"Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Rule #1 of Creative Writing
Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction, Berkeley Books, 1999. p. 13.
While the three essential story elements (conflict, character, and setting) are important in creating a narrative, they alone don't make a narrative good. A conflict can be built up and resolved but still boring. A character can be three dimensional but dull. A setting can be vividly described but not vibrant to readers. A story can fit all the technical definitions of a "good story" but can be cliched and underwhelming.
So what's missing? The difference between great narratives and decent narratives is that great narratives have good PULSE.
So what's missing? The difference between great narratives and decent narratives is that great narratives have good PULSE.
PULSE is an acronym for
pacing, uniqueness, logic, surprise, and empathy
Since reading a narrative is a large investment of time and energy, readers want to be rewarded by the story. Just being entertaining isn't enough: readers want something that draws them in and immerses them. Just as a solid pulse keeps you alive, each of the PULSE elements brings a story to life and engages the reader. With conflict, PULSE builds tension so the reader wants to read more and see what will happen next. With character, PULSE builds relatability so the reader can see themselves in the characters. With setting, PULSE gives the place and time meaning and importance to the narrative. Here's a breakdown of how each element works:
PACING: how the story moves keeps the reader interested
Readers don't want a boring story, which are typically described as "slow." Yet pacing is not literal speed, but how quickly the author gets from one point of action to another. Once a conflict is established, the reader wants to see it resolved, and while they want to see every step that gets to the resolution, they don't want to the resolution to take forever.
To ace pacing in your story, you have to understand two things. First, pacing comes down to syntax, one of the elements of style. Successive lines of dialogue quicken pace. Short sentences and interruptions quicken pace. Paragraphs of description and narration slow pace, and lengthy paragraphs that take up most of a page kill pace. Therefore, to have good pace, cut everything out that is unneeded. This comes down to how one revises drafts--a story that has never been revised is a story with haphazard pacing. Don't be afraid to be brutal: you may have to cut some of your favorite lines, moments, and characters, but if the story is not progressing steadily, it is the right thing to do. However, you don't want to cut too much: while some details aren't essential to understand the story, many are still necessary, and stories can fall into the trap of being "too short" and "too quick" if the reader feels like everything jumped from one event to another without explaining everything.
This brings us to the second thing that must be understood: pacing is improved when it changes. While a story should not be a "slow read," every good story takes time to slow down. Imagine the story as if it were a film: there are scenes with a lot of action and interaction of characters followed by quieter moments where the character can think. In order to build realistic characters, they need time to think: between each murder in a horror story, for example, the characters have quiet moments to explore what they should do next to stay safe or emotions around a recent loss before the guy with knives for fingers comes crashing back in. These calmer moments also give the author time to establish setting and backstory--instead of a huge info dump at the start of the story, use flashbacks to the past and descriptions of surrounding to ground the piece to a more leisurely pace after action. This is especially useful for setting, as it often changes through the story, so these quieter moments help the writer "reset" the scene for the reader.
A good way to set up a story's pace is to set up a ticking clock--an element that requires the conflict to be solved in a certain time frame else the protagonist lose the conflict. The pizza must be delivered in 30 minutes, the teens need to survive until sunrise and then the vampires will leave them alone, and the first one to fly a hot air balloon around the world in less than 80 days wins a bet. Note that in all these cases the clock is not the conflict but raises the stakes for the conflict--for instance, the second conflict is not the teens want to live vs. sunrise is five hours away: it's the teens want to live vs. the vampires want to eat them. By introducing a ticking clock, the writer gives the reader an idea of how long the conflict will take so the audience can track the events as they read.
To ace pacing in your story, you have to understand two things. First, pacing comes down to syntax, one of the elements of style. Successive lines of dialogue quicken pace. Short sentences and interruptions quicken pace. Paragraphs of description and narration slow pace, and lengthy paragraphs that take up most of a page kill pace. Therefore, to have good pace, cut everything out that is unneeded. This comes down to how one revises drafts--a story that has never been revised is a story with haphazard pacing. Don't be afraid to be brutal: you may have to cut some of your favorite lines, moments, and characters, but if the story is not progressing steadily, it is the right thing to do. However, you don't want to cut too much: while some details aren't essential to understand the story, many are still necessary, and stories can fall into the trap of being "too short" and "too quick" if the reader feels like everything jumped from one event to another without explaining everything.
