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Write Fictional Narratives

A fictional narrative, just like any other kind of narrative, tells a story. The story is created in the writer's imagination, and it revolves around an event or a series of events. A short story is a fictional narrative built around just one event. Since you will most likely be required to write short stories for school, we will focus on the short story in this lesson.

There are four main elements of a fictional narrative: The plot is the story's main event. You can think of it as the action. Most plots center on a problem faced by the main character. The characters of the story are the individuals involved in the plot. The characters could be people, animals, aliens—anyone that is mixed up in the plot is a character. The setting is the place and time in which the story occurs. Writers often use the setting to create a mood or atmosphere. The point of view is the perspective from which the story is told. For example, some stories are written using the word "I" to refer to the main character. This is the first person point of view. The third person point of view uses words like "he" and "him" to refer to the main character. Look at this table for three common points of view: