Category Archives: Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft

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Fiction Editing: Story Sense and Logic

One of the hardest things I find when editing is making sure that the story sense and logic remains after I’ve ‘fixed’ the words. Well Steve Dempster, over at Soicalpolitan Fiction Writing Craft has five great tips to follow when Fiction Editing: Story Sense and Logic:

  1. Do your characters behave as they should?
  2. Do your characters react to each other as they should?
  3. Will it be obvious to the reader what the characters are doing – and why they are doing it?
  4. Do your characters react believably to circumstances?
  5. Does your story timeline run true?

Following these tips should ensure that your writing becomes the best it can possibly be. I would totally recommend you head over to Steve Dempster’s article Fiction Editing: Story Sense and Logic as the whole piece is well worth a read filled with lots of general advice about editing.

Steve Dempster writes fiction and informative articles for the web. Fiction Editing: Story Sense and Logic was first published on Soicalpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 25th of May 2011.

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How To Write Great Beginnings

The start of a story is often the hardest part to write. The knowledge that if you get it wrong, the chances are your reader won’t continue reading. Luckily Lucia Zimmitti has posted an article about How To Write Great Beginnings over on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft to help. She suggests you keep the following things in mind when you are writing your beginning:

  • Start with action.
  • Never put dialogue or straight description in your opening lines.
  • Make sure your writing is accessible and engaging.
  • Set up the story promise.
  • Always remember that boredom kills readership.

Head over to Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft to read Zimmitti’s reasons behind each point. Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. How To Write Great Beginnings was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 20th of December 2012.

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Show Don’t Tell: The Basics of Showing Not Telling

What is the first rule of creative writing? Show Don’t Tell. Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft has a brilliant article from Terescia Harvey about The Basics of Showing Not Telling. The article is split into three. Below will be a brief summary but you’ll have to go to Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft for the full thing.

  1. Telling - Nick was angry - This is easy. I, the author, am telling you, the reader, that Nick is angry.
  2. Showing - Nick’s hand curled into a tight fist. He stared hard at the man standing in front of him, and his eyes narrowed to thin slits. A muscle in his jaw ticked. “You dare to question my honor? - The preceding passage contains nothing that an observer couldn’t have seen or inferred from outside the characters. That’s showing in its most elemental form.
  3. Mixing and Matching – Nick…stared hard at the man standing in front of him, and his eyes narrowed to thin slits. A muscle in his jaw ticked. His brother had not changed, not one damn bit in the past two years that he’d been abroad – Terescia Harvey thinks it adds depth to mix and match the showing and telling. Too much telling distances the reader. Too much showing can have the same effect.

Terescia Harvey is a romance writer and the webmistress of Happily Ever After, a website for romance writers and readers. Show Don’t Tell: The Basics of Showing Not Telling was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 22nd of August 2011.

 

 

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Manuscript Writing & Revisions: 4 Steps To A Great Manuscript

It is the start of a new year and at this time many people decide this is the time they want to sit down and write that novel, but where do you start? Melissa Alvarez published an article on this very subject on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft. Below are the ‘headlines’ from her article  Manuscript Writing & Revisions: 4 Steps To A Great Manuscript. Head over to the Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft website to read the full thing.

  1. Write the book - Sit down and write. When writing your first draft you want to get as much of your manuscript down from beginning to end. Run with your thoughts, your scenes, and your characters.
  2. The First Revision - Before you start editing put your manuscript aside and leave it alone for a while. When you read it again you will be pick up any errors easier and it will be plot will either come through loud and clear or you’ll find areas that need work. There are some things you need to check for when during the second draft of your manuscript.:
    • First make sure that your readers meet and get to know your main characters early.
    • Make sure your story is moving at a relatively quick pace.
    • Does the story make sense?
    • Are all of your scenes in order?
    • Does the story start when the character’s about to end up in big trouble?
    • Is there something at stake for the characters to keep your reader involved?
    • Was it all worth it in the end?
    • Does the beginning grab your attention and pull you in?
  3. Do it again – Revision #2 - Now it’s time to trim the fat. Make every word count. Cut adjectives, adverbs, and qualifiers. Eliminate any words that aren’t needed.
  4. The Final Draft - Print your manuscript out and sit down in the corner of your couch on a day when you can read it from beginning to end undisturbed. Make notes on the page. This isn’t the time for a huge revision but the time to add little parts that might make the work come to life.