This brings us to the second thing that must be understood: pacing is improved when it changes. While a story should not be a "slow read," every good story takes time to slow down. Imagine the story as if it were a film: there are scenes with a lot of action and interaction of characters followed by quieter moments where the character can think. In order to build realistic characters, they need time to think: between each murder in a horror story, for example, the characters have quiet moments to explore what they should do next to stay safe or emotions around a recent loss before the guy with knives for fingers comes crashing back in. These calmer moments also give the author time to establish setting and backstory--instead of a huge info dump at the start of the story, use flashbacks to the past and descriptions of surrounding to ground the piece to a more leisurely pace after action. This is especially useful for setting, as it often changes through the story, so these quieter moments help the writer "reset" the scene for the reader.
A good way to set up a story's pace is to set up a ticking clock--an element that requires the conflict to be solved in a certain time frame else the protagonist lose the conflict. The pizza must be delivered in 30 minutes, the teens need to survive until sunrise and then the vampires will leave them alone, and the first one to fly a hot air balloon around the world in less than 80 days wins a bet. Note that in all these cases the clock is not the conflict but raises the stakes for the conflict--for instance, the second conflict is not the teens want to live vs. sunrise is five hours away: it's the teens want to live vs. the vampires want to eat them. By introducing a ticking clock, the writer gives the reader an idea of how long the conflict will take so the audience can track the events as they read.
UNIQUENESS: the unusual makes the story memorable
Readers enjoy when they encounter a story with ideas they haven't encountered before. A great example of a unique story is the Harry Potter series, as there had been teens-at-a-magic-school books before, but unique touches like the term muggles and a sorting hat and house elves make the series stand out. Unique touches not only make a story more interesting for readers but it also makes it memorable for readers. Instead of just telling another high school love triangle story, yours can be "the one with the back waxing scene" or "the one where they have a snowball fight in their Prom dresses."
Lots of writing instructors use the phrase "put your own spin on it" or "make it your own," which is very vague advice for new writers. So how exactly do you "make a story your own" by adding unique touches? Here are some practical ways to do this:
Lots of writing instructors use the phrase "put your own spin on it" or "make it your own," which is very vague advice for new writers. So how exactly do you "make a story your own" by adding unique touches? Here are some practical ways to do this:
- Create unlikely reasons for conflict: Typically, the protagonist wants to go to prom with their dream girl based on love and attraction... but what if he's doing it to win a bet? Or to prevent his enemy from having a date for Prom? Or to break a curse that his literal witch of an ex-girlfriend put on him? Just because the conflict is typical doesn't mean the inciting incident has to be.
- Give characters strange quirks: One of the most memorable film characters in recent years is Lemon from Bullet Train, as he's a grown adult mercenary who is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. Another memorable film character is Harpo Marx, who only communicates using a bicycle horn. And who could forget McLovin' from Superbad because... well, his name is McLovin'. Giving a character a couple of strange details can make them stick with readers and enchant them. Just don't make characters too quirky or else they become unrealistic or a stereotype (like the manic pixie dream girl).
- Create memorable lines: Shakespeare isn't still relevant because of his plots--his handful of original ideas are among is least known works. Shakespeare is remembered for his killer lines. "To be or not to be: that is the question." "That is the stuff that dreams are made of." "Double, double, toil and trouble." If you can use wordplay or very compelling lines in your stories, those phrases will stick in the heads of readers.
- Change the typical perspective: Let's return to the high school love triangle. The protagonist is typically the lovesick nerd who want the pretty and popular girl who is dating the jock that doesn't treat her right. But what if the same story was told by the jock, who feels that his girlfriend is pulling away because he's busy with basketball and is shocked to see her flirting with a nobody? Or what if the story was told by the pretty and popular girl's freshman sister, who doesn't want either boy to end up with her spoiled, cheating, bully of an older sister? Changing the protagonist from the expected to the unexpected can take a by-the-numbers story and make it special.
