All Write - Fiction Advice

HoH Every writer should make an effort to edit their own work. It doesn’t matter what skill level the writer has – self editing is a crucial part of the writing process because not only does it allow the writer to understand their writing on many levels, as well as style and voice, but it also helps them to recognise those common editorial mistakes. Learning to edit, even on a beginner’s scale, empowers the writer; and that’s always a good thing. It’s no secret that good writers know how to self-edit. To gain an understanding of how to self-edit takes time, because the process of writing is a learning process – the more we write, the more we understand our writing and how it works, but there are a number of errors writers make when they try to self-edit, so here are some of the most common writers should look for: Don’t Edit As You Go This isn’t a rule. It’s tried and tested advice, which works. Yes, there will be writers who are adamant that this works for them, but in almos...

If there is such a thing as a true magical ingredient for fiction writing, then emotion is one of them. Like conflict, it’s the one thing a story absolutely needs. Emotion doesn’t just make a story; it feeds it, sustains it and heightens it. Emotion is essential. A story without emotion isn’t much of a story. That’s because every story relies on emotions we all feel, the kind we all understand and can all identify with. It may not seem like it, but everything in a story revolves around emotion and there are two distinct ways to work with emotion in fiction writing – showing it and eliciting it. Show the Reader Our characters convey all manner of emotions as the story unfolds. Scenes are often charged with emotion, be it anger, love, betrayal, pain or fear etc.   Characters act and react constantly to other characters, to different situations and to personal conflicts.   We put our characters in danger, we’re mean to them, we give them dilemmas, we kill off their loved ...

We all want to create characters that are so well developed that they seem real to the reader. Complex characterisation not only makes the character believable, or realistic, it shows them as they should be – fallible, flawed and anything but a hero. Complex characterisation isn’t just about knowing what they look like, sound like, how old they are, how they dress or what their favourite colour is. Complexity within characters starts with the background.   Every character has a backstory and a past.   It’s these details that help the reader identify with that character.   We’ve all done stupid things. We’ve all felt pain. We’ve all endured hard times and amazing moments. We all have inner demons. We’ve all accomplished things.   These things define us, and so we understand when we see a fictional character going through the same moments and emotions. That’s how we connect with the characters; we feel for them and we empathise, because we’ve been through similar...

For those writers who like to plan their stories, story outlines are a great foundation to ensuring the story moves in the right direction and doesn’t stutter. Outlines don’t have to be complicated.   They can be as simple or as detailed as you want. The most important thing is that you capture the main points of your story so you avoid writer’s block, stumbling blocks, ‘saggy middles’, trouble with plot twists, lack of direction and other writing problems. Every writer is different in their approach, and they will construct their outlines that best suit them. But whichever way you do it, it will still provide a road map from beginning of the story to the conclusion and it won’t leave you frustrated or stuck. For an outline to work, there has to be a well thought out, well developed plot from which to suspend the outline.   The plot is the important framework around which the story is woven. The plot will tell you what the story is about, whose story it is, why it’s ...

Most writers can contend with both short stories and novels. They’re able to switch between the two with relative ease, but for some writers, it’s not so straight forward.   There are writers who struggle to write novels and instead prefer short stories. Conversely, there are those who find it hard to write a story confined to a short amount of words, so novels work better for them. That’s why many writers are drawn to either one or the other. Short Story Writers Short stories can be more complex in the way they are constructed – because a well told story with almost the same elements as a novel still needs to be crammed into 10,000 words or so – and some writers become very skilled at this. Are you a short story writer? Do you find plotting is too complicated, that you have to try to make the story make sense and avoid large plot holes and mistakes? Are things easier with one central story? Do you balk at the thought of creating loads of characters and creating in-de...

Some people are naturally good a short story telling. Others find novels much easier to write, because it’s not confined to a condensed amount of words. This is perhaps why people find short stories more difficult to get to grips with. But are they really difficult? Let’s consider the differences first. The short story and the novel may share some similarities – a main story, a main character and a theme or two – but their overall structure and length make them very different. The common mistake most beginners make is to write the short story as though it was a novel and the result is that the story doesn’t work, and often doesn’t feel like a complete story because they haven’t taken into account these differences. Length Short stories vary in length, from 1000 words to around 20,000 words.   Average novels tend to range from 80,000 to 100,000 words. So with a short story, the plot needs to be told and wrapped up in a shorter length, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. ...

Some people are excellent short story writers.   Others are novel writers, and write only novels. There are times, however, we look upon a short story and realise there’s more. There’s more to say, more to explore, more to write. In other words, the short story demands to be something else – it wants to be a novel. One thing to note is that not every short story can be a novel. Sometimes they just don’t work on a larger scale. And you don’t choose short stories to make them into novels – that’s like forcing an idea into being; it doesn’t work. Most short stories work as short stories and nothing more. If there is more beyond the ending of a short story, that story will tell you. You will instinctively know that the story could be extended because the characters and the plot almost strain to reveal more. Sometimes the subplots need further expansion, beyond the boundaries of 5000 or 10,000 words, sometimes the characters push for more attention, or the plot is so deep that y...