LESSON 4: READING AND WRITING FICTION

A ‘PABAON’ IS A FORM OF PROTECTION THAT MOM GIVES

TO PREPARE HER CHILD FOR THE OUTSIDE WORLD
Every mom faces the parenting dilemma of wanting to keep her children close & protected or letting
them go out and explore the world, to learn and grow by themselves.
This is the real-life story of how a mother’s ‘pabaon’ of life lessons & values protected her
son’s indigenous identity in the outside world. The lessons of Warlita King enabled her son Norman to be
the first ever Aeta to graduate from the Philippines’ premier state university.

Guide Questions:
1. What have you learned from the video?
b. Whose life was featured in the story?
c. What was the most striking point in the story in which you can relate?

Learning Discovery

Analyze the elements of the story in the video clip and give its definition.

Five Elements of Fiction

Plot, Setting, Character, Point of View, Theme

I. Plot — How the author arranges events to develop the basic idea; it is the sequence of events in a story or
play. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and end. The short story usually
has one plot so it can be read in one sitting.
Plot is where the action that takes place in the story. It is a series of connected happenings and their
result. In order to have a result, we must have an initial event, or conflict.

There are five essential parts of plot:

1.Exposition (introduction) — Beginning of the story; characters, background, and setting revealed. It is
where the characters are introduced.
2.Rising Action — Events in the story become complicated; the conflict is revealed. These are events
between the introduction and climax. This is the situation where the initial conflict or the generating
circumstances, which create a conflict to arise. Rising action usually heightened anticipation for the reader.
3.Conflict — Essential to plot, opposition ties incidents together and moves the plot. Not merely limited
to arguments, conflict can be any form of struggle the main character faces. Within a short story, there may be
only one central struggle, or there may be many minor obstacles within a dominant struggle.
Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces while in the central Conflict, the main character must
fight against some force or make an important decision.

SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
There are two types of conflict:
2. Internal— Struggle within one's self.
Character vs. Self
Internal conflict - take place inside a person's mind. Example - a character is torn between risking his life
to save someone else. Struggles with own soul, physical limitations, choices, etc.
3. External— Struggle with a force outside one's self.
Character vs. Character
Struggles against other people.
Character vs. Nature
Struggles against animals, weather, environment, etc.
Character vs. Society
Struggles against ideas, practices, or customs of others.

External conflict - takes place when a person or group struggles against another person or group or
against a non-human force such as a storm or a car that won't start.

4.Climax — Turning point of the story. Readers wonders what will happen next; will the conflict be
resolved or not? Climax is the highest point of anticipation - "make or break" for the main character.
Consider the climax as a three-fold phenomenon
1. Main character receives new information.
1. Main character accepts this information (realizes it but does not necessarily agree with it).
2. Main character acts on this information (makes a choice that will determine whether or not objective is
met).

5. Falling action is where the resolution begins; events and complications start to fall into place. These are the
events between climax and denouement. It is the falling action and conclusion which is also known as a
denouement.
Resolution or conclusion is the final outcome of events in the story.

11. Setting — Time and location that a story takes place. For some stories, the setting is very important;
while for others, it is not. It is t he background against which the incidents of the story take place. Not
merely a place, it includes the place where, the time when, and social conditions under which the story
moves along.
This can include atmosphere, the tone and feeling of a story, i.e. gloomy, cheery, etc.
In one form or another, setting is essential to the story. Often, the relevance of the story is lost in
another setting.
When examining how setting contributes to a story, there are multiple aspects to consider:

SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
 1. Place - Geographical location; where is the action of the story taking place? 2) Time - Historical period,
time of day, year, etc.; when is the story taking place?
1. Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc.?
2. Social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain local
colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular
place)?
3. Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Cheerful or eerie?

Ill. Character — There are two meanings for "character": 1) a person in a fictional story; or 2) qualities of a
person.

CHARACTERS
There must be living beings in the story that think or act in order to keep the story going. They must seem
like living and feeling individuals in order for us to feel strongly about them
The worst thing that could happen for as writer is that you feel indifferent toward the characters. If we
don't care for the characters, we are not inclined to keep reading.

FOUR METHODS OF PRESENTING A CHARACTER:

• Actions or thoughts of the character.
• Conversations the character engages in.
• Conversations of other characters about a third character.
• Author's own opinion. This might be overt or may be implied

1) People in a work of fiction can be a(n):

1. Protagonist — Clear center of story; all major events are important to this character.
2. Antagonist — Opposition or "enemy" of main character.
1. Characteristics of a character can be revealed through:
1. his/her physical appearance
2. what he/she says, thinks, feels, dreams and what he/she does or does not do
3. what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her
4. Characters can be...
1. Round — Fully-developed personalities that are affected by the story's events; they can
learn, grow, or deteriorate by the end of the story. Characters are most convincing when
they resemble real people by being consistent, motivated, and life-like.
2. Flat - One-dimensional character
3. Dynamic — Character who does go through change and "grows" during a story
4. Static — Character does not go through a change.

