a speaker or character who tells a story

all loose ends are tied up; conflict solved, etc...

conflict where a character struggles against an outside force (nature, technology, person, etc.)

conflict that involves a character in conflict with him or herself (emotions/decisions)

the time and place of the story's action

word choice including denotation (literal meanings) and connotation (an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal meaning). The choice of words an author chooses to use.

central message or insight of life revealed

a reference to a well-known person, place, event, and literary work

when a voice outside the story tells the story, but only through one character's eyes

the author directly states the character's traits

it is up to the reader to draw conclusions about the character based on indirect information such as dialogue, action, thoughts or other characters

the ordinary form of written language that occurs in two forms: fiction and non-fiction