This document provides an overview of key elements for writing fiction, including characters, plot, and setting. It discusses the differences between essays and stories, explores different types of plots and plot devices, and offers tips for developing characters, scenes, and imagery. The document emphasizes showing rather than telling, using specific details, and avoiding generic characters. It also briefly touches on commercial screenwriting concepts like loglines and genres. The document aims to give writers a crash course in the essential building blocks of crafting a story.

1. Interested in Writing Fiction?
A Crash Course in
Creating Characters,
Plot and Setting

2. What is it?
How do you
make one?
Plot
How do you make a GOOD one?

3. What is the difference between an essay or a work of
expository prose and a story?
Essays generally have a thesis, are primarily
factual and reflective (not dramatic), are
“narrated” by the actual author, and are usually
structured as traditional, a-temporal arguments.
Stories don’t have a thesis, are primarily dramatic
and fictional, are narrated by an invented
character, and have temporal structures.

4. Don’t confuse a first-
person narrator of a story
with the author of the
story! They are not
(necessarily) the same
person!

5. Plotting a Story
 What's a plot?
o A sequence or pattern of events.
 What sets a story in motion?
A QUESTION is posed, explicitly or implicitly, and you want
to know the answer!
Or: a balanced situation becomes…unbalanced! Some
sort of equilibrium is disturbed.
 Keep in mind overall estimated or intuited length (remember
in media res).
This question linked to
CHARACTER = a stronger
story.

6. Plot—Don’t Plod! Building Suspense
o Introduce additional narrative questions. Create
multiple obstacles, physical or emotional.
o Control the rate of revelation. Slow pace = interior
monologue, description, dialogue, exposition. Fast
pace = action, answers to narrative question.
o Provide false clues, misdirection. Develop sub- or
parallel-plots which delay revelation in the main plot.
o Consider creating your backstory gradually. Don't give
main character’s full story immediately. Let it evolve.
o Provide powerful IMAGERY which heightens tensions.
Students almost NEVER use imagery with
feeling.
SETTING can also reveal character.

7. What else is important to plot?
 Scene Development
o A unit of time and place in which (usually) important action takes
place.
o Can be like mini-stories within the larger story.
 Scene transitions
o Provide a simple extra space on the page. This is common these
days.
o Transitional phrases.
o “Jump cuts.” Allowing for ellipses, intuitive connections,
leeeaaaps… (cut out needless exposition and crud).
Note: many students are not aware of where their
scenes stop and start, and their transitional
passages are consequently “muddy”: over-
elaborated, bogging the whole story down.

8. Helpful Plot Devices (for further info,
see Part 1 of Story Matters)
 Framing
 Flashbacks
 Foreshadowing
 Parallel or intersecting plots or sub-plots
 False clues
 “Hooks” (these are not so much “devices” but
integral elements; sometimes they’re referred to
as complicating actions, triggers, or twists)
 Delay

9. Scene-setting (exposition)
X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Resolution
What SPEEDS pace?
What SLOWS
Pace?
Introduction of
minor parallel plot
Flashback
X
X
Partial answer
Hook = “triggering action” or
“complicating action” or “narrative
question” or “twist.” Different sources will call
these by different names.
False clue
Increasing
tension
Standard
rising
and
falling
action
ACTION!
Dialogue.
Internal
monologue.
Description.

10. What we’ve been
examining so far is the
traditional, linear, “rising
action” plot…

11. And did you know: each carries
with it its own ideological
assumptions about the nature of
time, desire, purpose, even
human existence itself?

12. Alternate Plot Structures
Framed narrative. (Or this is actually a plot device.)
Montage or collage.
Multiple and intersecting plots.
Chronologically backwards plot. (Yes—backwards. See Lorrie
Moore’s “How to Talk to Your Mother.”)
Static plots. (See experimental stories by Robbe Grille.)
All flashbacks, or footnotes, or exposition.
Different plots
can express
alternative
ways of
experiencing
TIME and
REALITY!
See the O’Brien story you read.

