Unit 2: Is CONFLICT necessary?

ELEMENTS OF A STORY

Conflict: A conflict might be as small as an argument between friends or as large as a war between countries.

A conflict may involve one person with a problem they need to solve, or between two or more people.

Conflicts are difficult for the people involved, but can a conflict have a positive outcome?

Types of Conflict

An INTERNAL CONFLICT is usually a decision a person has to make that might hurt himself or someone else.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT

An EXTERNAL CONFLICT involves a character and an outside force: another person, the weather, etc.

How is a character developed?

Development of Characters:

The main characters in a story are interesting and complex, or well-rounded. Complex characters share the following qualities:

-multiple traits, or qualities.

-struggle with conflicting motivations or reasons for acting as they do.

-they may change by the end of the story.

CharacterizationDirect Characterization

The narrator makes direct statements about a character’s personality.

Afshin focused on just one thing at a time, but the depth of his focus was remarkable. Before a reace, his single-minded trance could only be broken by the sound of the starter’s whistle.

Indirect Characterization

The reader learns what characters are like by analyzing what they say and do as well as how other characters respond to them.

Summer or winter, in sun, wind, or rain, Jess rose before dawn and jogged the two-mile loop around the reservoir. After a quick shower and two chocolate donuts, she always felt ready to face the day.

How characters advance a story:

Advance the plot

A character’s choices help to move the story along. A character’s decision to do (or NOT do) something can also lead to new plot developments and may intensify the conflict, heighten the tension or suspense in a story.

Develop the theme

A character’s struggles with a decision or situation usually help to explain a real life lesson. Pay attention to the ways that characters change and to the lessons that they learn. These details usually point you toward the story’s theme.

Conflict: Cindy is friendly with Matilda. Cindy’s

friends Staci and Ashley do NOT like Matilda an dputpressure on Cindy to shun her.

Characters’ interactions: RESULT: (prediction)

Staci and Ashley invite everyone to their party except Cindy.

Cindy decides that Staci and Ashley are being unfair and makes a point of attending a school game with Matilda.

Analyzing Structure and Theme

Structuring a text for effect:

The way an author structures or organizes information in a story can create effects like tension, mystery and surprise.

An author does this through:

PLOT STRUCTUREOpenings: The opening establishes the general feeling of the story.

SEQUENCE

Chronological order: the order in which events occurred from start to finish.

Flashbacks: a section that describes a time before the present time of the story. Flashbacks usually give an insight into a character’s motivations.

PACING

Pacing is the speed in which a narrator describes events that have happened.

By describing a scene at length and giving many descriptive details, an author ‘slows down’ the pace. This is usually done to create SUSPENSE.

A narrator can also create a sensation of ‘speed’ and excitement by moving quickly from one idea to another in a scene that is loaded with tension.

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view, or narrative perspective, from which the story is told.

Third-person omniscient: the narrator is OUTSIDE of the events of the story and tells the thoughts and feelings of ALL characters.

Third-person limited: the narrator is OUTSIDE of the story but tells the thoughts and feelings of only ONE character.

First-person: the narrator is a character in the story and uses the pronouns I and me.