The Structure of a story , As well as other literary genres, consists of the introduction (where the story begins), the knot (where the conflict develops) and the outcome (where the conflict resolves).
The stories are structured in three well differentiated parts, but it is not necessary that the same order is always maintained.
Each writer can vary the story to their liking. The important thing is to keep the readership to enjoy the story. But as a general rule, in children's stories if you keep a standard structure of beginning, knot and denouement.
How is a story structured?
1. Introduction
It is at the beginning of the story. In the introduction begins the story, the scenario is presented and a small presentation of the characters.
In this the time of the narration is concretized and at the same time it reveals the position of the narrator with respect to the related story. The event may be further, if the event has already happened; Simultaneous, if it is narrated at the same time in which the story happens, or earlier, if the event has not yet happened.
It is necessary to clarify that the simultaneous time in a story is almost impossible and is used in a theoretical way, since to narrate it it is necessary to have seen it.
In the introduction of the story also establishes the perspective from which the story is told.
The story's approach also establishes the velocity or the temporal duration. The story can be very short and detailed, or on the contrary happen over the years, and narrate it briefly.
The introduction contextualizes the story to be narrated in the story, the introduction sets the basis for the knot to make sense. It raises a normal situation that will be altered for some reason, thus posing the bases of the knot.
Here are presented the characters and all their peculiarities, since during the knot we will not have time to stop in explanations of character, because you will consider the facts of the history happened.
Once the introduction is raised and the normal situation of the story reaches a point of tension, we go to the knot of the story.
Knot
This is the central part of the story, where all the conflict in the story is told. It arises from a bankruptcy of the raised introduction. When an element of tension breaks the introduction introduced, is when the knot begins the story.
To complete the structure of the story, something alters the reality presented in the introduction. This point is of vital importance for a text to be considered a story. Otherwise it could be a literary narrative.
The facts that arise the story are facts intertwined action-consequence, with a single line of argument that develops in the knot.
Although there may be more than one protagonist, in stories normally there is only one, and his adventures are narrated along the knot. In the knot we mark the rhythm of the narration so that the reader is entertained and kept interested throughout history
The story told in the knot is always aimed towards the end or outcome. The tension that breaks the introduction, raises a problem where our protagonist must get into the situation.
Although it is important the presentation of the characters in the introduction of the story, here it will be shown what pasta are made, who they really are and how they act.
Undo the end
In this part is when the conflict that has generated the story is solved. The ending can be happy or sad, but it always has to be a closed end.
It is an essential characteristic of the story that the story is closed when it comes to an end. He must always solve the doubts the reader may have had.
If we find an open end in a story, it will not really be a story, since the problem that has been raised has not been solved. So the story does not work
One of the most important features of the story is that the ending has to be surprising and unexpected.
The story has to be an initial situation, which is complicated and is resolved. And if it's a good story, you have to try to take an unexpected turn to have a surprising end.
In children's stories it is not always necessary to have a surprising ending, but they do have a moral.
References
- ANDERSON, Nancy A. Elementary children's literature: The basics for teachers and parents . Allyn & Bacon, 2006.
- BAUMAN, Richard. Story, performance, and event: Contextual studies of oral narrative . Cambridge University Press, 1986.
- CURTIUS, Ernst Robert; ALATORRE, Margit Frenk; ALATORRE, Antonio. European Literature and Latin Middle Ages. 1955.
- WELLEK, RenéAlonso, et al. Literary theory . Gredos, 1966.
- ALMODÓVAR, Antonio Rodríguez. Popular stories or the attempt of an infinite text . Editum, 1989.
- GOYANES, Mariano Baquero. The Spanish story in the 19th century . Superior Council of Scientific Research, Institute"Miguel de Cervantes,"1949.
- ZAVALA, Lauro. The short story: towards a new literary canon. INTERAMERICAN REVIEW OF BIBLIOGRAPHY , 1996, vol. 46, p. 67-78.