Allegory: in a story, a representation in which a person, event, or idea stands for itself and for something else. Complex metaphor types of allegories include parables which are religious in nature, fables in which animals act out moral lessons and some forms of satire.

Ambiguity: uncertainty and or doubt, as in a story's intention or meaning. The first two situations in which more than one interpretation of words or actions is possible. Ambiquity comes from the Latin root which means to wander or to waiver.

Antagonist: one who opposes another in a conflict. In literature  it signifies the main characters principal opponent ( the villian ). Any person in a story who comes in conflict with the hero as a major opposing force.

Arc: the trajectory of a plot from beginning to end. The use of the word relates to the shape of the arc, and which is a gentle curving segment of the circle. The ascending arc is analogous with the rising tension and drama of a story as it proceeds toward the climax and this descending arc after the climax as the story relaxes into its resolution.

Archetype: inherited ideas or ways of thinking derived from the experiences of a culture and present in the collective subconscious of that group. It includes a collection of myths,icons and other symbols that have become recognizable in the literature of a culture.

Aristotle: The Greek philosopher who lived in the fourth century B.C. He was a student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the great. His lectures known as the poetics, had a profound effect on literature. The poetics served to codify many of the concepts of storytelling that endure to this day.

Attack point or action point: The protagonist is involved in some sort of activity at the beginning of the play that will define him or her and propel your story forward.

Back story: This refers to the events that occurred in the characters lives before the commencement of the story being told. This information is crucial to the writers understanding of the characters and their situation. It is also frequently used within the text of the story as exposition or to add depth and resonance.

Beat: a single dramatic or emotional event in a story.

Catharsis: from a Greek word meaning to cleanse, this describes the effect of emotional purification that the audiences often receive from experiencing drama. This emotional release purges the audience of feelings of anxiety or fear as they participate in the make believe emotions evoked by the story. The audience thus experiences an emotional and spiritual rebirth as a result of interaction with a story.

Cause and effect: this concept is the essence of drama. It is also basic to universal order, and it can be argued that all action is the basis of cause. Everything that happens is a cause. Everything that results from that action is the effect. This effect creates another cause and so forth. The writer relies on this bedrock foundation to create the story and the audience uses it to understand the events presented to them.

Climax: the point when a story's conflict comes to its moment of greatest intensity. In this moment the conflict in is somehow resolved. It is also the apex of the story's arc.

Comic relief: a moment of humor occurring at some point in a serious or tragic story. The moment of comic relief is an intentional device used to relieve tension and inject a fresh perspective into the story.

Complication and denouement: according to Aristotle, these two elements make up the overall movement of the drama. Complication is everything that happens leading up to the climax, and denouement is everything that happens after the climax.

Conflict: the characters or forces that are in opposition in any plot. Conflict is the issue out of which the entire drama grows; without conflict, there is no plot. All other elements of the plot grow out of this central issue.

Conflict, types of: conflict can be broadly parsed into four basic types, described by the nature of the forces that stand in opposition to the protagonist: protagonist vs. antagonist, protagonist vs. society, protagonist vs. nature, protagonist vs. himself.

Conjunction: the place or time where various forces in the plot come together. These may be forces of circumstance, characters or conflicts. The synchronization of these elements so that they come together in a moment of conjunction is a reliable way to increase the dramatic tension of a plot.

Crisis: the turning point in a plot where the story is set on an irreversible course toward climax.

Episodic plots: stories made up of several loosely related, but thematically similar scenes, events or even complete stories.

Epistolary novel: a book composed of a series of lectures.The epistolary novel gives the author an opportunity to present the points of view of different characters. The style was popular in the 18th century Europe.

Exposition: the part of the plot that explains or illuminates the story's events, characters and circumstances.

Extrapolation: the act of estimating or inferring the events to come based on the characteristics or tenor of the proceeding in events.

Falling action(denouement): the resulting action is short, one brief event. This might simply provide the audience with a sense of aftermath or it could tie up loose ends from the plot standpoint. It should provide a platform for the final stage -- when you're protagonist has an opportunity to show how he or she has grown through these experiences.

First person: a story that is related by one of the participants in the drama and told exclusively from that character's perspective.

Flashback: a narrative device in which the main course of the drama is interpreted by a scene that took place in an earlier time frame, prior to the commencement of the plot.

Framing device: a narrative device in which the first and last scene in the plot occurred in a different time frame from the scenes that make up the central action of the story.

Goal: the protagonist's objective in the course of the plot. This is also called super objective. This super objective can be held by the antagonist or the antihero, contagonist and sometimes the narrator.

Inciting incident(attack point): the event that establishes the conflict and sets the protagonist upon the path toward the climax. This event is always the first major occurrence in this story and is the story's first major plot point.

Interpolation: the act of determining the characteristics of an event by evaluating the qualities of the events that will occur immediately before and immediately after it.

Limited narrator: a narrator who may or may not be a participant in the plot, but whose perspective on events is limited to his own personal knowledge and is therefore incomplete.

Major plot points: the central events that make up the story's rising action and during which the protagonist deals with the issues of the story's conflict. These plot points may occur over one or more scenes, but they comprise a distinct portion of the plot arc and a complete piece of the story's overall movement.

Metaphor: an analogy in which something is compared to another thing to which there is no literal relationship. It is a means of ascribing certain characteristics to something or someone in an imaginative, a meaningful way.

