Cohn suggests that literary fictions (such as the novel or the short story) can be distinguished from other non-fictional narratives in three ways. First, the distinction between story and plot (in her terminology story and discourse) does not have the same validity for ‘texts that refer to events that have occurred prior to their narrative embodiment’. You will find this point easier to understand after having read the discussion of story and plot on p.96 . second, only in fictional narratives can narrators enter the consciousness of persons apart from themselves. Third, in non-fictional narratives the distinction between author and narrator does not make the same sort of sense as it does when applied to fictional texts (1999, 130). This is my crude précis of Cohn’s highly sophisticated and very well illustrated argument.