All Write - Fiction Advice

Writing isn’t easy. It’s a long, drawn out process that takes months or even years, and the ability to stay inspired can waver. No one is perfect, which is why there will be times during that process when writers grow weary of writing and the inspiration dissipates. Staying inspired is as much about remaining focused as it is about having ideas and being creative, as these are intrinsically linked, but how we maintain that is a different thing altogether. If inspiration dries up, don’t worry. It’s quite normal; so normal that all writers will experience this. It’s a matter of keeping things in perspective rather than becoming anxious about a lack of ideas and the thought that if you’re not writing then there must be something wrong.   There isn’t anything wrong. Lack of inspiration or ideas is NOT writer’s block.   Writer’s block is a problem with the writer, while a lack of inspiration is, well…a lack of inspiration. It’s as simple as that. The ideas are just not t

Writers know that, in truth, a story is never finished, and if given a choice, they would tweak and rewrite ad infinitum. That’s because we’re never satisfied – we can’t help ourselves; we have to keep rewriting until we think it’s perfect. Of course, there must come a point when the story has to finish and reach a point where there is nothing else to write and you have to let it out into the big bad world for others to read. But how do you know the story really is finished? The answer is all down to the process of writing. There’s a logical flow to how stories are constructed. It happens in gradual steps, so the finished product comes as part of the last few steps in that process, rather than when you write ‘the end’, because ‘the end’ isn’t the end at all. This process begins by writing the first draft – the bare bones of the story. New writers believe that’s all it needs. They’ve written the story, so it’s finished. But it’s far from finished – it’s barely written

Part one looked at different types of irony writers can use – a very subtle way of duping or manipulating the reader.   Outright deception can also be used to good effect, which is very popular among crime, thriller and mystery writers. There are different types writers can use, but the main ones are misdirection, red herrings and outright lies. Throughout a story, writers often create deliberate deception. They do so by manipulating reality to mislead their readers to add a different perspective or heighten tension of conflict and to create drama. False clues help to achieve this. Misdirection is an effective way to direct the reader from what is really happening. This effect is created by a false reality. For instance, writers can deliberately lead the reader into a wrong assumption whereby a character jumps to the wrong conclusion and accuses another character of perpetrating a terrible crime. The reader will most likely also think the same thing, until later in the stor