Fiction Writing
Effective Endings – Fiction 101 Part 1 by Janice L. Dick
Satisfaction Guaranteed! That’s our motto. We want to make sure that once we’ve shared with our readers the journey our characters have taken, we also grant them a satisfying ending. It doesn’t matter how great the story is; it must leave us content on some level by the time we turn the final page.
Fiction 101: Part 10 – Don’t Let Your Middle Sag – Janice L. Dick
At my age, a title like this makes me take notice. I sit up straighter, pull my shoulders back and suck in my middle. Adapted from http://goo.gl/nNe6vj That’s what we want to do with the middles of our stories: Be aware of their presentation and do what’s required to improve them.
Fiction Writing 101: Part 9 – Beguiling Beginnings – Janice L. Dick
Plato said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Kimberly Yuhl suggests you have eight words to capture your reader’s attention. Rob Weatherhead states in the article, Say it Quick, Say it Well (please excuse the grammar), that the attention span of a modern internet consumer is short. “Studies have shown that… Read more »
Faith Inspired — by Nikki Rosen
Francine Rivers authored more than 20 novels, all of them bestsellers. Rivers dreamt of being a writer even as a young child. In university she moved towards making that dream happen by majoring in English. When she heard that publishers wanted romance novels, she went to work and wrote a few love stories. She submitted… Read more »
Fiction Writing 101: Part 8 — Janice Dick
In my Fiction Writing 101 series, I often refer to James Scott Bell and his writing books and tools, especially Plot & Structure. My copy is well-marked and highlighted. That’s where I first heard the differentiation between an OP and a NOP. OPs are Outline People, NOPs are Non-Outline People. The abbreviations are easy to… Read more »
Creating Authentic Characters — Janice Dick
There are many methods for creating fictional characters. We’ll look at how to: create characters from our imaginations use people we know and alter them to be unrecognizable create conglomerates using characteristics from a number of people use actual people
Genre in Fiction — Janice Dick
Before we begin talking about plot outlines, character development and setting, let’s discuss a little concept called genre. The word is pronounced john-ra or zhon-ra, and it simply means kind or variety. In our case, it refers to the kinds of stories we read and write.
The Basic Elements of Fiction — Janice Dick
When I present a talk on novel writing, I often ask the audience for their input on the basic elements of fiction, and they come up with several immediately: plot, setting and character. Let’s begin with these. Plot, according to James Scott Bell in his excellent how-to book Plot & Structure, is: “1) a small… Read more »