narrative devices
Plot construction methods
Narrative devices are techniques writers use to tell stories—things like flashback, foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, or frame story.
The term covers any deliberate structural or stylistic choice that shapes how a story unfolds or how readers experience it: The novel employs several narrative devices to build suspense.
Distinguished from literary devices generally, which include non-narrative techniques like metaphor and alliteration.
- in medias resStarting amid events
- time jumpNarrative leap across time
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
- cliffhangerSuspenseful unresolved ending
- cut to blackSudden shift to darkness
flashback · plot twist · MacGuffin · foreshadowing · symbolism · allegory · frame story · motif · archetype · dialogue · breaking the fourth wall · point of view · dramatic irony · red herring · voiceover · metaphor · imagery · montage
narrative devicessubject matter
Content under discussion
content · raw material · source material · substance · themes
narrative devicesraw footage
Unprocessed recorded material
unvarnished truth · stream of consciousness · slice of life · automatic writing