Okay, that's not how it works -- but if you know the difference between railroading and zigzagging, not only can you amaze your writing friends, but you can get some pretty good ideas, and just maybe, get yourself out of that jam your novel is stuck in.
Each term links to a thorough definition in Novel Dog.
I created this glossary in my pursuit of the Creative Writing MFA with the Northwest Institute for Literary Arts. May you prosper from the sweat of my academic brow.
Anagnorisis
Antivalidation
Catalyst
Catharsis
Character Story
Circumstantial Summary
Coincidence
Conceit
Crisis
Dénoument
Dianoia
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic Series
Ekphrasis
Envy
Epiphany
Event Story
Expository Lump
False Ending
Flashback
Flat Character
Found Fiction
Fred
Free Indirect Style
Gentle Beginning
Hamartia
High Mimetic
Idea Story
Implied Author
Implied Contract
Inset Narrative
Intense Beginning
Intertextuality
Intrusive Author
Ironic (Mode)
Low Mimetic
Melodrama
Metafiction
Metaphoric Faults
Milieu
Mythic Mode
Narrative
Narrative Hook
Natural Series of Events
Omniscient POV
On-the-Nose Dialogue
Opsis
Parataxis
Pastiche
Pathetic Fallacy
Peripeteia
Plot
Presentation
Prolepsis
Railroad Plot
Railroad Dialogue
Railroading
Representation
Romantic
Round Character
"Save the Cat" Scene
Sequential Summary
Sequential Suspension of Disbelief
Single Character Objective
Single Character Subjective
Skaz
Story
Stream of Consciousness
Situational Irony
Summary Scene
Symbol
Synecdoche
Tone
Validation
Vase/Faces Plot
Window Metaphor
Yin-Yang Complexity
Zigzagging
Posts
