Writer’s glossary

Plain-English definitions of 54 craft terms, from action beat to world-building. Where it helps, each term links to an article that explains it in depth and to stories on this site where you can see it at work.

A

Action beat: A small piece of physical action placed in or around dialogue, used instead of (or alongside) a tag like ‘she said’ to show who is speaking and how they feel.
Antagonist: The force that opposes the protagonist. It can be a person, a group, a system, nature, or a part of the protagonist themselves.
Archetype: A character type or pattern that recurs across many stories and cultures, such as the mentor, the trickster, or the reluctant hero.
Atmosphere: The overall feeling a setting gives off, built from sensory detail, pacing and word choice. Closely related to mood.

B

Backstory: Events from before the story begins that shape a character’s present choices. Best revealed in small, well-timed pieces.

C

Character arc: The inner change a character goes through over a story. Arcs can be positive (growth), negative (a fall) or flat (the character stays true and changes the world around them).
Climax: The point of highest tension, where the central conflict comes to a head and the outcome is decided.
Confined setting: A story that keeps its characters in one small, closed space, such as a room, a vehicle or a stuck elevator, to raise pressure and force interaction.
Conflict: The struggle between what a character wants and what stands in the way. Without conflict there is no story, only events.

D

Denouement: The final section after the climax, where loose ends are tied up and the new normal is shown. Also called the resolution.
Dialogue: Characters’ spoken words. Good dialogue does more than share information: it reveals character, builds tension and moves the plot.
Dialogue tag: The words that attribute speech, such as ‘she said’ or ‘he asked.’ Plain tags are usually best because readers barely notice them.

E

Ensemble cast: A story with several characters of roughly equal importance instead of one clear lead.
Epistolary: Told through documents such as letters, diary entries, emails or messages, rather than (or alongside) ordinary narration.
Exposition: Background information the reader needs, such as setting, history or relationships. Usually best woven in gradually rather than delivered all at once.

F

First person: Narration from inside the story using ‘I.’ It offers intimacy and a strong voice but limits the reader to what the narrator knows.
Flashback: A scene that jumps back in time to show something that happened before the main story.
Foreshadowing: Hints planted early that prepare the reader for what comes later, so the ending feels surprising and inevitable at once.

G

Genre: A category of story defined by shared conventions and reader expectations, such as horror, romance or science fiction.
Ghost, wound and lie: A way of building backstory: the ghost is a painful past event, the wound is the damage it left, and the lie is the false belief the character now lives by.

I

Imagery: Language that appeals to the senses to create pictures in the reader’s mind.
In medias res: Latin for ‘in the middle of things.’ Opening a story mid-action rather than with background.
Inciting incident: The event that disrupts the character’s normal life and sets the story in motion.
Info dump: A large block of background information delivered all at once, which stalls the story. The usual cure is to reveal details only when the story needs them.
Irony: A gap between what is expected and what happens, or between what is said and what is meant.

M

Magical realism: Fiction where impossible things happen in an otherwise realistic world and are treated as ordinary by the characters.
Metaphor: A comparison that says one thing is another (‘the house exhaled’) to reveal something new about it.
Mood: The emotional atmosphere the reader feels, such as dread, warmth or longing. Tone is the writer’s attitude; mood is the reader’s experience.
Motif: An image, phrase or idea that repeats through a story and gathers meaning each time it appears.

O

Open ending: An ending that leaves the final outcome to the reader’s imagination instead of spelling it out.

P

Pacing: The speed at which a story moves. Short sentences and scenes speed it up; description and reflection slow it down.
Point of view: Whose eyes the story is told through, and how much they know: first person, close third person, or omniscient.
Premise: The core ‘what if’ idea a story is built on. For example: what if a photocopier printed pages from your future?
Protagonist: The main character, whose wants and choices drive the story.

R

Red herring: A misleading clue that points the reader toward a false conclusion.
Rising action: The series of complications that build tension between the inciting incident and the climax.

S

Scene break: A visible gap (often a blank line or ornament) that marks a jump in time, place or point of view.
Sensory detail: Specific details of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch that make a scene feel real.
Setting: Where and when a story takes place, including its physical place, culture and history.
Show, don't tell: Letting readers experience emotions and facts through action, detail and dialogue rather than stating them outright.
Stakes: What a character stands to win or lose. Rising stakes keep readers turning pages.
Story within a story: A narrative embedded inside the main one, such as a letter, a legend or pages from a mysterious machine.
Subtext: What characters mean but don’t say. The real conversation happening underneath the words.
Symbolism: Using an object, color or image to stand for a larger idea.

T

Theme: The underlying idea or question a story explores, such as grief, freedom or what makes us human.
Third person: Narration using ‘he,’ ‘she’ or ‘they.’ Close third stays near one character’s thoughts; omniscient can see into everyone’s.
Three-act structure: A common way of shaping a story: setup, confrontation and resolution.
Tone: The writer’s or narrator’s attitude toward the subject, such as wry, tender, clinical or ominous.
Trope: A familiar storytelling pattern readers recognize, such as enemies-to-lovers or the haunted house. Not a flaw in itself; what matters is how it’s used.
Twist ending: An ending that overturns what the reader expected while still making sense in hindsight.

U

Unreliable narrator: A narrator whose account the reader can’t fully trust, through deception, madness or simple misunderstanding.

V

Voice: The distinctive personality of the writing, built from word choice, rhythm, syntax and point of view. It’s what makes a passage sound like one particular writer.

W

Want and need: What a character consciously pursues (the want) versus what they truly require to grow (the need). Stories often turn on the gap between them.
World-building: Constructing the setting, rules, history and culture of a story’s world, whether invented or real.