1. Point Of View — The angle from which the story is told. .

Points of View: Presentation of a Story

• Author Omniscient (all knowing, alt seeing). This is a third person point of view. The omniscient
author, writing in third person, sees whatever he wants to see, inside or outside his character, in privacy
or public, and interprets as he chooses.

SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
 • Author participant (first person). The author may be the main character or could be a secondary
character.

• Author as an observer (3rd, person). Involves objective treatment, as though the story teller had no
inner sight into the characters thinking or behavior.

• Multiple story tellers'(3rd person)

There are several variations of POV:

1. First Person — Story told by the protagonist or a character who interacts closely with the
protagonist or other characters; speaker uses the pronouns "I", "me", "we". Reader’s experiences
the story through this person's eyes and only knows what he/she knows and feels.
2. Second Person — Story told by a narrator who addresses the reader or some other assumed
"you"; speaker uses pronouns "you", "your", and "yours". Ex: You wake up to discover that you
have been robbed of all of your worldly possessions.
3. Third Person — Story told by a narrator who sees all of the action; speaker uses the pronouns
"he she", "it", ''they", "his", "hers, its", and "theirs". This person may be a character in the
story.

There are several types of third person POV:

1. Limited — Probably, the easiest POV for a beginning writer to use, "limited" POV funnels all action
through the eyes of a single character; readers only see what the narrator sees.
2. Omniscient- God-like, the narrator knows and sees everything, and can move from one character's mind
to another. Authors can be omniscient narrators by moving from character to character, event to event,
and introducing information at their discretion.

There are two main types of omniscient POV:

1. Innocent Eye/Naive Narrator Story told through child's eyes; narrator's judgment is different from that
of an adult.
2. Stream of Consciousness — Story told so readers solely experience a character's thoughts and
reactions.

3. Theme — Central message, "moral of the story," and underlying meaning of a fictional piece; may be
the author's thoughts on the topic or view of human nature.

1. Story's title usually emphasizes what the author is saying.

2. Various figures of speech (symbolism, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony) may be
utilized to highlight the theme.
3. Examples of common themes occurring in literature; on television, and in film are:
1. Things are not always as they appear to be.
2. Love is blind.
3. Believe in yourself.
4. People are afraid of change.
SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING
PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
5. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Theme

The total meaning of the story. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TIED UP IN A SIMPLE MORAL.
In many cases, stories are packages that allow readers to see the outcomes of certain behaviors.
Without a theme, the story lacks meaning or purpose.
Sometimes the theme is stated, sometimes it is only implied. In other stories, the theme may be a direct
refutation of a traditional theme.

Concept assessment

Identify the correct word/s that clearly describes the statements. Choose your answers in the box

Exposition setting Inciting incident Surprise ending

Foreshadowing Theme Rising action conflict
Suspense Denouement Climax Flashback

1. This introduces the reader to the setting and characters.

2. This event creates the central conflict or struggle.
3. The development part of the story where the struggle takes place.
4. This is the high point of interest and suspense in the story.
5. The resolution point at which the conflict is ended or resolved.
6. It is a feeling of excitement or tension the reader experiences as the plot unfolds. Writers create
suspense by raising questions in the reader's mind.
7. A hint or clue about an event that will occur later in the story.
8. A section of the story that is interrupted to tell about an earlier event.
9. An ending that catches the reader off guard with something unexpected.
10. The central message, "moral of the story," and underlying meaning of a fictional piece

Short stories usually have properties like the following:

•Dramatic conflict. Usually the basis of the story. Source of the problems which may or may not be
overcome in the climax.

•Foreshadowing, may be used to leave clues in the story to lure readers to try to predict the ending.

•Repetition. At the least, it helps drive home a point. It can also be used to create other literary
devices.
•Suspense. Draws readers to the work

SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
Practical Application

Group Task

Form 5 groups. Each group will be working with another group. All groups will relate a story for five
minutes. This can be a simple story from a fairy tale or any book. You have 5 minutes to recreate the story.
Present it in class.

Evaluating Learning

Relate your personal experience with the events in the video clip considering the elements of short
story and you as the main character.

END-OF-LESSON REFLECTION

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SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN
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SUBJECT: CREATIVE WRITING

PREPARED BY: RICH CATIGAN