List of narrative techniques

Literary technique. Novels and short stories do not simply come from nowhere. Usually the author employs some general literary technique as a framework for artistic work.

Annotated List of Literary Techniques

• Epistolary novel, novel in the form of letters exchanged between the characters. Examples include Samuel Richardson's Pamela, Tobias Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• False documents, fiction written in the form of, or about, apparently real, but actually fake documents.
• Magical realism
• Narrative, fiction written as if it were related to the reader by a single participant or observer.
• Parody, ridicule by imitation, usually humorous, such as Mad Magazine
• Pastiche, using forms and styles of another author, generally as an affectionate tribute, such as the many stories featuring Sherlock Holmes not written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
• Picaresque novel, episodic recounting of the adventures of a rogue (Spanish picaro) on the road, such as Tom Jones or Huckleberry Finn.
• Satire, "An attack on wickedness and folly", as Samuel Johnson called it, such as 1984 or Brave New World. Not necessarily humorous.