- Use unusual settings: The love triangle story could naturally come to a head at the Prom, as that's the big event the story is building to. But it could also happen any time before the Prom. Maybe the protagonist asks her out when they are trapped in a elevator for two hours on the way to Prom. Maybe the protagonist coordinates an elaborate promposal in the haunted house at the carnival two weeks before Prom. Maybe the protagonist admits his love as he's racing away from her boyfriend in an ice cream truck. Going against the typical setting can do wonders for a story. Instead of a creepy cabin in the woods, set a horror story in the middle of a busy outdoor mall. Instead of the lovers getting together in the Tunnel of Love, have them kiss in the House of Mirrors. Instead of the protagonist getting to take the girl to the Prom, have her ask him out the Monday after Prom in a reversal or fortune.
LOGIC: stories that make sense are satisfying
Readers like stories to have an inner logic to them, as story logic lets the reader "play along." Mysteries are the best example, where the reader is trying to figure out who committed the crime along with the characters, but this spirit of trying to predict what will happen next is part of every reading experience. But to play the game, there have to be rules, so you have to set up consistent story logic. Otherwise, events in the story can come seemingly out of nowhere for the reader. One way this happens is through a plot hole, where the story contradicts itself by not following the rules it previous sets up. This can also happen through deus ex machina, where a solution to a conflict emerges that is not built up or foreshadowed in any way in the story. Readers don't like plot holes or deus ex machina, because if the story is a game, this is cheating.
So how does a writer make their story logic solid? The key is reasoning. Plot events happen need to happen for a reason, building the tension in the climax through cause and effect. A great way to make sure the plot events fall in place this way is to look at the story backward: a story can go almost anywhere once the conflict starts, but looking at the end of the conflict, the climax could have only occurred through one path of events. To help establish the logic of this path, stories include foreshadowing and follow the principle of Chekov's gun, which hold that an important object mentioned in the setting at the beginning of the story should have an important role in the story by the end. The way the principle is typically phrased is "If a gun is introduced in Act I, it has to fire by Act II."
Characters also need a reason to do what they do--a motivation that drives them to keep moving toward their goal. Even stock characters have motivations, just simpler ones--the waiter is motivated by tips, the police officer is motivated by justice, and the cereal mascot is motivated by an irrational passion for their cereal of choice.
This doesn't mean that your story needs to stick to real world logic: you can have magic, time travel, monsters, aliens, and all sorts of things that aren't in the real world but there need to be rules. For example, Harry Potter's story logic holds that magic of all kinds is real, but it has limits, like the idea that not just anyone can perform magic. Using magic to solve a problem at the end of a Harry Potter book makes perfect sense, since it fits with the story logic, but if aliens came down and defeated Voldemort, the reader would feel cheated because the book went against its own logic. Readers feel rewarded when a story conforms to their expectations (though surprises that fit story logic are always welcome).
So how does a writer make their story logic solid? The key is reasoning. Plot events happen need to happen for a reason, building the tension in the climax through cause and effect. A great way to make sure the plot events fall in place this way is to look at the story backward: a story can go almost anywhere once the conflict starts, but looking at the end of the conflict, the climax could have only occurred through one path of events. To help establish the logic of this path, stories include foreshadowing and follow the principle of Chekov's gun, which hold that an important object mentioned in the setting at the beginning of the story should have an important role in the story by the end. The way the principle is typically phrased is "If a gun is introduced in Act I, it has to fire by Act II."
Characters also need a reason to do what they do--a motivation that drives them to keep moving toward their goal. Even stock characters have motivations, just simpler ones--the waiter is motivated by tips, the police officer is motivated by justice, and the cereal mascot is motivated by an irrational passion for their cereal of choice.
This doesn't mean that your story needs to stick to real world logic: you can have magic, time travel, monsters, aliens, and all sorts of things that aren't in the real world but there need to be rules. For example, Harry Potter's story logic holds that magic of all kinds is real, but it has limits, like the idea that not just anyone can perform magic. Using magic to solve a problem at the end of a Harry Potter book makes perfect sense, since it fits with the story logic, but if aliens came down and defeated Voldemort, the reader would feel cheated because the book went against its own logic. Readers feel rewarded when a story conforms to their expectations (though surprises that fit story logic are always welcome).
SURPRISE: readers keep reading if they aren't sure what happens next
Speaking of surprise, it's critical that a story surprises readers. While story logic lays out the path the story will take, surprises along the path make the journey interesting. The most typical surprise in a story is the twist ending--the writer builds toward one solution to the conflict, but at the last minute, things don't go according to plan and the other solution occurs. For example, a romantic story features a poor writer and princess in disguise--love starts to bloom, yet the princess must choose between the love she's found and following the royal tradition of not mixing with commoners. Since it's a love story, we expect the princess to defend her love and make the king and queen accept her decision... but then the princess leaves her beau to marry a faraway prince. It's shocking and surprising, but as long as it still follows story logic, it's a great way to make readers remember your story.
