Literary Glossary
Do you know your epigrams from your epithets? Paradox from parody? Can you give an example of irony? This is your literary lexicon.
Deus Ex Machina
Literally "god in the machine" (or "ghost in the machine" as The Police put it), deus ex machina is a literary device in which divine intervention is employed to get the protagonist out of a sticky situation or untangle an ugly plotline.
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is when the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters. This is the result of the reader having a greater knowledge than the characters themselves.
Narrative Arc - What is Narrative Arc in Literature?
Sometime simply called "arc" or "story arc," narrative arc refers to the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. Typically, a narrative arc looks something like a pyramid, made up of the following components: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.