Creative Writing: Introductory: Plot Development

If you need inspiration for your next story or poem, be sure to review this list of words related to creative writing. We won't keep you in suspense: you'll learn all about plot, characterization, dialogue, and more.

Here are links to our lists in the collection: General Terms, Plot Development, Genres, Literary Devices
25 words 921 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. audience
    the part of the general public interested in something
  2. theme
    a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary work
  3. setting
    the context and environment in which something is situated
  4. sensory
    involving or derived from the senses
  5. detail
    a single fact considered separately from the whole
  6. narrator
    someone who tells a story
  7. author
    a person who writes professionally
  8. speaker
    the narrative voice of a poem (as distinct from the poet)
  9. first person
    narration from the point of view of the speaker or narrator
  10. second person
    narration from the point of view of the listener
  11. third person
    narration from the point of view of those being described
  12. character
    an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction
  13. characterization
    a vivid verbal description
  14. plot
    the story that is told, as in a novel, play, movie, etc.
  15. subplot
    a subordinate or secondary story in a work of fiction
  16. action
    the series of events that form a plot
  17. rising action
    a series of plot events that build up toward the climax
  18. conflict
    opposition in a work of fiction between characters or forces
  19. tension
    feelings of hostility that are not manifest
  20. climax
    the decisive moment in a novel or play
  21. falling action
    series of plot events following the climax of a narrative
  22. resolution
    the way the main complication of a literary work is settled
  23. script
    a written version of a play or other dramatic composition
  24. dialogue
    the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction
  25. monologue
    a dramatic speech by a single actor
Created on Tue Jul 26 13:50:58 EDT 2022 (updated Tue Jul 26 15:33:25 EDT 2022)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.