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Elements of a short story - Coggle Diagram
Elements of a short story
Characters and Themes
What are we told about the characters? Why are we told it?
Are the characters named? Are they significant?
How many characters?
Are there minor characters?
What is their role in the story?
Do the characters change or develop?
What is the writer's main purpose? Entertain, challenged, persuade, surprise, etc
What are the main ideas?
Did the writer's purpose change throughout the story? Why? How?
Plot Structure
Is the story told in the first, second or third person? Why?
Is the narrator involved in the story, or a detached onlooker? What is the effect?
Is there more than one story in the storyline where a number of subplots are woven through the story?
How does the opening paragraph 'set the scene' for the reader/listener?
Is there a specific focus on one character, a setting feature, an object or a particular atmosphere?
When do you first detect a conflict or a complication in the story?
What is the narrative structure of the storyline - eg a flashback, chronological order, slice of time?
What effect does the climax have on you?
Where does the climax of the story occur?
What do you notice about the ending - is it unexpected, expected or subverting conventional story endings?
Setting
How much are we told about the setting at the start of the story? Why?
Is it the place or time that are important? Or both?
Is the setting important to the story?
Language
If the writer does not use dialogue, what is the effect of the descriptive language used to create character, setting and events?
How do descriptions of characters, settings and events enhance the effect of the story on the reader/ listener?
If the writer uses dialogue, how does it develop character and how does it engage the reader/ listener?
Are there particular word choices, sentence structures, uses ot punctuation or formatting of language/text that form part of the story's distinctive features? What are the effects?
Does the writer make use of figurative language (through the use of metaphors, comparisons, contrasts, exaggerations etc)?