Types of fiction texts
Prose
There are different types of prose texts. They are usually defined by their length, though there are other differences:
Flash fiction
- A very short story, of a few hundred words.
- Can be cryptic – you have to work out what’s happened.
An example is an Ernest Hemingway story which was famously only six words long.
Short stories
- Tell a complete story in a few thousand words.
- Have a limited number of characters.
- Are sometimes more about conveying an atmosphere than plot.
- Often leave questions unanswered for the reader to think about.
Some writers are famous for their short stories. Philip K. Dick, the science-fiction writer, wrote short stories that were turned into the films Minority Report, Total Recall and The Adjustment Bureau. Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 for her mastery of the modern short story.
Novellas
- Are mid-way in length between short stories and a full-length novel.
- Tell one plot-line.
- Are not always divided into chapters.
A novella you may have heard of is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This tells the story of Scrooge, although lots of other characters are mentioned. Another famous novella is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
Novels
- Are a relatively modern form of literature.
- Often have a number of different plot lines in them, which can support or contrast each other.
- Usually have several characters and their stories.
- Are usually divided into chapters.
- Usually tie up all the loose ends by the end of the book.
Some famous novels which you might have heard of include: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë; Lord of the Flies by William Golding; and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.