All Write - Fiction Advice

Sometimes it’s very easy to get so carried away when writing a novel that the lines between fact and fiction often become blurred. It means that writers sometimes end up mixing fact with fiction (otherwise known as faction), which isn’t a new phenomenon; it’s been done for years and is extremely common. There is nothing wrong with using real places or events as a backdrop or setting for your fictional characters. There is nothing wrong with using historical figures within the story, but bear in mind that you can’t really put words into their mouths and treat them as you would fictional characters, because you cannot truly know their personalities, so you can’t presume to know what they would say or do. Also, you can’t write about what is unobserved. It’s a very thin line to tread, so for beginner writers, it’s best avoided. Writers blend fiction with fact because they can apply a fair amount of artistic licence to the story, but mixing known facts with fiction requires attentio...

In the last part of this series about a novel being more than just a plot or characters, we’ll take a look at some of most overlooked elements of novel writing, the kind of things that are either simply ignored or barely shown by writers – Setting, Background and Time. Setting Does it matter about setting? Is the reader likely to care even if the setting is hardly mentioned? Again, setting is one of those elements that writers pay less attention to, but shares equal importance with any part of a well-constructed novel. The setting tells the reader where and when the story takes place – whether it’s just one location or many.   They can be real settings or fictitious, but whichever they are, the setting gives the reader more information, instead of an empty story.   The more information the author can supply, the stronger the story. Many writers make the mistake of either not making the setting known, or they go overboard with far too much description that the resul...

Part 1 looked at some of the more obvious elements that make a novel, things like plot, characters, subplots and viewpoints. Part 2 will look at those elements that are less obvious to writers, ones they wouldn’t normally stop and think about. Themes A good novel needs themes. Themes form the moral fibre of the story. Plenty of writers worry over what themes – if any – should be included, or how they should be used, but more often than not, some themes grow organically with the story.   You might have a couple of themes already in mind. For romance writers, themes of love, betrayal, deceit and happiness are usual staple fare. For thriller and crime writers, themes of revenge and death or hatred tend to be top of the list, for horror writers main themes might be death, resurrection, the black arts etc.   But the interesting thing about any story is that, aside from main themes, smaller sub-themes also emerge. Themes help to connect the reader with the story and the c...

There are many parts that make a novel and without them, the structure of a novel wouldn’t exist. Every writer knows that there should be a plot – the basic story structure – and that the story will have characters, but they won’t always know about the other ingredients that make a good novel. In the first of this three part series, we’ll take a look at the obvious elements that all would be novelists will either already know or should have some basic knowledge about. These are the easy ones for writers to concentrate on. But of course, there are others, less well known, that help make a novel whole. So let’s look at the basics: Plot A plot is the skeleton of the basic story. It involves a series of events that happen throughout the story, through the eyes of its characters, and happens in a certain sequence. A basic plot would be: ‘The hero has 24 hours in which to solve a series of puzzles set by a psychotic killer, who is holding his family hostage…’ In simple terms,...

There’s nothing worse than spending months, years even, writing your novel, only to find that the moment you come to publish it or submit it to agents or publishers, there is one already one the shelf with virtually the same plot as yours. While this can be quite disheartening, it does not mean writers should abandon their projects with failed hope. The simple truth is that plots are not limitless, but ideas are.   How often have you watched a movie or read a book and the story is so familiar to something else you’ve seen or read? That’s because they are inevitably similar; they share the same plot outline, but they’re not exactly the same.   That’s because they will have very different characters, different themes, different subplots and different styles. They will have different titles, too. So even if you have a novel that is very similar to one that has just hits the book shelves, don’t despair. Yours will, inevitably, be quite different. All stories are uniqu...

You may have heard ‘passive’ and ‘active’ voice mentioned in previous articles, or seen something written about them online and wondered if they are really that important in fiction writing, especially with the emerging consensus among self-published writers they can ‘write what they like’. Of course they can write what they like. It’s just most of it isn’t worth reading. So what is passive and active voice? Is it really that important? When we talk about active or passive voice, it means that the verb is either active or passive. For instance: John answered the door = active sentence. The door was answered by John = passive sentence. The first example is active because the subject and verb is in the correct sequence. In active sentences, something that is doing the action is the subject of the sentence. The thing receiving the action is the object . Therefore in the above sentence, John is the subject . ‘Answered’ becomes a verb because it is the action being used w...

None of us start out as experts at writing. We all have to start at the beginning and learn and grow as writers, but there are many ways writers can improve their writing skills. Some of them are very simple. Know the Basics The basics of fiction writing should not be beyond the comprehension of any writer, even newbies. By basics, I mean things like a good grasp of vocabulary and grammar, a familiarity with the language (i.e. to have some knowledge of verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns and so on), and syntax, the ability to provide decent narrative composition. When these basics are not in place, then learn about them, otherwise the resulting attempt at a blockbusting novel might be a mess. The easiest way to learn about the basics is to read lots of books on grammar and writing. Observe and Listen   Not many writers give credit to this, or they fail to see how it could possibly improve their abilities, but observation is vital to learning and improving writ...