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At its most basic, narrative requires there be a story that is shown happening moment to moment, anchored in space -- he did this and she said that. It is instead expository telling if too much of the piece reports what happened over a time period -- he tended to do this, and she often did that.
Traditional fiction depends on a protagonist who really wants something and going through a dramatic situation to achieve his or her goals, while being thwarted along the way by an antagonist. He usually also needs something, a more subtle psychological change. His goals generally change through plot reversals as the protagonist rethinks the questions, and comes up with new approaches. By the end, in most genres, the protagonist has most likely found a way to achieve the final goal. In horror or tragedy, a happy ending is obviously not required. In literary fiction, an ambiguous ending is OK, with things not necessarily tied up in a bow. Normally, general fiction and genre fiction proceed by a structure similar to that of screenplays, the most common being a 3 Act structure.
Sometimes the 1st Act is shortened, in order to jump into the conflict as quickly as possible. By the end of Act 1, some major catalytic incident has caused enough of a problem for the protagonist's goal to require the protagonist take drastic measures. The 2nd Act involves rising conflict not only for the characters but tension for the readers created by the suspense. The second obstacle happens around the mid-point of Act 2 as the protagonist attempts to make things come together nicely, and the third catastrophe occurs at the end of Act 2, leading to the finality of Act 3 as both wants and needs come to some resolution. Each segment of this structure can be mapped out in great detail to see the most popular, predictable format.
However, as long as you remember to include an active protagonist experiencing conflict based on difficult choices with high stakes, ou can just start writing spontaneously, too, and see what that leads to, for a more organic approach to a draft. This can work for any kind, but is particularly useful for warm ups, breaking through writers block, short stories, surreal dreamy playful fiction, brainstorming, literary fiction, innovative fiction, compared to trying to write a genre novel that way. This style often leads to original structures beyond the norm, and the structures themselves can impart meaning. Some fiction is very innovative, and breaks the rules completely, being composed of a list, for example, or is delivered in a spiral plot structure, or with multi-media, or words spread across the page.
Sometimes the 1st Act is shortened, in order to jump into the conflict as quickly as possible. By the end of Act 1, some major catalytic incident has caused enough of a problem for the protagonist's goal to require the protagonist take drastic measures. The 2nd Act involves rising conflict not only for the characters but tension for the readers created by the suspense. The second obstacle happens around the mid-point of Act 2 as the protagonist attempts to make things come together nicely, and the third catastrophe occurs at the end of Act 2, leading to the finality of Act 3 as both wants and needs come to some resolution. Each segment of this structure can be mapped out in great detail to see the most popular, predictable format.
However, as long as you remember to include an active protagonist experiencing conflict based on difficult choices with high stakes, ou can just start writing spontaneously, too, and see what that leads to, for a more organic approach to a draft. This can work for any kind, but is particularly useful for warm ups, breaking through writers block, short stories, surreal dreamy playful fiction, brainstorming, literary fiction, innovative fiction, compared to trying to write a genre novel that way. This style often leads to original structures beyond the norm, and the structures themselves can impart meaning. Some fiction is very innovative, and breaks the rules completely, being composed of a list, for example, or is delivered in a spiral plot structure, or with multi-media, or words spread across the page.
"The researchers expected to see pleasure centers activating for the relaxed reading and hypothesized that close reading, as a form of heightened attention, would create more neural activity than pleasure reading. If the ongoing analysis continues to support the initial theory, Phillips said, teaching close reading (i.e., attention to literary form) "could serve – quite literally – as a kind of cognitive training, teaching us to modulate our concentration and use new brain regions as we move flexibly between modes of focus."
"Dickian devotion has grown to such extremes that a few years ago, a robotics researcher built a life-size android version of the author, which, according to a New York Times account, “was able to conduct rudimentary conversations about {Philip K} Dick’s work and ideas.” Fans lined up at conventions for a chance to meet the ersatz Dick, until the android’s head was accidentally left in an airline overhead bin, then apparently misrouted by luggage handlers." Orange County Years