Narrative Situation
What kind of narrator does the writer use?
If 1st person, does the narrating self seem close (consonant) or far
(dissonant) from the experiencing self? Is the narrator reliable?
If 3rd person, is the narrator located outside the story world or inside
it? Does the narrator know all, or not? Is it reliable or unreliable?
Does the narrator have access to the characters’ minds? To all of them?
To only one? Does this stay the same, or does it change?
Does your attitude about the narrator change during your reading of
the story? If so, at which point?
Plot
Plots are made up of events. Which events are essential to the
story (kernels) and which ones are subsidiary (satellites)?
Does the story get narrated in the order that it happens, or does the
writer employ anachrony (disordering)? What is the effect of the order
of telling?
Does the story tell everything that happens, or does something important
get left out (a gap, or ellipsis)?
What kind of story does the narrator tell (murder mystery, love story,
etc). What sorts of expectation does the story generate? Do you find
these expectations fulfilled? If not, what happens to change the
direction of the plot, or shift the genre?
Character
Are we allowed access into the minds of the characters? If so,
do you find psycho-narration, narrated monologue, or quoted monologue,
or a mixture of all three?
With which character(s) does the focalization make us feel most intimate?
What kind of characters do you find: realistic? idealized? satirical?
typical (representative types)? flat? round?
How do the characters’ names and physical descriptions contribute to
characterization?
Setting
Do places matter in this story or novel? If so, what are the settings
that seem most important? Do places determine plot possibilities?
Do places alter character?
How does the writer use the movement of characters through settings?
To what end?
Objects
Does the story or novel focus on a set of significant objects?
If so, are they natural or artificial? Ordinary or magical?
What do the things tells us about the fictional world in which the
characters move and act?
Do any of the objects seem to be symbols for something larger or more
abstract? Suggest which objects, and take a crack at the abstractions
or ideas embodied in these imaginary things.