All Write - Fiction Advice

One of the many daunting steps after completing a manuscript is to look for literary agents that might be interested in your manuscript and who might hopefully represent and help you try to break into what is, essentially, a difficult market. Of course, before you do anything, it’s essential that you have proofread and polished your manuscript so that it is error free and has been correctly formatted. It needs to be complete in its entirety. Not only that, but you need to ensure your work is professionally presented. You won’t get far if you submit sloppy, untidy work accompanied by a badly written submission. Looking for agents isn’t about picking a name and sending them your manuscript. It involves research. Literary agents vary on what genres they prefer, what lengths they work with and whether they specialise in fiction or non-fiction. Time spent looking at agents and what they require is time well spent. In the UK, writers can use the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, whic...

For writers who want to approach the traditional publishing route, there’s a few steps to take before that daunting task; the kind of things that will get the manuscript into the best shape it can be before it is submitted to an agent or publisher. Unlike self-publishing, traditional publishing requires a high standard of writing and editing.   A good story is only as good as the way it is presented, so this also needs to be a high standard. So you’ve written your novel. Now to ready it for submission. Step 1 The first step is to ensure that the MSS has gone through several rounds of editing so that it is as near to perfect as it can be. That means not only presenting a cohesive, well written story, but one that is free from grammar and spelling mistakes and is punctuated correctly. Remember, any submission to agents or publishers is a showcase of your ability to write, so if you present a manuscript with errors in it, they will think less favourably about you as an aut...

Writers know that the opening chapter must hook the reader, but that’s only half the battle because the ending of your book is just as important as the opening. An ending doesn’t just close a story. It does more than that – it ties up all the loose ends, it closes those subplots and gives the reader a satisfactory ending to a good story.   But more importantly the ending serves to sell your next book because if the reader enjoyed the story, they will want to read more of what you can offer. The thing about endings, however, is that they are probably the most difficult things to get right because the ending of a novel isn’t always clear at the time of writing it. Sometimes the ending only becomes apparent as the story unfolds, while other writers have at least some idea how it might end.   To get the most from your ending, it must accomplish several things – it must make sense and relate directly to the plot, without sounding convoluted. It must answer all the questio...