How-to Write Fiction

 

How to Write Fiction

 

When I began writing many years ago, most likely in grade school, I never thought about the process of writing. It was just something I did. There was no manual I read or instructions to follow. When I had an idea, I just sat down and began writing. I’m not sure how good the finished product was, but it was a release for the creative part of my mind. I still find today that when I get done with a chapter that I especially like, I feel good when I walk away from the computer. It’s like playing an error free baseball game or making all the shots you take in a basketball game. You just walk away feeling good about what you’ve just accomplished. That’s the best way I can describe the high I sometimes get from writing. It’s not always that way. Sometimes it’s a chore to make myself sit down at write. Other times I can’t wait to get behind the keyboard. Just like anything else, it takes practice and patience to accomplish something you’re proud of.

For the rest of this article I will focus on ways to help you do just that: Accomplish something you are proud of. I will attempt to put into words the things that help me when I’m faced with a road block or just some tips or insights on ways to put what’s in your head on the page or computer screen. I’ll try not to bore you. No promises, though.

 

Getting Started

Before you begin writing, it’s usually a good idea to have a topic, subject or premise in mind. Every writer is different. Some writers begin with the end in mind. In other words, they have the ending all worked and they write backwards. Other authors have a full outline of their work planned our before they write their first words. I do neither. I begin with an idea or premise for a book and just begin writing. Usually the main character is the first person I think about and write about and the book takes me from there. Where the character goes, who he meets and things he encounters usually come easily if my mind is %100 invested in the idea. It’s like being on a train ride without knowing your destination. Sometimes I think I know where the story is headed, but when I’m done it’s taken a turn I didn’t see coming. How this is possible, I don’t know since I’m the one writing it. It’s just what happens.

What I suggest you do, no matter what your genre, is to just begin. If what you wrote is no good, start over. Just keep writing. The hardest part, I have found, is just getting those first few chapters on the page. Once that is done, I find that the characters and story call to me, making it easier to go back and write more. The closer I get to the end, the easier I find it is to keep going because the light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting brighter.

 

Plot

I wish I had some magical words or amazing nuggets of insight on how to write an interesting and intriguing plot. Sorry, that one is still a mystery to most writers. All I can tell you is that if it’s boring to you, it will most likely put your reader to sleep. If you find it interesting and engaging, chances are there are others who will feel the same way. In short, trust your instincts. If it comes from inside of you, how can it be wrong?

 

Breaking out of a creative slump

Sometimes the creative part of your brain just shuts down. You want to write but there is nothing going on up there. It’s like someone turned off the lights when they left and you can’t find the light switch to turn them back on. Never fear. Here are some ideas to break out of that creative slump.

 

-Be aware of your surroundings. Many times while I am driving or going for a run, I will see something that is out of place or unordinary. Many times, these things make their way into my writing, when I remember them, that is.

For example, one afternoon I was a passenger in my wife’s car as we drove to her mother’s for dinner. As we exited from the Interstate, we passed a man who was walking on the side of the road. I never saw his face or what he looked like, but something about him struck me as odd. He wore a long, brown winter coat that almost came to his knees. On his feet were white tennis shoes and he wore a black stocking cap on his head. What really got my attention was what he was carrying. Under his left arm was a full roll of paper towels. He carried nothing else as far as I could tell.

Now I know what you’re saying: “So what? A guy was walking with a roll of paper towels. Big freaking deal.” At first it wasn’t a big deal. Then I started thinking. Where the hell could this guy be going with nothing but a roll of paper towels? It got my mind churning and smoke began to seep from my ears. I challenged myself to come up with an explanation for what this guy was doing, where he was going and why did he need a roll of paper towels when he got there. What I came up with was either terribly creative or horribly stupid, but either way, it was a simple visual of something out of the ordinary that started it all.

-Listen to music. Many times I find that I get the best ideas when I’m listening to music that I enjoy. I’m not only listening to the music, I am also listening to the words and thinking about the lyrics. Very often, a line or chorus will give me a new idea for a scene or story. Other times I come away empty. This is just another way to help get the creative juices flowing.

