Writing is it the plot, subplot or backstory?
Asked by: Monica Rodriguez
In fiction writing, the definition of a subplot is a side story that runs parallel to the main plot. It has a secondary strand of characters and events that can infuse important information into the main storyline.
What are the 5 parts of a story structure?
A story has five basic but important elements. These five components are: the characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution.
Is backstory a plot?
A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of primary interest.
What is a plot and subplot in a story?
In simple terms, a plot is a sequence of connected events that are bound together by cause and effort. The subplot is a side story that exists within the main plot. The subplot is connected to the main story but never overpowers it.
What is the backstory of a story called?
This is called the EXPOSITION. It is the background information on the characters and setting explained at the beginning of the story. The EXPOSITION will often have information about events that happened before the story began. The EXPOSITION is often the very first part of the PLOT.
How do you write backstories?
Contents
- Brainstorm formative events that shape your characters.
- Choose where to tell character backstory. …
- Balance telling backstory with showing.
- Keep backstory relevant to current choices and actions. …
- Strip excess backstory from narration.
- Use backstory to reveal drives.
- Draw character background from familiar places.
What is an example of a backstory?
Backstory includes the events that directly lead to the “story” and its storyform. For example: Bob’s backstory involved the loss of a child pet that made him hypersensitive to having children, pets, or any other form of personal responsibility.
What is another word for backstory?
In this page you can discover 3 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for backstory, like: plotline, back-story and subplot.
What does backstory mean in literature?
: a story that tells what led up to the main story or plot (as of a film)
What is the difference between backstory and flashback?
Flashback Versus Backstory
A flashback is told as an action scene. Backstory is the story that happens before your novel begins. Sometimes during the story, you need to inform the reader of something that happened earlier in a character’s life.
What is flash back in literature?
What Is a Flashback in Literature? In fiction, a flashback is a scene that takes place before a story begins. Flashbacks interrupt the chronological order of the main narrative to take a reader back in time to the past events in a character’s life.
What is the literary term for flashback?
A flashback (sometimes called an analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory.
How do you transition from present to past in a story?
The convention is even simpler. Put story-time action in present tense and put the entire flashback in past tense. When you’re ready to return to story time, simply resume present tense.
What are the types of plots?
Type of Plots
The plot used in fictions can be differentiated into four types: linear, episodic, parallel, and flashback. The most common plot employed in short stories is the linear plot. Some short stories, though quite rarely, also use flashback plot.
How do you write flashbacks in writing?
So if you need a flashback, it’s simple: Write a sentence or two of transition, then do a scene break, then write the flashback, and then do another scene break.
A flashback has three parts:
- The segue out of the present and into the past.
- The backstory scene itself.
- The segue out of the backstory and into the present.
How do you write flashbacks in creative writing?
5 Tips in Writing Effective Flashbacks:
- Find a trigger to ignite a flashback. Think about when you are suddenly pulled into a memory. …
- Find a trigger to propel a return to the present. …
- Keep it brief. …
- Make sure the flashback advances the story. …
- Use flashbacks sparingly.
What is the difference between flashback and foreshadow?
Both flashback and foreshadowing are narrative devices that present story events out of temporal order. Flashback describes some past events related to the present; foreshadowing gives allusion (possibly implicit) to some future events.
What is a scene break in writing?
A scene break is when you hit enter (or return) three times, in a double-spaced document, leaving two blank lines between one section of text and the next section of text. A scene break is a separation between related scenes. It’s used to indicate time passing or a change of location that continues in the same scene.
What is foreshadowing in writing?
“Foreshadowing” is a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted.
What does internal conflict mean in a story?
Internal conflict is when a character struggles with their own opposing desires or beliefs. External conflict sets a character against something or someone beyond their control.
What is imagery in a story?
As human beings, we understand the world through our senses—what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, and what we touch. To represent this process in their literary works, storytellers and poets use vivid language designed to appeal to these senses. This language is called imagery.
What is suspense in a story?
In literature, suspense is an uneasy feeling that a reader gets when they don’t know what is going to happen next. A writer creates suspense through a controlled release of information to readers that raises key questions and makes readers eager, but terrified, to find out what happens.
What is climax in a story?
In the structure of a play the climax, or crisis, is the decisive moment, or turning point, at which the rising action of the play is reversed to falling action. It may or may not coincide with the highest point of interest in the drama.
What is rising action in a story?
The rising action of the story is all of the events that lead to the eventual climax, including character development and events that create suspense.