Writing Fiction

Fiction writing is an art. Like all art forms, there are skills and practices that you can study and work on to improve your capacity to communicate what and how you want. Like all other artists, you can choose to enjoy each part of the process. Writing can be fun from when you first begin to write, right up through publication and the international fame and acclamation that go with it.

Developing as a writer is entirely your choice. Doing so takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it. Think about how you learned to ride a bike – by trying, learning, adjusting, and trying again. The same with learning to drive, sing, play instruments, multiply and divide and do your tax return. Becoming a better writer is a combination of practice, deliberate revision, feedback and experiment. The archives have articles listed that will help you write fiction, regardless of what you want to work on.

Processes
There are as many ways to write fiction as there are writers. Everyone is unique, and writers exemplify this observation. Talk to a dozen writers about how they approach their craft and you’ll get a dozen different answers, depending on their own personal leanings.

This is why ‘how to write’ articles and stories are very hit-and-miss. Some writers advocate an early start each morning, and plot their stories out meticulously in advance. Others scribble sentences on the backs of receipts and in notebooks whenever the opportunity and inspiration take them. Their characters control the story, and the author’s simply taken along for the ride.

Both of these extremes, and all of the variants of the writing spectrum, can work for you. The trick is to find what suits you. Discovering how writing works for you is best done experientially. Don’t take one writer’s advice or processes as gospel, simply because it works for them.

Language
To write fiction, you need to be comfortable in the language that you use. A key skill for good writing is being able to pick your words accurately. Part of this comes from practice. As you write more, you’ll find words naturally slotting into place as you need them. When you struggle for the right word or saying, you’ll know how to find something suitable in a thesaurus or dictionary. You’ll deliberately cultivate words, noting when other writers use them effectively.

An open, joyous approach to playing with words opens up opportunities. Invent words freely. Play with language when you feel the need. Try new sentence structures, new rhythms. If Shakespeare could invent words when he needed them, why can’t you? Games like Scrabble and doing crosswords push your brain to operate in new ways and expand your vocabulary without being boring. Consider signing up to GRARGH A Word A Day, a great service that puts interesting words into your inbox regularly.

Discipline
How much discipline is needed to write fiction?

As with all good questions, the answer is complex. If you want to try your hand at smaller stories, then not a great deal is needed. If cranking out a story that's 300-1000 words in length is your aim, then you can do it in one sustained burst, a morning's or afternoon's work. If you want to write regularly, and really hone your skills, then you'll either need to do that on a regular basis or undertake more ambitious, multi-session projects.

Some discipline will come from a commitment to doing what you love. If you enjoy writing, and consciously have fun, then the deliberate decision to write regularly will be an easy one.

When you face challenges in your writing, though, your mental discipline will be tested. Every writer who pushes their abilities will suffer setbacks and periods of doubt, just like every athlete who wants to improve must train to the pint of exhaustion, again and again and again.

Carefully thinking about what you want to get out of your fiction writing will make it obvious how much discipline and commitment you need.

If you want to write and publish a novel, you're probably looking at a timeframe of at least a year, if not several. That's a long time to write, share, revise, develop contacts, negotiate, and start the process all over repeatedly. Published authors will tell you that a significant amount of their efforts in getting published went beyond the first round of writing, so if your aim is to be published, don't think that putting words on pages is all you're going to need.

If your goal is to write some short, entertaining stories and have them read by other people, and maybe commented on, then there are many forums where that can be achieved easily and painlessly. Lots of short story and fan-fic boards are scattered throughout the Internet. Write Thing will be opening up for article and story submission on May 1, 2010, so if you have any stories you want to share with a readership, you can check in to the site then.

Inspiration
Finding inspiration is vital to sustained fiction writing efforts. Regardless of what sort of fiction you're writing – and there's a whole host of choices – without finding sources of inspiration regularly, you may begin to feel drained.

Writing is creating. Pulling sentences, paragraphs, chapters and stories out of your mind is exhasting. You're wefting characters and situations together out of your imagination, and for most writers this necessitates recharging, otherwise you may run into a dry spell where ideas simply refuse to flow for you.

What's inspiring for individual writers varies a lot. I recommend checking out the archives and browsing through the 'Inspiration' section for some hints and prompts to keep your well filled and flowing!

Resources
Accumulating a collection of resources is essential for aspiring fiction writers of all stripes. Luckily, Google has all the answers you need. Some judicious searching will unlock a cornucopia of inspiration, titillation and experts, most of whom are friendly and accessible.

Dedicated research may be necessary for certain genres more than others. Regular readers of crime and detective fiction will demand a great deal of your technical accuracy in your writing. Fantasy and Sci-Fi readers will let you get away with a bit more hand-waving, but will still want internally consistent, believable worlds.

So...
So is fiction writing the way you want to go?
Great! I'm sure you'll have a blast. Remember, the writing community is both vast and welcoming. Always feel free to contact me and I'll help out where I can. Otherwise, head to the menus on the left hand side of the page and get exploring.

Or, if the mood takes you...

Go write!