Yet surprise doesn't have to wait until the end of a story. A great way to create surprise is by following the logic of a story while creating unintended consequences as a result: we expect A to cause B, but then it also causes C. For example, the conflict in a story is that Bobby wants to get Heather to go to Homecoming with him, but Heather is part of a different social circle and has never dated a guy like Bobby. So Bobby convinces Heather he can tutor her in Geometry, and Heather invites Bobby over to her house. This results in Bobby getting closer to Heather (predictable), but also results in Bobby forgetting to do his own homework and becoming unable to go to Homecoming (surprise) and Heather's older sister home from college falls for Bobby (bigger surprise). These surprise complications don't make the story veer off the logical path, but they make the path harder to traverse, complicating the conflict further.
Surprises can also come in the subversion of character and setting rules. For example, characters make decisions according to their primary motivation and that would serve in their best interest. However, due to conflicting motivations or forces of habit, the character may make an unexpected decisions that runs counter to their motive or hurts their chance at success. The evil industrialist will buy up all the houses on the block to use the land for his factory, but he makes a bet for one house with a homeowner instead of taking the deed because he's amused and wants to have some fun. Similarly, you can use the principle of Chekov's gun in surprising ways by making what seems important minor and what seems minor important. The gun the detective carries is fired but misses the fleeing suspect, but what ultimately stops the suspect is him tripping on the bottle of water the detective lost when the light went out. The water bottle was set up at the start, but the fact that something as ordinary as a water bottle coming back as important is surprising.
Yet surprise doesn't have to wait until the end of a story. A great way to create surprise is by following the logic of a story while creating unintended consequences as a result: we expect A to cause B, but then it also causes C. For example, the conflict in a story is that Bobby wants to get Heather to go to Homecoming with him, but Heather is part of a different social circle and has never dated a guy like Bobby. So Bobby convinces Heather he can tutor her in Geometry, and Heather invites Bobby over to her house. This results in Bobby getting closer to Heather (predictable), but also results in Bobby forgetting to do his own homework and becoming unable to go to Homecoming (surprise) and Heather's older sister home from college falls for Bobby (bigger surprise). These surprise complications don't make the story veer off the logical path, but they make the path harder to traverse, complicating the conflict further.
Surprises can also come in the subversion of character and setting rules. For example, characters make decisions according to their primary motivation and that would serve in their best interest. However, due to conflicting motivations or forces of habit, the character may make an unexpected decisions that runs counter to their motive or hurts their chance at success. The evil industrialist will buy up all the houses on the block to use the land for his factory, but he makes a bet for one house with a homeowner instead of taking the deed because he's amused and wants to have some fun. Similarly, you can use the principle of Chekov's gun in surprising ways by making what seems important minor and what seems minor important. The gun the detective carries is fired but misses the fleeing suspect, but what ultimately stops the suspect is him tripping on the bottle of water the detective lost when the light went out. The water bottle was set up at the start, but the fact that something as ordinary as a water bottle coming back as important is surprising.
EMPATHY: make the reader feel the story
Readers like stories that they can relate to on a personal level. Sometimes readers can relate to the topic based on the who the subject is (e.g., Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is meant to appeal to young girls), but you can't count on this: you don't know exactly who your audience is, as it could be literally anyone. This is why authors try to create what's called an audience surrogate, an everyman character who may not be exactly like the reader but who the reader can see themselves as. When a character feels betrayed or happy or sad, readers should be reminded of times in their own lives where they were betrayed or happy or sad. This creates empathy, the ability to understand the feelings of another person.
Empathy is the most important element of storytelling, as it creates a connection between the reader and the writing. Good writing engages the reader on an emotional level--this is entertainment. It doesn't matter if the story is funny, heartbreaking, tragic, or terrifying: entertainment is a result of a story reaching out and connecting to the reader. By reading the writing and relating to it, the reader gets to experience an emotional release themselves. This is called catharsis and is why people consume art-- they want to feel.
