6 Writing Fiction Free Online FlashCards

What is a premise in fiction?

A premise is a compact story seed that often combines a character, a desire, an obstacle, and a consequence.

What does plot organize?

Plot is the arrangement of story events and their cause-and-effect relationships.

What must remain clear in a nonchronological plot?

A story may rearrange time, but readers still need to understand how choices and consequences connect.

How can a story reveal character indirectly?

Readers can discover character through choices, actions, speech, and reactions—not only through explanation.

What can setting include besides time and place?

Setting includes when and where a story happens, along with the social conditions, customs, and physical limits that shape events.

How can setting affect a story's events?

Setting can shape what characters can do or notice, and it can contribute to conflict, mood, and meaning.

What does point of view determine?

Point of view determines whose perspective guides the telling and what information readers can access.

What shapes narrative voice?

Voice is the narration's distinctive sound and sensibility, shaped by diction, sentence length, rhythm, humor, attention, and attitude. It is not automatically the author's own voice.

What three questions help plan a scene?

A scene plan identifies what the viewpoint character wants, what resists that goal, and what changes by the scene's end.

How does summary differ from a scene?

A scene unfolds an event moment by moment; summary condenses events that do not need to be shown in full.

What is subtext in dialogue?

Subtext is the gap between what people say and what they mean.

What does imagery do in fiction?

Imagery uses concrete sensory details and figurative language to shape how readers experience a moment. A few precise details can be more vivid than a long inventory.