13. Tim O’Brien’s,
“How to Tell
a True War
Story”
What do you make of PLOT in this story?

14. Plot Thingys to Avoid
 The “it was all a dream” ending. (Besides the fact that it already
happened to Dorothy, it’s just a cheap solution to the difficulties
raised in the story.)
 Suicide endings. (Sorry—your characters will have to find some
other way out of their problems. Avoid this kind of ending at least for
now.)
 O’Henry twist endings. (Clever, but get old fast. The twist becomes
the whole point of the story, and ultimately has limited interest.)
 Tidy, comprehensive endings in which everything comes out well, all
loose ends are neatly tied up, and the universe is pretty much
explained to one and all. Let your stories end inconclusively now and
then. Let them end with questions rather than answers.

15. Keep in mind that…
Does a story have to be plot-centered?
A piece can be character-driven,
image-driven, idea-driven, even
setting-driven. (Look at selected
scenes from The Player.)

16. Characters
How do you make
them?
How do you make
them INTERESTING?

17. Types
 Flat (or Simple, Secondary, Static)
 Round (or Complex, Primary, Dynamic)
Need to Be
 Believable, Real
 Consistent
 Distinctive
Worst beginner
faults: characters
who are all alike
(can’t tell one from
the other), or are
generic.
Try starting with a
CHARACTER idea, not
a plot idea!

18. Look at character development in…
“The Cures for Love”

19. applied to CHACTERIZATION

20. 1. Let only the tip of the iceberg show—
the right details will evoke the great
complex mass of what lies beneath.
2. Show, don’t tell.
3. Provide fewer, but better, details.
(Less is more.)
4. Avoid platitudes, like the ones I just
used.

21. Try a OPTIONAL, verbal “character
sketch”…
I.e., invent someone…
a person who will be with you the rest of the
semester.
You can explain many things, but try to describe
more than explain.
At least 3 paragraphs. Can be notational.
Sometimes it helps to LITERALLY
sketch or draw the character!
My character’s name is X and
she is an X. She’s from X and
first Xed when she Xed…

22. Look again at your character sketch.
 What were you doing? Your
character is FLAT! BORING!
GENERIC! 2-dimensional!
 Look at questions in Harmonious
Confusion and TRY AGAIN!
www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/HarmoniousWhole.htm

23. SETTING and IMAGERY
 What do SPECIFIC ITEMS in the setting say about the main
character?
– What is in your invented character’s bedroom?
– What is in YOUR bedroom?
– What is in the jungle in “How to Tell a True War Story”? What
is in the home of the protagonist of “The Cures for Love”?
 What mood is created by the setting and by the story’s imagery?
 How do the setting and the imagery contribute to theme?
 In what ways might a story actually be ABOUT setting? (setting
that is almost a character)

24. Settings which tell us very
GENERAL kinds of things about
the characters (socio-economic
class, general historical time and
location), though some are at
least evocative)

35. These tell us more about the
specific individuals living in
them

39. Dave Eggers

40. Copyright
A VERY Brief Look at a TINY Number of Issues
Idea-Expression Dichotomy
You can’t own an idea…
but you can own the original expression of an
idea.
“[T]he ‘ideas’ that are the fruit of an author's labors go into the
public domain, while only the author's particular expression
remains the author's to control”
(http://www.edwardsamuels.com/copyright/beyond/articles/ideapt1-20.htm).

41. “Given the difficulty of defining the terms of the doctrine,
some courts and commentators have developed an
‘abstractions’ test[FN6] or a ‘patterns’ analysis,[FN7] which
purports to place a given work along a continuum between
idea and expression. Although it is impossible to state
precisely when a particular work has crossed the threshold
from one end to the other, the courts are nonetheless
supposed to struggle to apply the terms.” Ibid.

