My Guide to Fiction Writing

Some rules I try to use when writing fiction. This is also what I would say most of the time when I reviewed the work of another writer. They are more guidelines than actual rules.

1. I don't like to see the same rare or exotic word too often. Some really brutal words should be once a book. Stand out words should be once a chapter. Whenever possible, I don't like to see the same outstanding word twice in the same paragraph. Also, I don't like to see two sentences in a row start with the same word. A sentence that starts with He, followed by a sentence that starts with He; it really throws off my pace. To me, ideal writing is invisible. I am too busy reading more to notice I am reading. When I stop to look at something, I see that as a bad thing. This issue is also true with dialog tags. Dialog tags is never simple from one person to another, and I accept that so I have a lot of tolerance. It helps me to see - once again - not having the same structure repeated twice in a row, or repeated in the same paragraph. If person one said, then person two can tell, and person three can reply. If everyone said said said, it irks me.

2. Past tense is an issue of mine I have struggled with for a long time and I think others would benefit from knowing of what I consider my insights. What is technically past tense can be what I would call false past. The typical structure is 'was and were'. This is where you write in present tense, then you drop was in front of it.

I was running. I was swimming. She was jumping. They were flying.
The alternative would be,
I ran. I swam. She jumped. They flew.

If you study people on only this topic, you will find some people have a was/were style, where it is all present tense with a was in front of it. Must you do this? Not at all. In fact, I think the greatest writing must break the rules, and it certainly must sound and flow great. I do think people should be aware of the options and consider them. I know plenty of published professionals who write that way. I just don't like it. I think everyone should be aware of the behavior and choose what they do, not have it accidental because they never thought about it.

3. Control the master of the sentence. Part of an edit or a rewrite or a criticism is in the paraphrase. For example, I can't quote to you one single sentence from Jurassic Park. I could tell you the million dollar story elements. Clearly in this example is two ideas: 1) The great story idea. 2) The exact wording of the story. In this case, I mean the wording. I like a complex sentence. The man is in the car and he is looking out the window, and what he is looking at out the window, and some details about these elements all in one sentence. That complex sentence could be written in many different ways, and all those ways contain the elements involved. What I want to do myself, and what I like to see in others, is they build the complex sentence around the king element. The man is the key to the sentence, while his car, his binoculars, and the object of his interest are elements of him. Or, it is really about the car or the object of his interest. I was reading someone and a woman got out of her car and then a police officer stopped her all in one sentence. In my view, the sentence was about a police officer and what he did, but the master of the sentence was the woman. I would have paraphrased it to have all the same identical elements, only in different order.

4. Image and dialog are frequently a bother to me. Only you can decide for you what is right, but I tend to be more visual. I would rather see who is speaking and then their dialog, than see a lot of dialog then only later find out who is speaking.

5. And vs Then. This is just me, but I see those two words as being close partners but different. The bully made a fist and punched the boy in the nose. The bully made a fist then punched the boy in the nose. The bully made a fist and then punched the boy in the nose. To my mind, 'and' means simultaneously where then means an order of events. Many people especially published professionals use and when I would use then. It is something to consider for yourself.

6. The info dump. I believe people first info dump too much. People then learn to not info dump. I want people to then relearn to info dump. Yes, you can drag up some characters and make a whole chapter of their conversation what you could have just told me in a couple paragraphs. And we could take our hero character and tell about them having lunch or taking a shower. I call it the giant soap opera. I don't think soap opera is all that bad either so long as I am learning something. How Harry Potter has dinner actually is a story going on. The second time not so much, but the first time, there was a lot of scene going on.

7.  I am sitting here editing one of my projects and I thought others might learn something by knowing my process. One of the tools I discovered that I find essential to my method is this program that reads text aloud. When I listen to the words while I read them at the same time, I get a better feel for the pace and the smoothness. The visual portions of our brains are not the auditory portions of our brains, so in a way you have two brains analyzing the work at the same time.  I have my 'first' novel project on ice. I have not worked on it in years. What I noticed is that my style has changed so much that I will have to rewrite every sentence of it. The material itself, the images and ideas are all excellent, so - I can rewrite a book in two or three weeks. In all that, I believe the method that people can use to improve their work is simply going over it again and again and again. I rewrite a chapter and think it is done. I go back later, listen to it again, and make a handful of new changes. Surely work is never done, only abandoned - just don't abandon it too soon. The image that returns to me is that I like to write, BUT, it turns out I have talent as a graphic artist. I needed book covers. So I went to photo shop and started to make book covers. Over a long time, I learned the methods and eventually came up with some fine results. An idea I would like to share is this: the more you hate yourself, the more you hate your own work, that means a lot when you like something. When you are that negative on yourself, but then you have something that is really excellent to you, it must be really good because it is hard for you to like anything that you do. Anyway, my photo shop method is to keep reworking my project, and it slowly evolves into the finished project. I only know myself, but if others write once then move on, maybe that need to see that each 'layer' of rewrite is only one of many. Like I said, my first project from over ten years ago is so beautiful in its idea and images, yet absolute garbage in writing mechanics. Writing images and ideas is not the mechanics of an editor or the graphic arts of making the visual book cover. It would be wrong to say that anyone is a bad writer until you break up writing into all its faces. From what I have seen especially here, most people get into writing because they have a natural gift for ideas and images and emotions, but struggle to master the mechanical word smith skills of an editor.

What a joy it is to retire a writing project. I never want to have to work on it again and get to move on to something new.

I am reviewing some people and this explanation came to me.
The STAGE PLAY.

When you have to write a piece for actors on the stage, you have to be a realist. You have a time frame, 2-3 hours. People have to build sets. They can't build the set of the Deathstar. So, when you first make this list of what resources you have, then the real writing can begin. Your set is the manor house of some guy. You get the garden set, the kitchen set, and the bed room set. You have all these lofty idea and character ideas and dialog ideas.

The technique to master is - take all your great stuff and tie it all together into your set where the director says go, and someone starts to talk. Then the butler comes in, then the alien comes in, and then the marines come in, whatever it is have happening, make it happen.

The alternative is that people have this drawn back distant vision of their idea that is all info dumping and synopsis review of their own idea.

Maybe a good writing exercise would be a story like Oldboy. Like, write a short story where your character wakes up on the street, has lost his memory, and just BAM GO! What is on the street? How does he feel? Where does he go? There is no source for an info dump, no back story, and no generalized statements. In the now, happening now.





- more when I think of it

Reviews

[AJJordan]

This is some very thought-provoking advice.

Like most writers, I guess, I have a number of ongoing projects. You get these ideas and have to get it down because you know if you wait it could be gone forever, and every idea has the potential to be the Greatest Story Ever. The problem with moving on to something else is you are then not working on your current project. It can sometimes be too easy to let a project - especially a long, difficult project - be pushed back and back and before you know it, ten years have passed. I understand how this can happen, but for me I can't let that much time go by. Every project I have calls to me, demands attention, like a horde of children each wanting their fair share of my time. In fact, there's no 'fair' about it; each project wants all my time and to hell with the others. In my oh-so-humble opinion; dust off that old work and start working on it. You never know what might happen on the morrow and it would be a shame if you were to pass beneath the wheel without ever bringing your baby to light.

I'm definitely going to try that writing exercise you mentioned. You've given me an idea which I now have to get down. I don't know whether to curse you or thank you for that.

Seriously, you should set up a short-story contest with those exact rules.

Cheers:)

[Marie]

Good points. Writers can learn all that by reading a lot. And that is the best advice I would give a writer.

[Prritiy]

nice guidelines for a writer and a reviewer too.
thanks for this.