narrative device
Plot-shaping method used
A narrative device is a technique used in storytelling to advance plot, develop character, or convey meaning.
Flashbacks, unreliable narrators, foreshadowing, and frame stories are all narrative devices.
The term appears in literary criticism and creative writing instruction: The author uses amnesia as a narrative device to reveal the protagonist's past gradually.
- cliffhangerSuspenseful unresolved ending
- foreshadowingHinting at later events
- flash-forwardNarrative leap to future
- flashbackInvoluntary past memory
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
Chekhov's gun · chronological order · in medias res · allegory · plot twist · temporal distortion · irony · fourth wall break · breaking the fourth wall · subplot · metaphor · recurring motifs · narrator · motif · suspense · voiceover · time jump · symbolism
- puppetryhand puppet, hand puppets, puppet shows, puppet show, marionette
- Letter Writingletters, correspondence, letter writing, epistolary, love letters
- Satire & Foolishnessfolly, fool, buffoon, absurdity, parody
- symbolismsymbol, symbols, allegory, metaphor, archetype
- face conceptsvisage, expression, countenance, features, gaze
narrative deviceplot
Storyline or land parcel
subject matter · raw material · theme · meaning · characters
narrative devicelived experience
Knowledge from personal participation
narrative deviceexposition
Systematic explanatory presentation