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Fictional Narrative Basics - Plot
Unit Completion Date: End of Week 5
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Because stories tend to start at a given point in a character's life and move backward and forward in time, the chronology of a story is deeply related to the story's point of view, especially if a character is also the story's narrator. Often stories progress at many different chronological times, and a clear understanding of chronology and point of view is necessary to manage these cases. There are at least four distinct chronological times that can be involved in a given story, including:
The present time of the story - this is the time in the character's life or the story's progression in which the predominance of action takes place. It most often contains the climax of the story, though not always.
Flash back - a time before the present time of the story when some action or incident occurred which affects events in the present time of the story.
Flash forward - a time after the present time of the story when some event takes place that is related to the events at the present time of the story.
The narrative time of the story - the point in time from which the story is being told. In most cases the present time of the story is the same as the narrative time of the story (as in the case of a simple past tense or present tense point of view) and a reminiscent narrator is being employed in most cases where the two times differ.
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