All Write - Fiction Advice

This is a subject that I often get asked about by writers who want to understand the concept of imagery and why it’s important in fiction writing, but more importantly they want to know how they can use it effectively. Imagery is about description, but it is the kind of description that brings depth to otherwise flat depiction. It brings the narrative to life. It is designed to enhance sensory experiences. To use it effectively, writers need to understand the functionality of imagery. I magery in fiction isn’t just about describing actions or telling the reader what is happening. Instead the use of imagery allows the reader to identify with the story, the characters and the themes by making the reader see everything in their mind, just like a picture or a movie. Good use of imagery allows the reader access to ‘see’ into the story on a different level. How does it become effective? It’s done through various techniques. Writers have so many tools at their disposal, but ...

Redundancy in fiction writing is something all writers do.   It comes about via repetition of certain words or phrases, characteristics or narrative. Writers don’t always realise they repeat certain word structures, or phrases, because the mind unconsciously blots out these anomalies while focused on writing. It’s not until the writer looks back at the work that some of these repetitions jump off the page. That’s when some snippets of what you have written become redundant. Thankfully, the editing stage will help writers weed out such instances, but sometimes even the most advanced writers can miss them, so it’s important to be self-aware of them. Repeated Word structures It’s surprising how easily we repeat the same noun or verb or adjective in one paragraph or scene and thus end up making the sentence structure weak. The reason why writers miss them is because they are subtle and not as overt as repeated words that might stand out more from the narrative. For exampl...

Themes are not always foremost in a writer’s mind when writing, but every good book needs a theme, or two. So what exactly are themes? The theme of a novel or short story is about the core topics or principles covered in the story, the things readers don’t always first realise. They are the lessons the story wishes to teach and the deeper meanings it wants readers to uncover. Essentially theme is about the meaning of the story. Themes can happen naturally during the course of writing, or they can be pre-planned by the author, who might have definitive issues he or she may want to explore. What is their function? Firstly, themes should not be confused with plot. They are very different things and both have very different functions. Plot represents what your story is about. Themes represent the meanings within the story. Themes embody the different subjects that might surface during writing. Stories need them in order to help the reader understand the concept of the stor...

Rather like the adage, ‘show, don’t tell’, tempt, tease and tantalise should be a mantra for all writers to remember, simply because it embodies many of the ideals that writers should aim for within their writing.   The premise of these three elements is pretty self explanatory, but the basic idea is to tempt the reader, to draw them in to begin with, then to tease them with what the story might be, what might happen, what it offers, and then, ultimately, to tantalise them with the developing story right up until the dénouement. Tempt your Reader Right from the opening sentence, your story must grab the reader’s attention. Your job as a writer is to lure the reader into reading more than the obligatory opening sentence; you have to entice and persuade them to read beyond that first page, then the second page and the third page and so on, always maintaining that level of interest.   Make it difficult for them to leave it alone. But why bother? Well, there is a v...

In part 1 of the Art of Layering – adding those descriptive elements – I used a narrative example to show how it works in order to provide the reader more than just flat story telling. If the narrative is to keep the reader’s interest and carry the story’s momentum, there has to be more.   Description needs depth. The description of key scenes always needs a little more than just straightforward telling. And readers want more than just a couple of lines of drab description. They want to rip back the words and peer right into the soul of the story. The art of layering gives them that. Writers don’t have to go overboard with description; too much can kill the narrative sometimes, but it is what is encompassed within the description that counts. Give readers background and foreground, give them colours and sounds, give them characterisation; let them connect to your characters – give them immediacy and emotion. But how much is too much?   Well, there is no right or w...

When we think of description, most writers think about simply describing a few elements for the reader during narration, such as a sound or whether it’s light or dark, but if you think of a story rather like an onion, you will see that it reveals many layers before it finally gets to the core. Fiction – or description – is very similar in the way it operates. Descriptive writing entails a number of elements to make it stand out, and layering is just one of them. The idea of layering within description is to show the reader there is more to just the surface of the story; that there is more information to glean from it – background, colours, noise, characters, atmosphere and so on. Description brings the narrative to life for the reader. They have nothing to go on but the strength of a writer’s words and therefore the writer has to allow the reader to visualise the scenes that are taking place, to become part of it, and the best way to do that is to make the narrative...

There are plenty of myths surrounding fiction writing, the kind that stick in our minds and give us many of our misconceptions.     We’ve all experienced them, more so at the beginning of our writing careers, because many writers make the mistake of assuming that fame, untold riches and success will land at their feet. Unfortunately, this rarely happens, but if writers put in the hard work and they are willing to learn, then success is sure to follow.   So, what are the main writing myths?   Writers earn millions   This is one of the biggest misconceptions. The truth is that most writers don’t earn millions and they have an average 9 to 5 job to ensure a reliable income.   Writing, on the whole, won’t pay the rent. The few lucky ones that have caught an editor’s eye (and said editor thinks they can make lots of money) or the few writers that catch the zeitgeist and write something that is currently flavour or the month (i.e. Fifty Shad...