5 Guidelines for fiction writers

WHAT IS FICTION WRITTING?

is the creation of fiction-based written compositions. Fictional writing frequently takes the form of a story intended to entertain readers or express the author's point of view. This could lead to the creation of a short story, novel, novella, screenplay, or drama, albeit these aren't the only forms of fictional writing. Novelists, playwrights, short story writers, radio playwrights, screenwriters, and other genre-specific authors all write fiction.

1.Never start a book in the rain.

You don't want to carry on for too long if the goal is to merely generate atmosphere rather than show how a character would react to the weather. The reader is likely to turn the page in search of people. There are some exclusions. You may report on the weather all you want if you're Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams.

2.Keep prologues out.

They may bother you, particularly if they come after an introduction and a foreword. But non-fiction is typically where you'll find these. In a novel, a prologue is backstory that can be inserted anywhere. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck contains a prologue, but it's OK because a character in the novel clarifies the main idea of my principles. He claims: "I enjoy reading books with lots of speech, but I don't like it when no one describes the appearance of the speaker. I'm trying to deduce his appearance from the way he speaks."

3.Never carry discussion using a verb other than "said."

The verb in the dialogue is the author poking his head in; the line of dialogue belongs to the character. But compared to "grumbled," "gasped," "cautioned," and "lied," "say" is much less obtrusive. I once had to stop reading and look up the definition of "asseverate" because Mary McCarthy used it to conclude a line of conversation.

4.Never alter the verb "said" with an adverb.

He warned harshly. It is a deadly sin to employ an adverb in this manner (or almost any manner). The writer is now openly exposing himself while employing a word that can detract from the conversation and break the flow. In one of my stories, a heroine describes how she used to write historical romances that were "full of rape and adjectives."

5.Keep your use of exclamation points in check.

. No more than two or three are permitted every 100,000 words of prose. Exclamations can be thrown in liberally if you have Tom Wolfe's skill for manipulating them.

6.Never say anything like "all of a sudden" or "all hell broke loose."

There is no need to explain this regulation. I've found that authors who utilize the word "suddenly" tend to employ exclamation marks less carefully.

7.Use patois, or local lingo, sparingly.

You won't be able to stop once you start phonetically spelling conversation and filling the page with apostrophes. Observe how Annie Proulx in her collection of short stories, Close Range, captures the flavor of Wyoming voices.

8.Don't describe characters in great detail like Steinbeck did.

What do the "American and the girl with him" in Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" look like? "She had taken off her hat and set it on the table." There is only one other instance of a physical description throughout the narrative.

9.Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint pictures with language, don't describe places and things in excessive detail.

You don't want descriptions that halt the story's action or narrative flow.

10.Try to omit the section that readers usually skim.

Consider what you skip when reading a novel: long sentences with obvious overuse of vocabulary.