-Use the Internets. I know it’s not Internets. Just poking fun at Bush or whoever said it.

There are a few sites I use to help get words, images or ideas flowing. One is Google Trends. http://www.google.com/trends This site takes the tops 100 current search items as listed by Google. There is no magic formula here, I just read through them and click a link that I find interesting. After a few minutes of reading articles or news items, my mind has been taken out of its “rut” if you will, be inserting ideas that it did not expect to find. It kind of “loosens” the brain I think.

Another site I use is Twitter. Go to the public timeline here. http://twitter.com/public_timeline Read some of the post. Some are boring, others are funny, and some make no sense. What I find is that outside influences such as this help to move things along in your mind. Keep reading until you find a post that strikes you as funny or interests you. Challenge yourself to put yourself in that person’s shoes. Why did they say or do what they did? Does this person possess the same qualities of a character of yours?

There are literally thousands of websites out there you could go to and accomplish the same thing. These are just a few examples.

-Write about something else. I have found that sometimes the mind needs a break from the current project. It’s okay to let it wander on occasion and work a bit on another item that has been begging for your attention. Many times I find that when I’m done with the distraction, the main project moves along quite nicely. It’s as if the “hard drive” in my brain needed me to free some space up so the new information would have a place to be stored. Weird, I know.

 

Names

Sometime while writing, a character will appear who I have not yet given a name. If nothing comes to mind immediately, I occasionally get stumped. It can really get hairy if I have a thought I need to finish transferring to the proverbial paper and don’t want to stop until it’s complete. I usually have a vision in my mind of what the person looks like, how they talk and act and what kind of person they are in general. Finding the right name is usually the only thing slowing me down.

I keep a few websites bookmarked just for this purpose. There are many databases with first and last names that can be used to help unclog the creative juices and assist you when you’re stuck. I normally skim through the names, depending on if I need a first name, last name or both. Most of the time they fly by, each one not sounding quite right in my mind for the character in question. Usually when I find it, it jumps out at me. Then I rush back to my manuscript and fill in the blanks where I wrote “that guy” or “person to be named later”.

The websites I use most often are:

http://www.20000-names.com/index.htm

This site has many male and female first names from many different nationalities.

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last

This site is a census site with hundreds of surnames. It is sorted by most common.

A quick Google search of “names” will lead you to a plethora of helpful sites.

Places

When writing about a place I’ve never seen or been to, most times I go to my good friend Google who usually will tell me anything I want to know. I can browse maps, pictures, you name it. It helps to give me a feel of what the place looks like and is all about. I usually feel more comfortable writing the scenes after I know something about the place.

Other times, I feel like I know a place without having ever been there. Maybe it’s because I have a preconceived notion or maybe it’s just the way I want to scene to play out. Either way, I’m not sure it matters. It’s fiction of course. You will always get people who will nitpick “There’s no Elm Street in that town! I know because I live there.” If it really matters to the story, sure, be geographically correct. Or if you’re doing a story based in New York City, there will obviously not be massive prairie lands and rolling hills. On the other hand, if your story takes place in Iowa, skyscrapers and taxi cabs would not be abundant. I say, use your common sense and try your best to make it feel like the place you want it to feel like.

 

Synopsis

Once the book is done, it helps to have a couple versions of a synopsis. One should be very short, possibly one sentence long, where you can include it as a headline or a title of a post. The other should be slightly longer -three to five sentences is usually pretty good - to give the reader a nice idea of what your story is about. If you are pitching the book to publishers or other distributors, you can write a paragraph or two on your story. It helps to have these handy when you want to quickly put an article or post together to get your novel some pub. (That’s short for publicity if you’re not so hip.)

 

Conclusion

There you have it. I’m sure there are many other tips and tricks to help you get started writing, but these are what work for me. It can be said that writing is a form of art, although I’m not sure I think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who likes to write, and I hope I’m good at it.

 

Thanks for reading.

JJ Ritonya

www.jjritonya.com