All Write - Fiction Advice

In part 1, we looked at the kinds of details that make description effective – the sensory, visual and emotional details, however, good description is also about the words you choose and the way they fit into a scene. It’s about the way they sound, the sibilance they create, which produces the overall effect you want to achieve. It’s all about detail. The words you choose and the way you construct the sentences are what really makes description work. The right choice of words makes the entire scene feel very different. That’s because the right amount of description coupled with the right selection of words make a big difference when trying to transport the reader to the fictional world you’ve created, to get them to imagine the details being described.   Word Choice Not all scenes are the same, of course, so your description should reflect this. Think about the scene you are writing – is it tense or atmospheric, is it gentle or romantic, or is it action-packed?   T...

It’s one of those questions writers think about all the time. How do you actually make description effective? And how do you know that it’s effective? Can it be defined? Firstly, description is the thing that brings any story to life, so without it, or enough of it, the structure of the story will fail. Every story needs description. It’s a fundamental element that allows the reader to share the story, and therefore it’s incredibly important. It should convey more to the reader than just the setting or a bit of action; description also conveys emotion, hidden nuances and colourful embellishments .   Imagine one of your favourite books without description. How dramatically would it affect the story?   Would it still allow you to immerse yourself in that fictional world? Does it stimulate your imagination? The answer is no, it wouldn’t. It would simply be a book devoid of anything but dialogue and narrative. By describing a scene, an event, a character, you ...

In Part 1 we looked at scene breaks, why they’re used and how to use them, so in this concluding part we’ll look chapters – when to use them and how effective to make them. While scene breaks literally allow a scene to break for a different POV or a flashback or to move forward through the story, a chapter signifies a completely new section of the story. But when exactly do you begin a new chapter? How do you introduce one without completely interrupting the flow of the story? Why start a new chapter? We use chapters to represent a new segment of the story, yet they must be a continuation of that story, otherwise readers will not be able to follow the story cohesively. And just like scene breaks, they can show a change of character viewpoint, they can signify a passing of time and they can be used for flashbacks.    They are also useful for reducing the size of any given chapter, since if you are using chapters, you will want to vary the length of each cha...

We’ve touched on chapter and scene breaks previously; however lots of people have asked for more information on this subject, particularly when it comes to recognising the right moment to either use a scene break or to create a new chapter. Firstly, it’s worth understanding the difference between a scene break and a chapter and what they mean, because while they may form many of the different aspects of writing, they perform different functions and they are not entirely straightforward – the explanation behind how to use them and when to use them is a little more complex. Scene breaks are exactly that – a break in the current scene, which can happen for a variety of reasons, such as moving the story forward to the next important scene or changing the character POV. Not only that, but scene breaks are also used in order to show the passage of time. Chapters are another way of moving the story forward coherently and cleanly. But chapters represent an entirely new section of ...

I’ve touched on this in previous articles, but it’s one of those subjects that are eternally popular with writers, especially beginners, who are keen to employ as many tricks as possible to get their novels noticed, and one of those ways is to engineer a good hook – something that grabs the reader from the outset. But how do you grab the reader in the first place? Open some of the books on your bookshelf and make a note of how they begin. What is it that grabs your interest and compels you to read them? Does the book engage your curiosity or fascination? Does it start with a bang? Or does it start slowly and gain momentum, yet at the same time is interesting or quirky? You’ll find the results will be varied – some books are great openers, some take a while to warm up while others are a damp squib. So, what elements make a great hook? The Crucial Moment Start at a crucial moment. Every writer should know this one. If you start at a pivotal moment within the story – the pro...