Focus on Genre: Elements of Fiction
• Plot
• Characters
• Setting
Writers create fictional stories to entertain their readers. They use the elements of fiction—plot, characters, and setting—to build their stories.
Plot: How It Works
The plot is what happens in a story.
• Plots are built around a conflict, or problem that the main character faces.
• The events are what the characters do.
• The turning point is the most important event of the story.
• The resolution is the event that solves the problem.
Read “The Night Walker” to see examples of the elements of fiction and the stages of the plot.
The swamp smelled rotten in the night air. Isabella wrinkled her nose. She poked a stick at the piles of green slime in the water. Suddenly, a patch of slime rose up. It was the Blob!
This terrible creature swallowed everything in its path. Isabella screamed and ran. The slimy Blob slipped out of the swamp and slithered onto the path. As Isabella reached for the handle of her car door, the Blob grasped her foot.
The Blob lives in the swamp.
Isabella managed to get the door open. She grabbed the spray bottle of cleaner she always kept in her car. She blasted the creature with cleaner. At each squirt, the Blob grew smaller and weaker. In a few minutes, it was just a lifeless puddle. Isabella stood up and smiled. Then she wiped the puddle away with an old towel.