• Introduction
• Character
• Plot
• Setting
• Point of View
• Style
• Poetry

Narrative structure

Authors have to decide how to best relate the events of the story. Usually, stories are related “chronologically,” from the beginning to the end. However, sometimes writers choose different arrangements for special effects. Some are non-linear, or "stream of consciousness," which ignores a chronological structure. Some writers employ “flashbacks” to explain a current event. Others reverse an expected sequence by moving from the “end to the beginning,” and some simply begin in the middle of the action (called in medias res).