However, not all stories follow this pattern. Many stories are not chronological. We start in the future, only to look in the past. There is often simultaneous action, no climax, or no resolution. Always look for patterns, design, and causality.
Form is content .
We all know what character refers to, and we all know that we should be preoccupied with who these characters are and how they act. As Robert DiYanni writes, we should approach fictional characters with the same concerns with which we approach people. We need to be alert for how we are to take them, for what we are to make of them, and we need to see how they may reflect our own experience. We need to observe their actions, to listen to what they say and how they say it, to notice how they relate to other characters and how other characters respond to them, especially to what they say about each other. To make inferences about characters, we look for connections, for links and clues to their function and significance in the story.