Manuscript Writing & Revisions: 4 Steps To A Great Manuscript was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 8th of July 2011. Melissa Alvarez an award winning author.

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Nine Problems with Story Endings

Ending a book or short story can be very difficult. The most important thing is making sure your reader isn’t left deflated once they have finished your piece.  Marg McAlister, on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft, has listed Nine Problems with Story Endings you’ll want to avoid over to ensure this doesn’t happen. They are:

  1. The story fizzles out.
  2. The ending goes on too long.
  3. The story ends abruptly.
  4. The ending is illogical.
  5. The author ends the book with a tedious explanation (usually in the voice of the main character) of how things played out as they did.
  6. The ending is too predictable or too “Hollywood Perfect”.
  7. There are loose ends.
  8. Readers are left to decide for themselves what might have happened.
  9. The cavalry arrives to save the day.

Head over to Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft to see Marg’s reason behind each point. Nine Problems with Story Endings was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 16th of November 2011. Marg McAlister runs the writing website Writing4success.com

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How To Revise A Novel – Rules For The Rewrite

So you have finished the first draft of your novel and you are preparing yourself for the edit. Well here is a great set of Rules for the Rewrite from Jim Sellars on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft. They are:

  • A writer or an editor be, never the twain should work in your head at the same time. The writer is positive, the editor is critical, the two cannot work together.
  • Your idea and story are just right – now change them. Love your story at the concept stage; love it while you’re writing the first draft. Then rewrite with no attachment or emotional commitment.
  • Rewrite the entire manuscript. After reading, making notes and suffering through feedback and critique, avoid the temptation of merely “editing” the text on your computer.
  • Edit backwards. Read and edit the text of a manuscript paragraph by paragraph, or bit by bit from the end of the story to the beginning. This avoids getting caught up in the story and helps you focus on the text.
  • Understand the critique and listen to only constructive comments. 
  • Don’t be afraid to start further back. If your story needs a major rewrite, go back to the outline and work forward from there.
  • Nothing is sacred. It is all clay, everything is changeable to better suit the story. Don’t be afraid to alter anything unless it is an historical fact (event, date, person) or it is the central element of the story.
  • Don’t do don’ts. Watch for anything that is dishonest or borrowed, either from cliché or from popular culture unless you want to pin the dialogue to a certain era. Don’t avoid contact or conflict; make the argument and friction real, no euphemisms. Don’t lie, do your research.
  • Search for weak words. Every passive word or adverb you use makes the whole thing weak.
  • Watch for inconsistencies of tense and Point of View.
  • Revision is a key part of writing your story where you can discover or rediscover the depth and quality of your characters.
  • The first revision is never the last.

Head over to Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft to read the whole of Jim Sellars‘ article. It is well worth the read.

Jim Sellars has been writing since 1990s and is presently working on a collection of short stories. How To Revise A Novel – Rules for the Rewrite was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on 16th of July 2012.

 

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How To Write A Scene That Keeps Readers Turning The Page

Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft have a great article on How to Write a Scene that Keeps Readers Turning the Page. They are:

  • Once you decide on a purpose for your scene, choose a POV character. Whose thoughts and actions are the focal point of the scene?
  • A scene can be comprised of dialogue, narrative, or a combination of the two. When you are having difficulty deciding which approach is best, consider writing the scene in question twice – once with a dialogue focus and the other scene description heavy. This will help you decide on what is the better scene.
  • The foundation of a perfect scene has a lot in common with plot writing because just as the plot, the structure of a scene needs a beginning, middle, and end. Remember that the ending is critical because the words on the page is what makes readers continue reading the following scenes.
  • Sometimes it’s difficult to get out of our own way when it comes to writing. If you are experiencing writer’s block when you are working on a scene, step away from your novel and practice writing scenes that aren’t related to your book. For example, sit in a public place, describe the setting and choose a couple that is interacting. Make up a conflict between the two.
  • Use colorful language when writing dialogue in a scene. For example, instead of the old cliché “your biting off your nose to spite your face, write ”your cutting your own throat.”
  • When you finish writing the scene, determine whether its vital to the story or if you can scrap it. Just because you wrote a scene doesn’t mean you have to keep it, especially when the scene doesn’t work.