42. Other Considerations
 “Substantial Use”
 “Fair Use”
 “Sufficient originality”

43. Screenwriting
Commercial

44. Movies vs. Plays vs. Novels
 Novel: author has control of nearly all of the main
product
 Plays: playwright has total control of script
 Movies: screenwriter usually has little control of
anything 
 Novel: can get directly into characters’ thoughts
and also provide exposition easily
 Movies: primarily visual
 Plays: primarily verbal (dialogue)
 Novels: a solitary art
 Plays and especially movies: highly collaborative
arts

45. Basics BASICS BASICS
 Shooting or Production Script:
Formatted for actual use on set.
 Spec or Writer’s Script:
For shopping your script around.
100-120 pages. Period.
And there’s
the:
Pitch
Outline
Treatment
Synopsis

46. In MANY commercial films, CONCEPT is key.
A successful concept:
 Can be understood by an 8th grader
 Can be summed up in one or two sentences
 Is provocative
 Provides a compelling mental picture
 Has a main character who experiences a conflict which leads to
an initial HOOK
 Has sequel potential
 Has “legs” (could work even without big stars)
 Will nonetheless attract a big star
 Stands out
 Is original but also has familiar elements (Being John Malkovich)
 You can see the whole movie in it
 Has broad appeal
 Is marketable; the exec knows immediately that the idea has
potential

47. Formulating the concept
(the “one-line” or “logline”):
 Pose as question:
 What if Dorothy had a sister?
 What if Titanic were a spaceship instead of a boat?
 What if one of the ghostbusters were himself a ghost?
 Pose as a logline: TV Guide or newspaper movie
section one-sentence summary
 Pose as a hook:
 The Graduate: Part II
 Out of Africa meets Pretty Lady
 Braveheart comes to America (The Patriot)
 Night of the Living Dead meets Star Wars (The Imposter)
 Night of the Living Dead meets Outbreak (The Invasion)
 Animal House meets The Good Girl (The Tao of Steve)

48. Logline should have an implied structure—on
hearing the concept, an exec would sense a
beginning, middle, and end, or the “beats”:
1. Opening Image
2. Theme Statement
3. Set-up
4. Catalyst
5. Debate
6. B Story (usually the love story, page 30)
7. Fun and Games
8. Midpoint
9. Bad Guys Close In
10.All is Lost
11.Dark Night of the Soul
12.Finale
13.Final Image
Every handbook you consult will
break these parts down a little
differently or with different headers

49. The killer TITLE
+ the CONCEPT
= a one-two

50. Know Your Genres
 Thriller
 Love Story
 Action/Adventure
 Sci-Fi
 Horror
 Detective mystery
 Comedy

51. …including ones not mentioned in your local video store:
 The Fish Out of Water
 Dances with Wolves, Dangerous Minds, Miss Congeniality, Legally Blonde,
Benjamin Button, The Reader
 The Pet Who Heals
 Winn-Dixie, Seabiscuit, As Good as It Gets (sub-theme), Marley and Me
 The Buddy Story (Sensitive Male Bonding Flick)
 Ill-Fated Lovers (Casablanca, Romeo and Juliet,
 Plain Jane Transformed
 The Devil Wears Prada, Pretty Lady, My Fair Lady, Cinderella (of course)…
 Beloved Mentor
 Dead Poets Society, Dangerous Minds, Good Will Hunting
 Rites of Passage (A Few Good Men, Rocky, Titanic, The Reader)
 The Quest (Titanic, Troy, Indiana Jones, My Best Friend’s Wedding
 Monster in the House (The Exorcist, Tremors, Panic Room, Alien)
 The Brilliant Dope (Forrest Gump, Dave, I Am Sam)

52. There is much, much, much, much,
much, much, much, much, much,
much, much, much, much more to
this discipline.
I’ve given you a wee taste, a feel for
the commercial foundations.

