Plot Types 1
When characters are on a journey
Quest
When the fate of a character abruptly changes.
Reversal
The beginning of the story, where characters and the setting are introduced.
Exposition
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Example: “I have a dream.”
Anaphora
The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose which correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.
Parallelism
When a section of the story ends with important information withheld.
Cliffhanger
A moral crisis.
Angel on the Shoulder
When the tension builds, before it reaches the peak of the story.
Rising Action
The repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences. Example: “Last week, he was just fine. Yesterday, he was just fine. And today, he was just fine.”
Epistrophe
The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Personification
When important events in the story are hinted at before they occur.
Foreshadowing
When the character has a time-limit.
Race Against Time
The peak of the story, when all that has accumulated explodes.
Climax
A repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse. Example: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (Were you there?)
Refrain
An implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.
Allusion
An object that causes the story, but that has no importance itself.
McGuffin
A surprise ending that can be predicted.
Plot Twist
The consequence of the climax, when the conflict is winding down.
Falling Action
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated with a small number of intervening words. Example: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Diacope
What is described.
Tenor
An object that causes the story, and that has importance itself.
Magnetic Plot-device
When a story begins in the middle.
In medias-res
The end of the story, when the conflict is resolved.
Resolution
The way a writer embellishes a sentence in order to emphasize or exaggerate certain points.
Amplification
How it is described.
Vehicle