What is fiction?

Fiction is Storytelling

We all love stories. Stories are everywhere around us, even in places you aren't really looking. There a stories on the TV, of course, and at the movies. Stories play out on the pages of books, and in the comic pages of newpapers. Stories can be found on YouTube, and on your friend's blog as she tells about her latest adventure of the week. But are these the only places that stories can be found? As a person who loves reading, writing, and stories, I believe that stories can be found everywhere.

Let's think about that for a minute. Right now, you are sitting at your computer, reading your screen. You are reading my blog, and hopefully, you are enjoying yourself. What is going on around you? Is is quiet or loud? Is it hot or cold? Is it windy or calm? Who is in the room with you? Your mother, your sister, your cat, an annoying buzzing fly? What is happening around you, as you sit reading my blog, is a story, and you are the main character. Do you smack the fly? Do you fall asleep as your read and drool on the cat? Does your sister make you mad by singing loudly and off key, and do you yell at her (loud enough to be heard over her singing...loud enough to rattle the windows) to stop? All of this is story stuff. Let's explore what makes good fiction. Let's explore the "stuff" that makes up stories.

Story Stuff

Stories need three things in order to really be stories.

Stories need: A character, a setting, and a plot.

Let's look at each of these more closely.

A Character, or "Let me take center stage!"

Every story needs a star--the person, creature, animal, or other living thing that this story is about. How do you decide who to make the star of your fiction? Sometimes it is as easy as pointing to one of your pets--your cat, dog, fish, snake, mouse, gerbil, or even your pet worm--and saying "You are the star of my story."

Other times, it seems harder. Should you write about a kid just like you? Should you write about a friendly robot? How about a cranky slug or a scary ghost? Truly, the choices are endless. Yet...it may not seem that way. If you write about a friendly robot, you may feel you can't have his best friend be that cranky slug. But I ask you, why not? This is a story, it is fiction. You are making it up, and you can make it up in any way you want. Pick your star, anyone you want, and let's go! Let's pick the robot for our character. He seems like he could be fun to spend some time with.

(Story characters can be nonliving things if you bring a nonliving thing to life. This is called personification. Did you see "The Brave Little Toaster?" on tape or DVD? This is a good example of this.)



A Setting, or "This is the place where I am."

Okay, so you have your star, the character of your story. In this case, we have chosen a friendly robot. Do we write about him as he stands in the middle of nowwhere? Is he standing in the middle of a big white space? Where is this robot? Where do we want him to be?

Where we place our character, the spot where we plunk him down, is the setting. Think about having an actor step out onto a stage, or walk onto a movie set. If we put our robot onto the deck of a pirate ship far out at sea, our story will be different than if we put him in the middle of a big mud puddle in the middle of the school playground.

Setting can be anyplace. It can be a real place or an imagined place. Tatooine is a made up place, as is the Death Star, and yet, they are very good settings for a story. The deep of the sea is a good setting for Marlin and Dory and Nemo. How different would the story have been had those characters been plunked down in the middle of the desert? (It would have been a short story, I suspect. :-) Let's pick the mud puddle in the playground for the setting of our story about the friendly robot, and let's move on!

Plot, Sometimes Known as "Oh boy, I'm in trouble now!"

The last story element we need is plot. What is plot? It isn't a patch of ground, that's for sure. Plot is trouble. Plot is conflict. Plot is worry and uh-ohs and disaster. Plot is another way to say "Let's dump our character into the soup. Let's give him a really big problem to solve, and let's see what he does with it."

Let's think about our robot. How fun would our story be if he just sat in that mud puddle all day? Sitting, sitting, sitting, in the mud, mud, mud? Here's what that might be like:

The robot found himself sitting in a mud puddle in the middle of the playground. He sat there, in the mud, while the kids played around him. He just sat. And then he sat some more. Mud, he decided, was nice to sit in. He decided he would sit there all day. The end.

Wow, that's exciting huh? Yep, it's a bestseller for sure. Or not. Let's try that again, but this time, let's give our robot a problem--let's give him some plot.

The robot found himself sitting in a mud puddle in the middle of the playground. He was a bit surprised as mud started to ooze into his joints and fill up his middle. The mud was heavy and cold, and as he sat there in that puddle he knew if he didn't get out, all of his insides would become heavy and cold too. The robot didn't know what would happen then, when he was all full of mud, but he didn't think it would be good.

Is this more exciting? We have built up a story. We first chose a character--our robot. We next chose a setting--the mud puddle. We then chose a plot--that is, we gave our robot a problem--he is filling up with mud. Is this a good start for a story? I think so. What do you think? Could you write a way for our robot to get out of the mud? Try it!

Next up: Practice with picking characters.