53. Finding resources is EASY
To read actual film scripts, try out:
 www.isriptdb.com (Internet Movie Script Database)
 www.dailyscript.com
 www.newmarketpress.com/category.asp?id=10www.scriptcrawler.com (New Market Press’s film
and television scripts for sale)
 www.script-o-rama.com
 www.simplyscripts.com
TV and movie script writing site:
 www.cybercollege.com/index.htm
Quicky on film script format:
 www.cybercollege.com/dram_flm.htm
Longer thingy on script writing format:
 http://www.screenwriting.info/
These sites haven’t been
thoroughly examined; they are
suggested starting places only.

54. BTW,
how do you know when a website is junk?
 No contact info or verifiable background
 No affiliations, stated or linked
 Claims made without supporting evidence
 The site is problematically “.com” or other
 “.orgs” are getting easier to fudge, apparently
 No documentation of sources
 No documentation of little-known or debatable info
 Conspicuous ill-will, bias, disregard for opposing views
 Unedited and unproofread
 Links take you to advertisements or porn
 Comes from Wikipedia :) Wickedpedia

55. But, man, do you
really want to
write formula
stuff?
E.g., visit
the Fargo
Theater!
There’s a whole world of non-formula film-
making and screenwriting out there; you
just might have to look a little further
than franchise theaters or screaming TV
trailers.

56. The $3 Exercise: What’s
the Story?
Where to?

57. • Possible pts. of view:
– You
– Receiver
– Teacher
– Onlooker
• Point of entry
– Instructor giving assignment
– You on your way
– Teacher waiting
– Handing the money over
– Someone reflecting back (frame)
• Narrative question:
– What will receiver do? (action story about people in conflict, danger)
– What will happen to me when I encounter the receiver? Can I make myself do it?
(character-based story about personal growth; tiny coming-of-age piece)
– Why is instructor doing this? (story about education; maybe mentor-piece; battle-of-
wills piece)
– What will students think of this assignment? (the burned-out teacher; the evil
teacher; the heroic teacher)
• Triggers, hooks, complicating actions, mounting tension
– Dialogue with other students on the way
– New thoughts on the way
– Diversions; delays; false leads
– Setting: how do things LOOK when one is stepping directly into the unknown?
• Climax
• Dangers of this story
– Pat theme

58. Editing prose for maximum INTEREST
Remember what Eggers says about
“reading for the sentences”? Power
Punch
Texture
Nuance
Elegance
Juicy
Crisp
Thick
Fluid
Flat
Smooth
Spare
Elliptical
Brittle

59. See Blackboard “Course Documents” for
sheet.
Also at:
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/
cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/Style.htm

60. Worst High School Metaphors
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently
compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a
guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one
of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country
speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar
eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-
temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes
just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

61. 7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had
disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as
a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly
surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly
the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a
Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole
scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re
on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on
at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a
sneeze.

62. 13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots
when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced
across the grassy field toward each other like two freight
trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55
mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. At a speed of 35
mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket
fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two
hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she
was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel
trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted
shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.

63. 20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But
unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get
from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame
duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame,
maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended
one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids
around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he
heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

64. less is more (style)

65. It roars down the road. The engine
howls, a caged animal begging to be
set free; plumes of bronze smoke blast
skyward with every scream. Dust
billows in airborne whirlpools behind
gargantuan tires. Its ominous shadow
bears down upon everything trapped in
its destructive path. Ever closer it
approaches, once a mere speck on the
horizon this beast becomes a veritable
leviathan.

66. It roars down the road. The engine
howls, a caged animal begging to be
set free; plumes of bronze smoke blast
skyward with every scream. Dust
billows in airborne whirlpools behind
gargantuan tires. Its ominous shadow
bears down upon everything trapped in
its destructive path. Ever closer it
approaches, once a mere speck on the
horizon this beast becomes a veritable
leviathan. Once a mere speck on the
horizon, ever closer it approaches.

67. It roars down the road, a caged animal.
Bronze smoke blasts skyward, dust in
airborne whirlpools behind gargantuan
tires. Once a mere speck, its shadow
bears down upon everything.

