Creative Story

Creative Story: Types

The two primary types of creative stories are creative fiction and creative nonfiction.

Creative Fiction

The first thing you might think of when someone says "creative story" is creative fiction.

Fig. 1 - A narrative is action or plot-oriented.

Creative Nonfiction

Even stories based on real experiences have some made-up elements. Creative nonfiction stories are based on true events; however, the author makes up the elements they use to tell the story.

Examples of Creative Stories

Creative stories are everywhere. Here are some examples of both fictional and nonfictional creative stories.

Examples of Creative Fiction Stories

You have probably seen a lot of fictional creative stories, such as:

• Novels, e.g., Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960).
• Short stories, e.g., Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1948).
• Fairy tales, e.g., Little Red Riding Hood (seventeenth century).
• Films and television shows based on fictional characters and scenarios, e.g., The Matrix (1999)

Examples of creative nonfiction stories

Fiction isn't the only type of creative story! Here are some creative stories based on real events:

• Memoirs, e.g., Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (2006).
• Personal essays, e.g., Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (1929).
• Novels based on real events, e.g., Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1965).
• Poetry collections, e.g., Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969).
• Film and television shows based on real events, e.g., Inventing Anna (2022).

Outlining a Creative Story with Elements

Whether you are writing a story of creative fiction or nonfiction, you will need to use the same elements: characters, setting, plot, point of view, and themes. All creative stories contain these elements.

Characters

Stories are populated with characters.

Characters drive the story. Without characters, we would have no one to root for!

Fig. 2 - Characters have unique traits and personalities.

Flat vs. Round Characters

Not all characters are the same. Some are flat and some are round.

Static vs. Dynamic Characters

Characters also differ in their abilities to change throughout the story.

Audiences tend to root for the dynamic characters and the changes they are undergoing. Of course, this doesn't mean they have to change for the better. Some dynamic characters change for the worse:

Main Characters

The first characters we think of when we think about stories are the main characters or heroes at the center of the story. When most people think of the main character, they think of the protagonist.

Main characters are often protagonists, but they don't have to be.

Where there is a protagonist, there is usually another type of main character: the antagonist.

The defining characteristic of the antagonist is that they oppose the protagonist. They make it difficult for the protagonist to meet their goals. Antagonists are often villains.

Fig. 3 - What has the wicked dragon done this time?

Minor Characters

Not all characters can be main characters. Some characters only pop up occasionally. These characters serve specific purposes and are often flat and static. They are known as minor characters.

Setting

Creative stories take place in different locations and times. They have different moods and atmospheres. All of this makes up the setting.

The setting can influence how the reader feels about the story. It sets the mood (or atmosphere) for the story.

Writers use the setting of a story to influence their reader's emotions. When creating a setting, think about what you want the reader to feel.

Settings have several elements that can affect the mood of a story. Here are just a few:

• Weather
• Lighting
• Architecture
• Language and dialect
• Technology

Plot

What happens in a story? The plot.

The plot includes a series of actions, choices, and experiences that shape the story. Each event causes another event. One thing always leads to the next.

Fig. 4 - Where did the characters come from, and where are they going?

Every plot follows a logical organization. It has a clear beginning, middle, and end. To convey the plot, you should follow a basic structure with these key elements:

• Exposition
• A conflict
• Rising action (complications and conflict)
• The climax
• Falling action
• The resolution

The Hook

The best way to grab your reader's attention is to start the story with a hook.

Great stories start with an attention-grabbing hook. For example, Charles Dickens grabbed readers' attention with this opening line of A Tale of Two Cities (1859): "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." ²

Exposition

Have you ever been dropped into a story with no idea of what's going on? You wonder who these characters are and how they got here. A little background information can help with that. Good stories use exposition to provide this background.

Exposition often appears toward the beginning of a story. It does not have to come first, though. At some early point in the story, it helps to include:

• An introduction to the main characters. Who are they?
• An explanation of the conflict. How did the characters get to this point?
• A description of the setting. Where are these characters? When is this story taking place?

Rising Action, Complications, and Conflict

As characters overcome the main conflict, they might find smaller conflicts along the way. Complications make things more exciting.

Complications can be internal (character against themselves) or external (character against outside forces). Complications are a form of conflict, which is when two or more forces interact in a way that creates action or drama.

Fig 5. - A minor character can create complications by distracting the protagonists.

Climax

At some point in every story, the action reaches a peak. This is known as the climax.

Everything else in the story leads up to this moment.

Falling Action and Resolution

After the tension of the climax, the reader might need some relief. This is where falling action comes into play.

The very end is called the resolution.

The resolution offers the reader a sense of closure and ends the story, whether this is a "and they lived happily ever after" ending or not.

Fig. 6 - A resolution tells you what situation the characters end in. Lined with loot perhaps?

Point of View

Stories are always told from somebody's point of view.

The point of view is conveyed by the narrator.

There are different types of narrators. Each type of narrator offers a different point of view (POV) or perspective on the story. The two main POVs are 1st-person and 3rd-person.

A 1st-person POV uses "I." The narrator here is usually the main character, but this isn't always the case.

A 3rd-person POV uses "they." The narrator often isn't a character here, and they can describe the various thoughts of the characters.

Theme

In a story, themes lie at a deeper level.

When you write essays on creative stories, themes are a big part of the conversation because writers don't lay them bare: a reader must interpret themes. Additionally, readers can interpret themes a writer never intended. This guesswork enriches the discussion of a story in academia and beyond.

For instance, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), you might say that a theme is "how compassionate can a machine be?" You'd say this because there are many artificial creations in the story, and their levels of compassion differ.

Fig. 7 - Themes often explore society, culture, and humanity.

Creative Story Analysis

You can analyze a creative story in innumerable ways. However, two ways stick out, and they go hand in hand. You can analyze themes, and you can analyze literary devices.

A literary device is something like symbolism, where one thing represents something else throughout a work. A symbol often represents a theme.

For instance, a writer might use the protagonist's car to symbolize the theme, "people don't know what they really want." The protagonist might switch out their car throughout the story, trying to find one they're satisfied with (whether it's powerful enough, safe enough, big enough, or glamorous enough), but they never are. That car becomes a symbol of the character's unhappiness.

Here is a list of literary devices that might lead you to a powerful theme.

• Metaphor

• Extended metaphor

• Imagery

• Irony or satire

• Tone

• Description

• Dialogue

When analyzing creative stories, examine how literary devices illuminate themes. You'll have shining results in no time.