of View: The perspective from which the story is told. The main types of point of view are omniscient (in which the author tells the story directly and is all-knowing, able to relay even the thoughts of the characters), limited omniscient (in which the story is told in the third-person by one of the characters), third-person objective (in which the author tells the story only through what can be seen, leaving out the characters' inner thoughts), and first-person (in which the narrator uses the pronoun "I", and is usually the main character). Second-person point of view is almost never used.

Dialogue: The language of the characters as they speak to each other. The words of a narrator of a story are not dialogue except in cases where the narrator is also a character speaking directly to other characters.

Theme: The central idea or message of the story. The theme is typically a commentary of sorts on issues much greater than those that are obvious simply by looking at the plot.

All of these elements are important parts of good fiction. The most important element, however, is something you can't find in this article or any how-to book. Some call it style, while other call it voice. Either way, it is the thing that makes your story unique, something that only you could have written. It is the combination of all you have learned, seen, read, and experienced in your life distilled into the way in which you write.

So while it's important to pay attention to the major elements when writing fiction, always start with your voice, the most important element.

Learn more about this author, Bruno Somerset.
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