The book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki caught my attention. The cover alone charmed me! After reading it, I couldn’t help but to think how I could apply the techniques presented here into novel writing.
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Absolutely… to a certain extent. Fiction emphasizes creativity and imagination in order to construct believable characters, dialogue and plot. Nonfiction prepares you to write other elements of the novel, such as, narrative, description, or scene, and to blend them together seamlessly into a story. Nonfiction writing also prepares you for novel writing when you want [...]
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What does playing sports have to do with writing a novel you may ask? After all, sports are physical activities, and writing is mostly mental. The only limbs writers move are their fingers, when they are on the keyboard, and their jaws, when they munch down cookies. However, a writer can relate to athletes who [...]
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Skepticism about whether to obtain or not a creative writing degree is a never ending debate. If you want to be a successful writer and plan to pursue a teaching career, you’ll need a degree in creative writing. Even if you just want to be a writer, it’s better to have a degree in creative [...]
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When you go to see a movie what types of movies do you like to view? Do you like comedy, heavy drama, adventure or futuristic themes? By asking yourself this question you can determine what type of story you are interested to write – if you plan to put your writing skills to test.
Finding your interest in the type of story will help you to develop a framework for your fiction. When you are able to narrow down your interest, then you can go to the next step of listing down your characters. But first, let us explore three common types of stories just mentioned.
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In my previous blog I wrote about how to obtain facts for use in fiction and mentioned that I preferred to use my own experiences when illustrating the setting for the characters since this is the best way to show the reader what I see, smell, taste, hear and feel about these place(s). However, if I am not able to experience the setting(s) where I place my protagonist, I will go for the second best – looking for other’s sensory experiences in describing these places.
This is exactly what I did last week. I needed more information about a particular arrondissements in Paris where the setting took place for my novel Antara Dua Kota. I did find some, but it was written by tourists who had been there for less than a week. But I needed a comprehensive description by someone who actually lives there. Before bugging the bloggers who have been to Paris (as tourists) for help, I decided to go to my local library to see if I could find what I am looking for.
I didn’t find anything specific, but I found a novel titled Lion Eyes by Claire Berlinski. I read it at home and I couldn’t put it down. I read it that night cover-to-cover.
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Have you ever experienced the fear of writing? Something like when you start to write your fictional piece or memoir you feel that you reveal yourself too much? That you feel everyone will find out about your dark secret in your writing?
In Ralph Keyes book titled The Courage to Write he discusses in depth about how fear prevents the writer from writing. I also believe that fear of writing is one element of the writer’s block that is related to having difficulty when starting to write or when continuing writing.
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Since I blog everyday on how to write fiction, I use the advice I blog about in my own writing. I am presently expanding my short story Antara Dua Kota into a novel (it is not in English, though). And I am currently working on outlining the plot to fit it into a novel. I have set the theme as general as possible: it is about how love can conquer everything. This will help me to get a larger space for the characters to maneuver themselves.
The difference between a short story and a novel is the length. Secondly it is the focus. Usually a short story focuses on a single plot with only very few subplots and the characters don’t have much space to show who they are. The writer can only focus on one plot and are either able to solve the problem or the writer uses a cliffhanger type of solution and drops a hint what the protagonist does to achieve what he/she wants. In a novel, you have a lot of time and space to add more to the plot and develop subplots for the characters.
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What an irony. You thought that you don’t need to use facts in fiction. If you think fiction is just that – pure fiction – think again. Even though you write a short story or novel, research is an important part in creating believable characters and settings.
Making a plausible character is important for your reader to identify with and relate to. If say your protagonist’s occupation is a lawyer, you do need to get an accurate description about the life and ways of a lawyer. The more accurate your protagonist portrays it, the more credible he/she is in your reader’s eyes. So, if someone tells you writing fiction is easy because you can create everything in your mind without doing any research firsthand, you have received wrong advice.
Setting is another element in your fiction that requires accurate facts – unless you are writing science fiction that needs you to create an entirely different world. But even science fiction needs extensive research about some areas in science. Your characters need to be in a believable setting to interest the reader since they read your fiction to get an experience and to be entertained as well.
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When you think you have had enough information to help you begin writing your first fictional piece or memoir, you will scratch your head when I tell you there is yet another technique you need to master. And I experienced it first hand when beginning to write. Writing is not as easy as I thought it would be. This is because the same question keeps repeating itself through my head: how to make and keep the reader glued to their seat from start to finish?
If you plan to be an apprentice writer and writing your fictional piece just for yourself or as an exercise – that is fine. But when you write with the intent to send your manuscript to the editor, you better get ready for the arrival of the rejection slip. No, seriously. The editor is your first and the most critical reader you will confront. You need to impress him/her with your best writing.
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Authors write fiction with goals in mind: they want the reader to read and learn something from their character’s experience. Additionally, the reader expects the story to be entertaining as well. It all sounds fairly easy and straightforward as it makes writing fiction interesting, but it is not. Any writer who’s published or attempted to write a short story or novel understands – writing fiction is easy; writing fiction that maintains the reader’s interest throughout is not.
So how do you present your story to hook the reader from beginning to end? Your ability as a writer is now challenged and you need to equip yourself with several plot devices. These devices help you to captivate your reader’s interest in your story. One type of plot device is suspense. Suspense is when the reader has to wait and worry about what will happen next to the main character(s).
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In my previous blog, How to create believable characters for your fiction, I stated how important it is for you to give your characters a personality. This is true especially for your main characters since their role in your fiction is primary and they should be developed to be round and dynamic.
In order for your plot to move forward, your characters that drive the plot must be rounded. A round character is necessary for your protagonist. You need to create him or her with a detailed background, their behavior, temperament, strengths, and weaknesses and how he makes the action to purse his or her goals. By giving detailed information and background for your protagonist, your readers feel they know him or her and are able to understand why he or she makes decisions in the way they do. Another round character is your antagonist. Since most of the time your protagonist will be interacting with the antagonist, it is important that the villain needs to be tagged as round character as well.
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Conflict in fiction propels your plot forward. Without conflict – faced by the characters – your fiction is nothing but a summary about life amongst your characters. With conflict you make them come alive striving for what they yearn for and will do anything to achieve their goals. In order to make it interesting to the reader, your characters must face conflicts and the ending is either they get what they are looking for or they fail.
In my previous blog How to build conflict for your main characters, I gave an example about Anita, the main character in my short story, Antara Dua Kota (Between Two Cities) facing a conflict over whether to stay for the Summer in Paris or return to her home country. What type of conflict do you think she is facing?
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Other than a great plot, the characters are the ones who are responsible to move the plot forward. In my previous entry Where do you get ideas for your characters, I suggested to looks at your friends and list them down to find out if they can become potential characters. They’re one of the best sources as characters. Now, that you have your characters ready to get into action, you need to create them in such away that they are credible or believable.
The question is how do you make your characters believable? When I started writing fiction, I asked myself the same question. Since one of my primary interests when majoring in psychology is personality, I had learned how personality develops from birth to adulthood. Armed with this knowledge, I used Personality Psychology to guide me to create credible and believable characters.
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