The best way to achieve catharsis, other than the audience surrogate, is to give every character at least one thing about their character that's likeable. It also helps to write with a theme in mind. Create a universal message that readers can either relate to or learn from--art not only engages a reader's empathy but can teach readers empathy through emotional rehearsal, or experiencing the conflict in the story as practice for dealing with similar conflict in real life. To increase the impact of emotional rehearsal, a writer can make the conflict and the escalation in the story more personal. Conversely, a writer can make the setting more empathetic by making it more average and everyday, closer to the actual places the audience has been.
Empathy is the most important element of storytelling, as it creates a connection between the reader and the writing. Good writing engages the reader on an emotional level--this is entertainment. It doesn't matter if the story is funny, heartbreaking, tragic, or terrifying: entertainment is a result of a story reaching out and connecting to the reader. By reading the writing and relating to it, the reader gets to experience an emotional release themselves. This is called catharsis and is why people consume art-- they want to feel.
The best way to achieve catharsis, other than the audience surrogate, is to give every character at least one thing about their character that's likeable. It also helps to write with a theme in mind. Create a universal message that readers can either relate to or learn from--art not only engages a reader's empathy but can teach readers empathy through emotional rehearsal, or experiencing the conflict in the story as practice for dealing with similar conflict in real life. To increase the impact of emotional rehearsal, a writer can make the conflict and the escalation in the story more personal. Conversely, a writer can make the setting more empathetic by making it more average and everyday, closer to the actual places the audience has been.
WAYS TO DEVELOP MORE OF A PULSE
FORESHADOWING: Foreshadowing is when an elements of a story, like a line of dialogue or image, hints at the future. Fantasy does this obliquely through prophesies about the future of characters, yet the talented writer can hint to the future in subtle ways. Foreshadowing requires that the ending is written first. To insert foreshadowing, look at the climax and see what about it can be included earlier: Does a character say a line that could have had a different meaning earlier? Could an object used in the climax appear earlier (a.k.a. Chekov's gun)? Could a character have gone through the same event as the climax, but had made a different choice? Does the climax depend on a quirk or personality trait of the character that can be hinted at? Foreshadowing improves a story's logic (as it connects ideas) and enchantment (as it rewards the reader for paying attention).
FLASHBACK: A flashback is when the story jumps to a prior event before the conflict. Flashbacks come in two flavors: character memory and anachronism. Character memory is where the current action reminds a character of a past event, which is described over a couple of paragraphs by the narration or by the character through dialogue. These are good flashbacks, and they help pacing by spreading out exposition and logic by connecting character past and present. Anachronism is where the story literally breaks using a page or chapter break to go back and "act out" the past event. These scenes severely disrupt pacing and it takes an experienced writer to pull them off without loosing utility and story logic. If you want to flashback, stick with character memories.
IMAGERY: While imagery is one of the elements of style, it is key in creating PULSE. While lengthy description slows the pace of a story, solid imagery keeps pace while providing enchantment. Instead of saying, for instance, "Shawn was blue eyed, dark skinned, tall, and athletic; Marcie really liked his eyes" (which brings action to a halt), imagery can be incorporated to say "Shawn didn't seem remarkable to Marcie until he looked at her: his steely blue eyes pierced her, contrasting his dark skin and setting him apart from the other basketball players."
REVERSALS: The best stories hold surprises for their readers, and the best surprises come from conflict. This is where a reversal comes in, where the situation does suddenly from progressive (moving toward climax) to regressive (new problem that stalls progress). A major reversal can happen at any point in the story, even after what seems like a climax for a false ending. Think the nurse teasing Juliet with the information from Friar Lawrence or Pip getting rejected by Estella in Great Expectations. Reversals are a great way to build tension in a plot and reveal new character details that wouldn't have come to surface if the character wasn't hit with a new situation.
DISCOVERIES: Readers only care about characters who change, and to change, characters need to figure out something new about themselves, another character, or life in general. Unlike reversals, which amp up conflict, discoveries help pacing by pausing the action for a moment to give a character emotional (or even literal) tools he or she will need to face the climax. Think Jem working for Mrs. Debois in To Kill a Mockingbird or the sovereign chapter in Moby Dick. As readers follow the protagonist and try to see through his or her eyes, you must sometimes pause to explore a discovery, just as the character would in real life. This helps pacing, logic, and especially substance: taking a paragraph to have a character weigh the pros and cons of a decision or to observe exactly where they are shows the reader what is important in a story.
