Literary Terms

The sequence of events that make up a story

• Plot

• Theme

• External Conflict

• Character(s)

The central, or universal, message or lesson of a story

• Plot

• Theme

• Suspense

• Setting

A state of feeling of exciting or anxious uncertainty about what may happen next in a story

• Suspense

• Internal Conflict

• Theme

• Setting

The time and place of a story

• Plot

• Setting

• Theme

• Rising Action

The beginning of a story where the characters, the setting, and the problem (conflict) are introduced

• Rising Action

• Resolution

• Climax

• Exposition

Where the suspense builds and the problem gets worse and becomes more complicated. The events that lead up to the climax.

• Rising Action

• Falling Action

• Exposition

• Resolution

The highest point in the conflict. Where the problem (conflict) gets really BIG and the main character (protagonist) must make some sort of decision. This is the most exciting part of a story.

• Rising Action

• Falling Action

• Climax

• Resolution

Character(s)

• The personalities in a story

• The time and place of a story

• The sequence of events that make up a story

• The struggle, or the problem, in the story

A struggle within the character's own mind

• Internal Conflict

• External Conflict

• Rising Action

• Character

The character struggles against an outside force

• Internal Conflict

• External Conflict

• Theme

• Character