Now how about you see how the pros do it. Take your favourite book, chose a scene and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Why does this scene work?
  • Could the writer have chosen a different direction?
  • What is the balance between dialogue and description?
  • What’s the scene’s pattern, sequence, and structure?
  • What happened at the end of the scene? Did the ending make me want to continue reading?
  • How many characters were in the scene?

How to Write a Scene that Keeps Readers Turning the Page was first published on Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft the 30th of the August 2011.

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9 Best Books on Writing and Reading

Point 11 of Ann Roscopf Allen’s Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft article 12 Ways to Research an Historical Novel recommends you Buy some good reference books as “Building your own reference library is a smart idea for any writer”. She suggests the following books:

  • A dictionary of slang or phrase origins to make sure you don’t use anachronistic language;
  • A writer’s encyclopedia or other general reference of historical lists, dates of inventions, timelines;
  • An unabridged dictionary;
  • A thesaurus.
At the beginning of this year Brain Pickings also came up with their own 9 Best Books on Writing and Reading list. They are:
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12 Ways to Research A Historical Novel

Whether you are fictionalizing historical events or making up your own story, attention to detail can determine whether your novel is credible to history buffs or if they’ll give it a pass. Ann Roscopf Allen onSocialpolitian Ficiton Writing Craft has 12 Ways to Research A Historical Novel. They are:

  1. Read about the general history of the locale where your story is set.
  2. If at all possible, visit the locale.
  3. Visit local museums.
  4. Explore old cemeteries, especially those where the models for your characters are buried.
  5. Research old newspapers.
  6. Seek out and talk to knowledgeable people.
  7. Consider searching for any legal documents related to your story.
  8. Take a look at the fiction written at the time your story is set.
  9. Don’t ignore the footnotes.
  10. Consider specialized data bases and sources.
  11. Buy some good reference books. (Check out 9 Best Books on Writing and Reading for more suggestions)
  12. Use the Internet to its full advantage.

However, if you are going to write an historical novel I would encourage you to read Annemarie Neary‘s article on Recreating the Past and Taking Your Readers With You and Jean Flitcroft ‘s Balance Between Research and Writing both from Writing.ie.

Ann Roscopf Allen has taught writing at a number of universities including the University of Arkansas. 12 Ways to Research A Historical Novel was first published on the 22nd of December 2011 on Socialpolitian Ficiton Writing Craft.

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Writing Redundancies and How to Get Rid of Them

“The biggest difference between beginning writers and experienced ones is that the latter are better at seeing the faults in their work before they submit it to editors. Unfortunately, faults are very good at hiding from beginner writers. However, if you want to be published you have to fix them. If you can’t work out where to start, put your story away for a few weeks, preferably at least a month. You need to be able to read it with a fresh mind, as though it’s new to you—or at least as new as is possible to its writer.”

Luckily Laraine Anne Barker has written an article on this subject called Writing Redundancies and How to Get Rid of Them over at the Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft website. Her article covers four areas which are:

  • Weak Words - words that when deleted from a sentence usually improves it.
  • Tautologies - The use of two words that mean the same thing.
  • Adverbs - Many adverbs are redundant, especially when they’re used to tell how something was spoken.
  • Other Often Redundant Words - For example in the sentence “She nodded her head,” the words “her head” are redundant because the only thing you can nod is your head.

To get more detail on each area head over to Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft to read the whole of Writing Redundancies and How to Get Rid of Them. It is well worth the read.

Laraine Anne Barker writes fantasy for young people including the Quest for Earthlight Trilogy. Writing Redundancies and How to Get Rid of Them was first published on the Socialpolitan Fiction Writing Craft on the 7th of September 2011.