All Write - Fiction Advice

Indirect Exposition - Or to you and me, 'Show, Don't Tell' 'Show, don’t tell’ is a maxim that most writers have no doubt heard, yet it's probably one of the most important phrases to remember in creative writing. It’s very easy for novice writers to relay their entire stories with lots of telling but no showing. What it actually means is the ability to show a reader what is happening, especially at dramatic points or during action, rather than telling the reader everything, as though you’re reading from a shopping list. For instance, look at the following paragraph: John came in and put the kettle and fed the cat. He made his cup of tea and read the paper at the table. Then he made some dinner, and watched TV. He locked up and went to bed at eleven o’clock... This is ‘telling’. It tells us exactly what is happening, but it doesn’t show the reader anything. It doesn’t tell us what John is thinking or feeling, it doesn’t tell us anything about the atmosphere or what m...

Frequent Writing Faults Not the grammar or spelling type, but rather the kind of faults and habits that either creep into our writing,or stop us from writing altogether. Writers are subject to many mistakes when writing, particularly novice writers, but the most common faults are down to how writers approach their writing. Here is a list of my favourite common faults/habits: 1. Overconfidence 2. Weakness in writing 3. Laziness 4. Opinionated Writing 5. Inhibitions 6. Overwriting 7. Incorrect information Overconfidence – It’s universally known that when someone tells you how marvellous he or she is at something, there is a very high chance he or she is not. Take Britain’s Got Talent/American Idol – listen to those who espouse how fantastic they are and how the family think they’re great, only to indulge us, the audience, in toe curling car crash TV. Paradoxically, notice how those who are modest and humble, and are not quite sure about their ability, then come out and astound us. The s...

I've been asked to enlighten the path where split infinitives, apostrophes, adverbs and ambiguity are concerned, so hopefully this installment should clear up some grey areas. Split Infinitives – To split or not to split? That is the question. To answer that, firstly we need to ask: What is a split infinitive? Let’s break it down and start with the infinitive. This is an unmodified verb. There are two kinds of infinitives: full infinitives and bare infinitives. Bare infinitives refer to the basic verb, for instance: • Go • Run • Ask • Brush Full infinitives are created when the word ‘to’ is placed in front of the verb. For example: • To go • To run • To ask • To brush A split infinitive occurs when an infinitive is split in two by an adverb (a word that modifies the verb). I've highlighted the adverb in italics, placed between the split infinitive. For example: • to gracefully dance • to aggressively brush • to boldly go (probably the most famous split infinitive example) De...

The Art of Short Short Stories...A look at the small and perfectly formed. Flash Fiction Flash fiction is anything from 50 words to 1000 words, (although the latter could fall into the category short story). It uses very little exposition, and because of its structure, tends to be to the point. Flash is quite an apt word to describe the brevity and style of writing, and like any piece of fiction it still needs to obey the rules of having a beginning, middle and a satisfactory ending. But how do you sum up a story in so few words? The simple answer is that it’s not as easy as it sounds. Flash fiction isn’t an easy discipline, but it’s great one to master. Practice and experimentation is the best way to write great flash, plus it’s a very useful writing exercise for those who like to write short stories and novels, because it makes you say in 200 or 300 words what you normally tend to write in 1000. Every word and every sentence really does count. When you write flash the one question y...

Theoretical and Critical Reflection. Or in other words, editing. Get out that red pen! Editing, like writing, sounds easy, but it’s not. Writing is one thing, but the real hard work starts with editing your masterpiece. That doesn’t just mean checking for grammar and spelling. There’s a lot more to look out for, because, like writing, editing is an acquired skill - the more you do, the more efficient you become. Of course, stepping back from your work and reading it objectively isn’t that easy. To edit you will need an editor’s eye to spot those errors – and there will be errors. Nothing you produce will be perfect first time. The best way to edit your work is to leave it for a while, a week or two, or a month, whatever feels best, and then come back to it with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. There are several strategies that can help with editing and rewriting. Most writers tend to silently read what they've written, but reading it aloud is a useful way in which to ‘h...

Short Stories – Part 3 The Three Elements – Dialogue, Narrative, Description The stories you write will be nothing without good dialogue and sentence structure. New writers tend to do two things with dialogue: they write too much, or they write too little. Finding the right balance isn’t easy, but it will come with practice. Having the right amount of dialogue balanced against your narrative and your descriptions will make for a better, tighter story. Let’s take a closer look at Dialogue. Dialogue Your characters help drive the story forward, and what they say and how they say it is vital. As already pointed out, too many novice writers make the mistake of writing too much dialogue. This tends to make the story clunky. This not only slows the story, but it can hinder the entire piece and deter a reader altogether. The idea is to keep the reader interested, so dialogue is also there to help characterize and impart necessary information. Incidentally, revealing information through dialog...

Writing Short Stories Part 2 Structure In the second part of this look at short stories, we’ll examine their structure, themes and conflict, motivation and characterisation. As already established, every story requires a beginning, middle and an end, and this is particularly true for longer stories such as novels, but a tight structure is just as important when constructing short stories. The easiest way to define a story structure is to think of a mountain range which your character has to climb in order to reach the summit – he has to journey through peaks and troughs, highs and lows, before he reaches his goal. This means as he climbs towards this, he’ll come into conflict or a barrier to prevent him from reaching is goal, then he’ll climb a bit further, another barrier, and so on, until at last, that final moment when he achieves what he set out to do. Short stories don’t necessarily need this kind of in-depth configuration, but with a basic structure in place, you can open your st...