I. What is Setting? Setting is the time and place (or when and where) of the story. It's a literary element of literature used in novels, short stories, plays, films, etc., and usually introduced during the exposition (beginning) of the story, along with the characters.
Here are some good rules to know.
- Theme. A theme is something important the story tries to tell us—something that might help us in our own lives.
- Plot. Plot is most often about a conflict or struggle that the main character goes through.
- Story Structure.
- Characters.
- Setting.
- Style and Tone.
Great dialogue allows a character to respond to the character causing conflict. It also allows a character to create conflict. Tension increases when a writer builds doubt and uncertainty with a character's words. You should use dialogue to show who your characters really are.
To quicken the pace of a book (and make time whip by for the reader), fiction writers can make their chapters shorter. Likewise, stretching out the chapter will make readers feel as though time has slowed to a crawl. As you might expect, many a canny author has used chapter lengths to their advantage.
There are two ways to denote a scene break. First there is the clean space which leaves a gap between the end of one scene and the beginning of the new scene. The second one is the use of three asterisks centred on the page. This is known as asterism (from the Greek word for star).
The modifier “LATER” is used only when a scene takes place in the very same location as the previous one. In such cases, the headings would be identical, were it not for the modifier. Adding it avoids confusion as to why both scenes could not be merged into one.
If you want to jump in time, the simplest way would be to use a new scene heading or a secondary slug such as “LATER”. Because this is only visible to the reader, you may have to describe how the different time of day will be visually represented on the screen.
In the most basic sense, you just need to add a few words to your scene headers. First, if you open your screenplay with a flashback scene, you don't need to tell the reader that it's a flashback. After the flashback, if, say, the second scene begins much later, you just say the following after the new scene header…
A: Transitions are used to indicate a special passage from one scene to another. This after- every-scene usage should be avoided by modern screenwriters, as the use of an INT. or EXT. scene heading tells us we're cutting to a new scene.
Three Tips for Surprising Your Reader
- Take a cliche and twist. As you brainstorm your story, ask yourself what readers expect from that particular genre–and then avoid the expected.
- Surprise the character. A good story inhabits the world of a character, allowing the reader to experience the world with the character.
- Brainstorm ten things.
Climax • This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main character comes face to face with a conflict.
A work of literature can be thought of as involving four different and potentially quite separate time frames: author time (when the work was originally written or published); narrator time (when the narrator in a work of fiction supposedly narrates the story); plot time (when the action depicted actually takes place);
She can then fast forward, rewind and pause it at any time over the next 24 hours. But I have to say, I did fast forward through that dreadful speech by the odious brother and through the drippy prayers from the drippy archbish.
Use heightened detail when you want to slow things downAnother way to slow down the pacing – especially for a single moment that you want to highlight – is to heighten the attention to detail. Think of a slow-motion movie shot.
