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Short Story Writing: Article 18: Inspiration
InspirationInspiration is the first cause in all creativity, and at the same time it is the most unpredictable and elusive aspect. There are occasions when it seems to arrive out of the blue, and other times when it will not come at all no matter how much we want it. There are no magic formulae for finding it, but perhaps we can understand its nature and encourage it to work for us by considering what exactly it is.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 14: Making a Short Story Work
There are ingredients of a good short story which we sense intuitively which are less tangible than those principles we can set down as 'rules' but ought to be picked up as we develop as writers. I should like to consider a few of them here. The following points are not in any way intended as 'rules', they are rather intended to highlight aspects of writing which affect the quality of the experience the reader has while reading our work.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 13: Editing and Revising
Once you have written out the first draft of a story you should go through it again, editing and revising until you are satisfied that it is as tight and economical as possible. Then, once you have the second draft you should repeat the process as many times as is necessary for you to feel that no more can be done. This process will take much longer than the writing of the original draft, and it is where the real 'slog' of writing comes in, but it is also where the real satisfaction of writing comes in, because it is this process which turns a potentially good story into a good story, or a good amateur story into a professional storyI strongly advise that editing and revising should be done with print-outs, and not exclusively on the computer screen.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 15: Judging a Short Story
I was once approached by an organisation which was running a short story competition and asked whether I could suggest a 'points system' whereby a short story could be graded - points for plot, style, characterisation etc. I replied that I did not think such an approach was viable. I certainly didn't use any such system when assessing the work of my students, and I hope this article might reassure anyone who feels that in the other articles I have tended to suggest that a story could be judged in this way.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 16: Attitudes to Writing, Part 1
The creative impulseWhat made you think of writing short stories in the first place? Something which we can call a creative impulse must have made you look into the matter. Perhaps you have read stories which made you think: 'I could do that', or 'I could do better than that'.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 17: Attitudes to Writing, part 2
CriticismThere are two kinds of criticism, constructive, and destructive. The former is to be valued, and the latter is to be dismissed. Asking someone for an opinion on your work is a risky business, especially if it is the first time you have asked that person, and you have to assess the nature of the response, as well as its content.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 20: Submitting a Novel Proposal
Submitting a novel proposalIf you have a novel, either complete or in progress, which you want to send to an agent or publisher, rather than sending the whole manuscript it is better to submit a proposal. Publishers usually receive a large number of unsolicited manuscripts and may not have time to give every one of them a great deal of attention. Many manuscripts sit for a long time on what publisher call ‘the slush pile’ waiting to be looked at by a reader.Read more…The "Elements" of Good Writing
If you want to write "good," you're supposed to know certain rules of grammar-where to place commas, the agreement of nouns and verbs, the proper cases of pronouns. This is the "gut" stuff of English Composition 101 that, if you do enough of it wrong, labels you as illiterate.Check out the writing section of any good new or used book store, and you'll see guides ranging from 300 pages upward that promise to make you a master technician of everything from the parenthesis to the gerund.Read more…Poetry Critique - Critique the Poem - Not the Poet
The act of writing poetry is something that is very personal to us poets, and sharing it for the first time can be a very frightening experience. The first experience of having your work criticized can boggle your mind and set you back a step in your writing. However, critique is essential in any writer’s career.Read more…Pen Without Paper Is Like A Zebra Without Stripes!
If it wasn’t for the creation of paper, can you imagine how documents, important moments in history, transcripts, works of art or spiritual texts would be archived? Would newspapers, magazines, computerized data and books be a foreign concept? The true endurance test of a writing instrument is proven through its artistic expression and exemplified on the surface of a fine piece of paper.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 12: Style
StyleThe secret of good style is to say what you have to say as simply and directly as possible. That is the most important statement that can be made about style, and the second most important is that it is only acquired through practice and experience. There are, however, some guidelines which can help us improve.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 5: Point of View Part 1
When a reader begins a story he automatically and unconsciously asks himself: 'Who's point of view am I sharing?' and by the end of the first paragraph he should have found the answer. There are four possible answers.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 6: Point of View Part 2
The meaning of point of viewPoint of view in this context has nothing to do with its usual meaning, 'Opinions' , it is a technical term which can be roughly translated as 'subjective viewpoint' , or 'subjective experience', and it is essential that once you have chosen who's subjective experience we are sharing you stay with it from beginning to end, because a subjective viewpoint is, by definition, exclusive of all others. Thus if your central character is John, then everything in the story represents what John experiences. We can know how John feels and what he is thinking and what he perceives, but we do not have access to this 'inside information' about any other character.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 7: Plot Part 1
PlotAs with every other aspect of short story writing, under ideal circumstances you won't need any rules about plot, and won't need to analyse what you are doing. A story will just arrive in your mind and demand to be written. You won't need to plan it in advance, and as you work you will know how to shape and direct it simply by following your instinct.Read more…Short Story Writing: Article 8: Plot Part 2
SuspenseSuspense does not mean we have to think in crude melodramatic terms - with someone's life being at stake, some injustice being done, or someone betraying someone else. It simply means the reader should be held in a state of anticipation, always feeling something is about to happen and always eager to find out what it will be. An economical style of writing plays an important part in this, but is not enough on its own.Read more…Experts Disagree on Definition of Writers Block
Most writers do not have a definition for writers block and yet they seem to know it when they feel it. Even worse off is most experts disagree on the definition of writer's block. Currently I have written 8642 articles and place them online making me the all-time most prolific writer of online articles.Read more…Goal-Setting for Fiction Writers - SMART Goals
Most writers would not want to meet me at a party.Here are just a few of the questions I'd hit you with:What do you write? Books, short stories, poems?Read more…Creative Fiction Writing - Plotting and Genre
Article 1 - Plotting and Genre This article series will provide an overview 7 of the key components of writing good fiction: Plotting and Genre, Characterization, Scene and Setting, Writing Dialogue, Point of View, and Narrative Voice. When writing fiction, the author must rely upon his/her instincts and experiences to create a story. This article series will help new authors write books in good form, i.Read more…Hero's Journey (Monomyth) and Story Structure: A Story is a Psychological and Physical Journey
The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.Read more…Creative Fiction Writing Workshop: Interaction of the Character and the Story
In creative fiction writing, the author needs a framework, but his/her characters have some freedom within the framework.A good story must have a basic framework to hang upon. There are two basic approaches to framework creation.Read more…
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