Creative writing elements are important tools writers use to craft a story. Here are five examples of these elements in fiction.
Plot
In creative writing, the plot is what happens in a work of fiction. It is the most essential of all creative writing elements. No story can survive without a plot–it’s not a story at all without it. The plot has various points that anchors a story’s narrative. A writer should use an outline to create a plot. The outline is called the plot or narrative arc. A basic arc starts with an inciting incident, rising action, a climax, falling action and then the resolution. Here is a quick breakdown of the plot arc for The Wizard of Oz.
- Set Up: Dorothy is a happy-go-lucky girl in the countryside of Kansas
- Inciting Incident: Dorothy’s dog upsets a neighbor who comes to take him from Dorothy, Dorothy runs away to escape with her dog, and a subtle subplot reveals she is unhappy with her home life
- Rising Action: Dorothy is carried away to a fantasy land where she becomes desperate to get home. She must get in contact with the Wizard of this strange land.
- Climax: Dorothy encounters challenges to get to the Wizard. When she does, he tells her she must defeat the Wicked Witch of the West. She ends up in a confrontation with the witch that makes the conflict of the story change.
- Falling Action: Dorothy returns to the Wizard with the defeated witch’s broom stick only to discover the Wizard is a con man.
- Resolution: The con man leaves OZ without Dorothy, but Dorothy is magically taken home by the powers she already had with her.
Point of View
Point of View (POV) is a fiction element that demonstrates how the story is told. A story’s POV could be told from a character’s perspective in the story also known as 1st person POV. It could also be told from outside of a character’s POV. This is called third-person point of view which is also known as omniscient or authoritative POV.
For example, in Moby Dick, the narrative begins with, “Call me Ishmael.” It is the first-person narrator introducing himself. Ishmael tells the story of the great whale from his own perspective. It’s just like if you had a friend tell you about the thing that happened to them in school. They would use “I” to refer to themselves and tell you what they saw.
In Harry Potter, the narrative is told from the third-person limited” perspective. This means that the narrative follows one character at a time. Harry isn’t telling the story himself, but the story is being told about him while giving the reader special access to his perspective and telling us how he feels and what he thinks. In contrast, third person POV can be unlimited. For example, if Harry Potter was written in third person unlimited, the narrator would share what all characters think and feel at the same time. A reader would know not just what Harry thinks, but what all the characters around him think.
Dialogue
Dialogue is simple and one of the most effective creative writing elements. It is what characters actually say out loud to others in the narrative. Dialogue typically have ” ” to designate to the reader that dialogue is happening. Dialogue is an effective way to tell a story and prevent long, diary-like expositions from a narrator or main character. Dialogue can be used to introduce literary elements such as flashbacks, foreshadowing, and tension. Consider this example of how dialogue can be used to demonstrate emotion.
Use of dialogue: “Jim, I told you not to leave you filthy socks all over the damn floor! I’m sick of picking up after you,” Alice said.
Without dialogue: Alice came home to a pile of socks on the floor. She scoffed under her breath and reached down to picked them up. She still had her laptop bag slung around her shoulder. She paced around the room waiting for Jim to come out of the bathroom. When he did, she threw the socks at him and walked out.
Here we see two ways the writer displays Alice’s frustration with Jim and his socks. The use of dialogue helps the reader tap into the frustration she feels. These two examples could actually be used together to create an intense scene between Alice and Jim.
Theme
The theme, also known as premise, can be considered the main idea of a story. The theme summarizes the author’s intent and the message of their story. A story’s theme should remain consistent throughout its narrative. This is why theme is considered a writing element for fiction. Without a theme, a story may not have an overall purpose.
A theme should not be signaled at the beginning of a story like a traffic sign. A writer should use creative writing techniques such as irony, symbolism and allegory to display a story’s theme throughout the narrative.
Star Wars has several great themes. The overall theme or message of this narrative is choosing to do good over doing evil. It is also about how humble beginnings do not have to determine how great or powerful a person can be or how important their tasks towards humanity are. This message is executed through the plot.
A story’s theme is about how its narrative makes us feel and what it makes us think about the world around us. A strong theme leads to questions being asked and forums being held about the messages given in a book. Theme is a creative wrting element that should not be overlooked.
Setting
Setting is among the most useful elements of writing for both fiction and non fiction. It will be very hard to excute a narrative that has no backdrop. The setting of a story is like the canvas for an oil painting. Where do you put your colors? Your characters, plot, dialogue, and all of the other elements of creative writing are suspended against this backdrop also known as the setting.
Setting can be simple or broad. It involves a physical location, a space in time, and other nuances that help with its description such as culture. Culture is especially important with historical works.
The magic of The Wizard of Oz is assisted greatly by its setting. We understand the story’s premise better due to the setting the story is written in. This is typical for a fantasy story like The Wizard of Oz. This is also known as world-building. With world building, a writer effectively places its reader in the picturesque location of their narrative to make the story very real to the reader.