Ten Dollar Words

I have a real problem with flowery vocabulary, so I'm going to define a couple of particularly florid words here, because I use them a lot.

Feel free to skip this section if you're a big brained English-speakin' type.

Apotheosis

The highest point in the story, "becoming a god".

A less sexually charged way of saying "climax".¹

Archetype

An abstract example or "type" of a thing.

"Bozo", "Ronald McDonald", "Pennywise", and "The Joker" all share the "Clown" archetype.

A fussier way of saying "type".

Exposition

Big blocks of explanatory content. Like, uh, this text that you're reading right now.

Mostly just a fancy way of saying "explanation".

Protagonist

The leading character in a story, the one driving the plot forward.

A less morally-directed way of saying "hero"².

Antagonist

A hostile adversary to the leading character in a story, also drives the plot forward but in the wrong direction.

I guess that is to say, they drive the plot backward.

A less morally-directed way of saying "villain"³.

so "antagonist" is good for expanding the problem to non-villainous entities like "the detective who's trying to catch Lupin" or "the city of New York, New York".

Status Quo

The normal, regular state of things.

In order for the story to properly kick off, the status has to get a lot less quo.

Denouement

The final part of a story, after the climax, where all of the various plot threads are tidied up.

Less exciting, but a nice satisfying goodbye for the characters.

Denouement is pretty much the only way to say denouement. It's fun to put as much French stink on it as you can when you say it. Really stretch out that fake accent. DE NEU MAUNNN.⁴

Diegetic

Means "happens in the story universe".

If you're playing a video game, a HP bar or a soundtrack is generally not diegetic: one expects that the characters in the game are not aware of a big floating death countdown bar, nor do they hear the soundtrack.

If the soundtrack is diegetic, then somewhere in-universe there must be a speaker emitting it, or a bard softly strumming it nearby.

Playing with diegesis can be very funny: if most of a story occurs with background music and near the end of the story one of the characters comments on the music that's been following them the entire time, only to reveal that the characters have been stalked this entire time by an orchestra? Very solid joke⁵.