Mood: the state of mind, a feeling or a prevailing emotion in a scene or story. It may also described the atmosphere or tone of the story's subject or its language.

Motif: a recurring element in a story. It may be a visual icon, a characteristic of language or a persistent use of a certain metaphors.

Nonlinear plot: any plot in which the sequence of events is told out of chronological order.

Objective: the protagonist's goal or desire in the story. This objective is the motivating force for the protagonist and the primary source of forward momentum in the plot. This can also be the antagonist's and or the antihero's,the contagonist's or narrator's. The super objective is the spine of the play and scenic objectives are contructed within it.

Obstacle: the elements in a plot that oppose the protagonist's quest or goal. These can be the primary elements in the conflict or other hurdles injected into a story to raise the dramatic stakes. These can also be the obstacles to the antagonist or as we know him the villain or the antihero.

Oral tradition: the way stories were told and preserved before they were written down. The early civilizations preserved their histories and legends through their oral repetition. Certain members of the community were charged with remembering and telling these stories. The unreliable nature of human memory often allowed the stories to grow and change as they were passed from storyteller to storyteller overtime.

Oulipians: a group of radical European writers who wrote in the '60s. Believing that the novel had been perfected, they experimented with the structure of drama and broke many of Aristotlelian conventions in the pursuit of new ideas and literary forms.

Parallel plots: stories in which two or more plots are developed separately, but concurrently. The stories may or may not converge at some point. Often they explore similar issues, but in different time frames or locations and the with different characters.

Plot: the arrangement of events in a story to elicit a desired effect on the audience. A series of events organized to progress from inciting incident through rising action to climax and the finishing with the resolution.The spcific arrangement of scenes for it's most dramatic effect.

Poetics: a collection of essays by the Greek philosopher Aristotle that codified the elements of drama and that has endured through more than 2,000 years.

Point of view: the perspective of a story or character, that expresses the characters or story's feelings or attitudes toward the subject. A point of view can be limited to the knowledge of one particular character or that of an omniscient narrator.

Protagonist: the leading character or hero or heroine when in the play. From the Greek for first combatant.

Raising the stakes: the introduction of an obstacle or a plot twist that increases the characters emotional and physical obstacles and the audience's emotional investment in the story.

Recognition, reversal, suffering: according to Aristotle, these three elements must be present in a story in order for it to be considered a complex plot. These three elements signify the emotional change or evolution in the protagonist, which Aristotle felt was crucial for satisfying drama.

Red Herring: a dramatic device through which the audience is given a false clue in order to throw them temporarily off the trail. Used most often in mystery stories. The Red Henning poses an obstacle for the audience that will ideally cause them to put more thought into the story and thus increase their emotional investment.

Resolution: the portion of the plot that occurs after the climax; also the downward curving portion of the plot arc. During this phase of the plot, the events and circumstances that have been examined in the plot are wrapped up and conclusions are reached.

Resonance: the deep and enduring impact of a story. The emotional after taste of a story caused by the story's connection with larger themes and ideas about life.

Reversal: an emotional turnabout in the character caused by the experience of some event or internal realization.

Rhythm: the emotional or physical pacing of a story. Also, the story's dramatic ebb and flow.

Rising action: the part of the plot between the inciting incident and the climax. During this phase of the plot, the conflict is addressed and complications and obstacles are overcome.

Setting: the place, location or environment, as well as the time period, in which a story takes place.

Subplot: a minor or ancillary sequence of events in a story. Frequently used to highlight or expand on elements of the primary plot.

Subtext: the underlying theme or message of a story. While  inexplicit, the subtext is explored through use of metaphors, symbolism and pyscho-emotional actions.

Suspense: a state of mental excitement, indecision or uncertainty in a story. The sense of tension and anticipation created in the audience by the characters and events in a story.

Suspension of disbelief: the audience is voluntary decision to accept the laws and tenets of the story's dramatic world. This forgiving attitude allows the writer to create worlds and explore ideas that might not stand up to close scrutiny in the real world.

Tangent: a portion of the plot that veers off from the linear progression of the events. Often used to explore themes, characters or expository elements of the story.

To three-act structure: The classic structure of modern plays and movies that involves three distinct sections of the plot and there corresponding dramatic movements. Act one is usually the set up, culminating in the inciting incident; act two encompasses the rising action of the story; and act three is the resolution.

Time bomb effect: the introduction of a piece of information that increases tension or creates concern in the audience. The consequences of the information are not played out until much later in the story, creating suspense.

Tragedy: a calamity or disastrous event. Also a type of literary form in which a hero experiences of fall from grace and gains recognition or wisdom through the experience of the ensuing events.

Transformation: your leading character is changed because of this series of conflict and action sequences; a goal has either been reached comedy? Or discarded tragedy?. There is a resolution. Your character is forever changed because of these series of events he or she has experienced. The transformation should be thought of as a change in energy like boiling water is to steam.

Twist: an unexpected dramatic event that alters the course of events or introduces a new complication, often raising the dramatic stakes for the character and the audience.

Unifying element: a device that draws together the themes, ideas, motifs or metaphors of a story, coordinating and synchronizing them for greater dramatic effect. This can be a common setting like a road, the temporal device like a story encompassing a single day,an object imbued with special meaning or another dramatic element or device.

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