TRANSITIONS: Story logic and pace suffers if transitions between sections are not strong. The edifying section talks about transitions from paragraph to paragraph, as they are more associated with academic writing. Yet more important in narrative are transitions between actions. Whenever something major happens in a script, like a character's action or revelation of important information, the other characters must react to the information in a way that drives the next action in the plot. Transitional moments of reaction connect events like dominoes set up to fall: if actions are too far apart in relation, then the dominoes won't fall and you have a plot hole.
IRONY: Irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. Verbal irony is when a character says something unexpected and is often referred to as wit (e.g., when Daffy demands Elmer to shoot him now in the clip below). Situational irony is when a character expects a situation to happen one way, and it happens in a different way (e.g., when Daffy goes over the event to find the "pronoun trouble" and still ends up getting shot). Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of something the character is not (e.g., that no matter what he does, Daffy will end up getting shot). Irony brings enchantment into a story, as it is integral to humor and allows for both prediction and surprise by the reader.
FLASHBACK: A flashback is when the story jumps to a prior event before the conflict. Flashbacks come in two flavors: character memory and anachronism. Character memory is where the current action reminds a character of a past event, which is described over a couple of paragraphs by the narration or by the character through dialogue. These are good flashbacks, and they help pacing by spreading out exposition and logic by connecting character past and present. Anachronism is where the story literally breaks using a page or chapter break to go back and "act out" the past event. These scenes severely disrupt pacing and it takes an experienced writer to pull them off without loosing utility and story logic. If you want to flashback, stick with character memories.
IMAGERY: While imagery is one of the elements of style, it is key in creating PULSE. While lengthy description slows the pace of a story, solid imagery keeps pace while providing enchantment. Instead of saying, for instance, "Shawn was blue eyed, dark skinned, tall, and athletic; Marcie really liked his eyes" (which brings action to a halt), imagery can be incorporated to say "Shawn didn't seem remarkable to Marcie until he looked at her: his steely blue eyes pierced her, contrasting his dark skin and setting him apart from the other basketball players."
REVERSALS: The best stories hold surprises for their readers, and the best surprises come from conflict. This is where a reversal comes in, where the situation does suddenly from progressive (moving toward climax) to regressive (new problem that stalls progress). A major reversal can happen at any point in the story, even after what seems like a climax for a false ending. Think the nurse teasing Juliet with the information from Friar Lawrence or Pip getting rejected by Estella in Great Expectations. Reversals are a great way to build tension in a plot and reveal new character details that wouldn't have come to surface if the character wasn't hit with a new situation.
DISCOVERIES: Readers only care about characters who change, and to change, characters need to figure out something new about themselves, another character, or life in general. Unlike reversals, which amp up conflict, discoveries help pacing by pausing the action for a moment to give a character emotional (or even literal) tools he or she will need to face the climax. Think Jem working for Mrs. Debois in To Kill a Mockingbird or the sovereign chapter in Moby Dick. As readers follow the protagonist and try to see through his or her eyes, you must sometimes pause to explore a discovery, just as the character would in real life. This helps pacing, logic, and especially substance: taking a paragraph to have a character weigh the pros and cons of a decision or to observe exactly where they are shows the reader what is important in a story.
TRANSITIONS: Story logic and pace suffers if transitions between sections are not strong. The edifying section talks about transitions from paragraph to paragraph, as they are more associated with academic writing. Yet more important in narrative are transitions between actions. Whenever something major happens in a script, like a character's action or revelation of important information, the other characters must react to the information in a way that drives the next action in the plot. Transitional moments of reaction connect events like dominoes set up to fall: if actions are too far apart in relation, then the dominoes won't fall and you have a plot hole.
IRONY: Irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. Verbal irony is when a character says something unexpected and is often referred to as wit (e.g., when Daffy demands Elmer to shoot him now in the clip below). Situational irony is when a character expects a situation to happen one way, and it happens in a different way (e.g., when Daffy goes over the event to find the "pronoun trouble" and still ends up getting shot). Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of something the character is not (e.g., that no matter what he does, Daffy will end up getting shot). Irony brings enchantment into a story, as it is integral to humor and allows for both prediction and surprise by the reader.