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

Plot devices

Sometimes plots require elements to forward the action and increase the reader’s engagement. These “plot devices” include “foreshadowing,” in which the author includes a clue that suggests a later event in the plot. Mystery stories depend upon “suspense” to keep readers engaged. Some works are so intricate that they need a surprise intervention to resolve the conflicts, and this surprise is called by the Latin term “deus ex machina,” or a god descending from a machine.