All Write - Fiction Advice

The whole purpose of any piece of writing is to grab your reader’s attention and maintain that attention all through the story.   It sounds easy, but it’s not always easy to accomplish, and that’s because the writer has to somehow make the reader want to keep reading. Maintaining interest for a reader is a fluid, continual process.   In order to captivate, a writer must continually create to avoid the story and the characters from becoming stale, boring and lacklustre. First and foremost, make sure the story starts at its most necessary point in order to grab their attention from the very start. Once you have done that, then you can build around it and maintain that momentum and attention. There are several ways to create, and therefore, captivate: ·          Create conflict ·          Create obstacles ·          Create tension ·  ...

There are many things that make a writer stumble during writing, whether that’s plot development, characterisation, viewpoints etc, but a common stumbling block is how to deal with single character scenes. Most scenes in a story will involve two or more characters, which doesn’t present a problem because there will always be action, dialogue and description for these characters to fill your pages.   But what if you have a scene, an entire chapter, or an entire story with just one character and no dialogue? How do you write such scenes without being boring or repetitive?   How can you write them and still stimulate your reader? It sounds daunting, but with practise it comes easily, and isn’t as much as a stumbling block as perceived.   In order for single character scenes to be effective and interesting, you must have a fully developed character that you know extremely well.   If you don’t, the premise of single character scenes becomes problematic, becau...

One of the questions writers often ask is how much of their character's point of view should be apparent within the narrative.   After all, the story should be from the protagonist’s viewpoint, and the majority of the scenes should concentrate on your main character. Of course there will be scenes or chapters from other character’ viewpoints, and these are absolutely fine, but one of the problems that can occur is that a secondary character gradually overshadows the main character.   This sometimes happens naturally through the writing process because first and second drafts are usually the ‘bare bones’ of a novel and the writer is, therefore, finding their way with it. The other problem is that viewpoints are not always clear during a chapter.   Is it the lead character’s chapter, or the secondary character’s chapter?   Or, as sometimes happens, is it a mix of all the characters? The other problem is that sometimes this imbalance isn’t always pi...

Continuity errors might seem one of the least important aspects of a writer’s list of things to watch out for, but they are easy to make and sometimes difficult to spot and yet remain an important part of the writing method. Writing a novel isn’t an instant process. It takes months (years even), and during that time it is feasible and sometimes unavoidable that writers will inadvertently create continuity errors, simply because it’s hard to remember what happened on page 12 when you’re at page 200 of the story and you’re beavering away to get it completed. Just as in movies, the mistakes can sometimes be glaring or sometimes quite subtle, but they are errors nonetheless. Common Errors:- Time – Time of year, time of key scenes etc. Place – Setting, place names etc. Characterisation – Clothes, personal objects, birthdays, names, traits etc. Plotting – Plot flaws and gaping inconsistencies. Objects Time continuity errors happen because writers forget timeframes. A ...

With the usual faults of clichés, grammar, POV and sentence structure etc all corrected through judicious editing - the prose polishing process should then take on a deeper narrative cleanse to tidy the things that are not so obvious to writers, the things that we don’t always look out for. This means looking a little deeper to see what else can be improved prior to sending your pride and joy to agents and publishers. Ambiguity, for instance, is something writers tend to miss.   Ambiguity occurs due to poor sentence structures, often inadvertently giving sentences double meanings and thus confusing the reader (and on occasion, making them chuckle).   What you intended for the reader isn’t always what is understood by them, so make sure every sentence reads correctly and doesn’t give a double meaning. Tenses still remain the one thing that confuses so many writers, and especially so when working in first person point of view because it’s easy to lose focus and slip f...

Every writer should understand the importance of adding finishing touches prior to a submission to an agent or editor.   While absolute perfection is unattainable, writers should tidy and polish their MSS/short story to the best it can be, and this is for several reasons. One is to present to your would-be agent or publisher a professional writer, someone who knows what they’re doing.   Your aim is to make an impression – the right impression.   Another reason is show the reader a flawless, enjoyable piece of writing. Paying attention to your prose – an integral part of the editing process - is vital because this is where your voice, your style, your technique and your narrative is scrutinised by your agent, publisher or readers and the very structure of your prose determines whether it reads smoothly, makes sense, is enjoyable, or whether it is jarring, clunky or doesn’t read right at all. The downfall of some writers is that they don’t pay enough attention t...

Imagination alone isn’t always enough to help you write.   Writers can fill their stories with as much ‘made up stuff’ as they like, but there is no substitute for astute observation – the kind of things that add fine brush strokes and layers to your narrative. Observation is one of those things you can choose to include in your writing, or not.   It’s entirely up to the writer.   But writing without some observation is like a painting without colour.   It’s about noticing the smaller details, the backgrounds, the minutiae.   The kinds of things that help build a picture, a scene or a landscape in the reader’s mind. Artists, for instance, don’t paint with their hands – figuratively speaking, they paint with their eyes.   That’s because, on a deeper level, their observation and study of their subject is what is translated to the canvas.   The same is true of writers.   What a writer observes and studies is translated into the written w...