When reading a story, you must accept the fictional worlds, characters, and situations in order to be fully immersed in the tale. But how can these works be believable when their subject matter doesn’t even exist in the real world? This is where your suspension...
Commercial fiction is a type of fiction that caters to a mass audience and has the potential to sell a lot of copies, so it’s written in a way that it’s accessible, easily understandable, and can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life. In general,...
A frame story (also called a frame narrative, framing device, or frame tale) is a literary technique where an overarching narrative is used to set up one or more stories. It is placed at the beginning and end of the narrative, creating the “frame” of which...
Have you ever watched a movie or read a book and found yourself thinking, “What are they doing?” If you repeat this question frequently throughout one story, then you’re probably looking at an idiot plot. As said by famed film critic Roger Ebert, the...
Human imagination has always been enthralled with the concept of hidden worlds and alternate universes. This fascination is evident in the way we create our own stories, where gods have their own domains, people accidentally enter a land of magic, and heroes are...
Have you ever paused halfway through a novel or film, and thought to yourself: Something about this feels very familiar. Maybe it’s not smack-you-in-the-face obvious, but something about the themes, characters, or maybe even certain quotes just seems reminiscent...
