All great stories contain the same basic story elements. From Shakespearian literature, to children’s imaginative daydreams, to the next big Hollywood movie, to story based video games, the same building blocks are used in all story creation. Oftentimes, we don’t focus on the individual pieces or why each piece is important to the story. If one of these elements is done poorly, it can leave us feeling unsatisfied with the movie or book we just consumed. Today we will be talking about the 7 major story elements used in storytelling. The 7 major story elements are: setting, characters, point of view, conflict, plot, theme, and tone.
The Setting
When a book or movie starts, the first thing introduced is the setting. The story told takes place in some location, in some time period, and in a real or imaginary place. Stories often include many different settings. Let’s take The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Lewis Carrol for example. The first setting introduced within the book is London during World War II. The next major setting introduced is the fantastical world of Narnia.
While some books take place during specific eras, such as World War II, others are less specific. The book can be set during present day, the distant future, or Thursday January 12, 1961. This sets our mind frame around the things we might encounter during the story told. For example, if the book is set in the distant future it might be a science fiction book about interstellar travel, or if it’s set in 1961 it could be a historical fiction about the building of the Berlin Wall.
The Characters
Every story ever told includes characters. Sometimes we overlook the fact that the characters in a story don’t even have to be human. Characters can be people, animals, if you want the story can even be about a tree. The characters drive the plot forward. We cheer for the good guys and boo for the bad guys. Compelling characters have flaws, dreams, fears, and everything that we feel on a daily basis.
There are different types of characters in stories. There can be our leading lady, our side characters, our supporting roles, but most importantly are the protagonists and the antagonists.
The protagonist is the lead role in the story. The protagonist is who the book is about. We cheer for them when they win, we weep for them when they lose. The protagonist is the most important character for the central plot to revolve around. Some books include multiple protagonists from different points of views, such as A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin.
The antagonists are the bad guys. These are the characters we want our protagonist to defeat. The antagonists don’t have to be one person. They can be a group of people or an organization. Antagonists don’t even have to be evil. Antagonists just have to hinder the protagonists goals. In Harry Potter the big bad protagonist is Voldemort but his group of death eaters are also antagonists.
The Point of View
Along with setting, the point of view is introduced immediately when the story begins. Point of view shows us whose perspective we are looking through. Are we seeing the story unfold through the eyes of our protagonist or are we seeing through the eyes of the narrator? There are three major point of views used and a fourth less common point of view.
The first point of view and probably one of my favorites is first person. We see the story through the eyes of the protagonist. The story uses the pronouns I, me, and my. The reader only knows what the protagonist knows about other characters, the antagonists, or even the plot. Some popular stories told in first person are The Martian by Andy Weir, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Third person limited can also be used to tell the story through the eyes of one person. The reader also only knows what one character knows. The pronouns used in both third person perspectives are he, she, they, his, hers, and so forth. Third person limited can be used to show perspectives of multiple characters. It shows the story through the lens of one character at a time. The Game of Thrones books and T.V show use third person limited along with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
The last popular point of view is third person omniscient. In third person omniscient the narrator is the one telling the story. The narrator knows everything there is to know about the story told. The narrator sees all the perspectives of all the characters and knows what’s to come. Beartown by Fredrik Backman and Dune by Frank Herbert are written in third person omniscient.
The last point of view rarely used is second person. Second person uses you and your pronouns. Novels and movies never use second person. Oftentimes second person is for fanfiction, choose your own adventure books or instruction manuals. Such as, you must then tighten the screw clockwise. If you’ve never read a choose your own adventure book, I highly recommend it. They can be quite entertaining.
The Conflict
Every great story needs some form of conflict. Conflict is what prevents the protagonist from achieving their goal and drives the story forward. No one wants to read or watch a story without conflict.
Imagine a story where a man goes to his job that he loves and then returns home to his loving wife who makes him a dinner he loves. He then goes to bed and enjoys a night of perfect slumber and then wakes up the next day where the cycle repeats. What a wonderful life he must have but a boring one to read about. Now imagine, that same man wakes up one day and realizes someone kidnapped his wife. He just wants his wife back and will do everything to find her. There is conflict that now interests us in the book or movie.
There are 7 main types of conflict in literature. I will list them here but I plan on writing another in depth post about each one. Most stories will include more than one type or conflict with one major conflict appearing throughout the book.
- Person versus person
- Person versus nature
- Person versus self
- Person versus society
- Person versus technology
- Person versus fate
- Person versus supernatural
The Plot
There is no story without a plot. The plot is the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Conflict is what prevents the protagonist from achieving his goals while plot is what happens. Plot describes the problems at hand and what things the protagonist does to achieve their goal and solve their problems.
Like story elements, there are also plot elements. I’ll briefly go into detail about the 5 plot elements but this will be for another post as well. The five plot elements are: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution.
Exposition sets up the story giving details about the setting and some character background. Rising action are the moments leading up to the climax. The tension of the story rises and our interest grows in the story. The climax is the turning point of a book. This is where the main conflict is often resolved. Falling action is wrapping everything up and tying off all those loose ends the story still has. Lastly, the resolution gives a glimpse into our protagonist’s new life and the ending of the tale.
The Theme
Theme and tone are the most difficult elements in story building. They separate the good storytellers into the great storytellers. Theme is best explained as the why of the story. Why did the storyteller tell the story? What did they want to get across to their audience?
Themes can criticize the world we live in or point out problems in our lives. Themes can warn the audiences about different dangers. The storyteller wants the audience to take away something from their story. Some common themes are: good vs evil, justice, life and death, and beauty. Let’s take a look at Hamlet by the one and only Shakespeare. In his play Shakespeare talks about the themes of justice and revenge. Hamlet wants justice for the murder of his father but is unsure if revenge is the answer to justice. I could talk about themes in another post as well because there is a lot to them.
The Tone
Tone is the feelings and emotions the storyteller tries to get across to their listeners. Every book or movie includes some sort of tone in it. The tone is meant to match the story of the book. For example a book set in a bleak dystopian could be dark and dreary. A novel about a supernatural horror would have a scary tone. Romance novels often have optimistic tones about love. If we were to look at The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the tone is light and comedic. The book is meant to be a hilarious science fiction novel. His tone matches the story of the book.
I think authors have a harder time creating tone than movie makers. Authors only way to show tone is through their word choice and sentence structures. Movies can show tone through a variety of different ways. They can change the lighting to darken or lighten the tone. They can have an upbeat music score for a lighter tone. Unlike written words, spoken words can have different inflections making how the actor said something more important than what he said. While some of these methods movies use can be written in books, you will never have a music score to go along with your read, but imagine how cool that would be.
Conclusion
With some practice using these different story elements, anyone can tell or write a great story. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. After I finish a book I loved, I sometimes sit and think about the different story elements. What was the climax in this book? How would I describe the tone? What was the theme in the book? These can be difficult yet fun questions to ask after reading a great book. They are even better questions to ask in a friendly book club.
Did I miss something you think is important? What are some of your favorite themes? Do you have a favorite point of view like I do? Let us know down below. We always love to hear from our readers!
As always, happy reading!