68. Silences aren’t silent.
Silences aren’t nothing.
Being good with words means knowing when to shut up.

69. Fiction:
Some #1 Things to Look Out For
Before handing in workshop material,
ask yourself at least a few of these questions:

70. 1. Does the story rely entirely on plot? Are other story elements—character, setting,
perspective, language, image—ignored?
2. Does the plot in turn rely entirely on an "O'Henry twist" or trick ending? This is fun
maybe once or twice, but it gets old really fast. You should only be doing this
sparingly. The outcome is a foregone conclusion for the writer and so no discoveries
have been made. One of the central pleasures in writing—for the writer—has been
missed.
3. A related problem is the plot based heavily on a clever, "ooh-aah" or "oh wow"
premise. Such a premise or basic concept is fine if the story is otherwise fully
developed, but too often the premise becomes the only point, a gimmick of interest
for about 3 seconds. Try founding your story on some interesting and unresolved,
possibly unresolvable problem of character rather than plot. The premise may seem
less snappy or clever at first, but ultimately the story will be richer and take the reader
(and you, the writer) into more interesting territory.
4. Is the plot "front-heavy"? That is, does it have page after page of initial scene-setting
and exposition, followed by screaming slide to a conclusion?
5. Is there a suicide ending? Come on.
6. Are there plenty of specific, concrete, sensory DETAILS so that the reader can really
see and feel the setting and characters? Or is most of the language general and
abstract?

71. 7. Are the characters in the story distinctive? Can you tell one apart from the other, or are they all
basically the same person?
8. Are the characters developed? Do you really know the central people in the story—their
desires, physical quirks, beliefs, contradictions? Does the main character leave an
impression? Do you know everything there is to know about the main character? (you
shouldn't!).
9. Are scenes* in the story distinctive and delineated? If they all kind of run together, chances are
there's a lot of inconsequential action which is diluting the best stuff so we can't see it or
experience it vividly. Go through and mark where scenes in the story begin and end, and
consider cleaner transitions from one scene to another.
10. Look at the scenes you've marked. Is each one sufficiently developed? Notice where some
good scene opportunities are being brushed over. These are places where you probably
SUMMARIZED or used EXPOSITION rather than developed the moment with sensory detail.
11. Are the scenes well-modulated? You want to alternate action, reflection, dialogue, and
exposition—not action scene followed by action scene followed by action scene. If there's no
modulation, the high points just run together with the low points and the story will feel
monotonous.
12. Is the point of view modulated? You want "distant shots" as well as detailed "close-ups."
13. Is there real engagement with language? Or, oops, is the prose style pretty much a soggy
paper towel?

72. 14. Look out for dull, hackneyed language; cliché words and expressions:
a. "sly smile"
b. "evil smirk"
c. "deep into his eyes"
d. "heart leaped to his throat"
e. "face etched with concern"
f. "blacker than night"
g. "bitter tears"
h. majestic sunset," etc.
15. Try some interesting figurative language! Look at Lorrie Moore and Annie Proulx
for evocative, surprising, moving, vivid, juicy metaphors and similes.
16. Watch out for monotonous sentence length and style; no rhythmic, modulated, or
otherwise engaging sentences.
17. Listen for voice—does your narrator, whether she's wholly omniscient, limited
omniscient, or first-person—have a distinctive way of talking?
* Scene = an unbroken stretch of time and action, usually in one place. Unlike a summary or
exposition, which may overview a broad period of time, a scene generally covers a brief,
detailed, circumscribed period. Scenes are almost like small stories in themselves.

73. All assignments in Story Matters
 Be sure to read the interviews!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 Analyze them from the point of view of a
writer, not a literary scholar or critic.

74. Screenwriting info freely cribbed from Blake Snyder’s Save the
Cat, Linda Seger’s From Script to Screen, David Trottier’s
Screenwriter’s Bible, and Skip Press’s The Complete Idiot’s
Guide to Screenwriting and Rob Tobin’s The Screenwriting
Formula.