On Fiction Writing (Guidelines only)
This is a companion piece to On Writing Good Crossover Fanfiction but it applies to more general fiction.
Technicalities
Grammar and spelling may be annoying, but they’re essential parts of good writing. Bad grammar and spelling detracts from the flow of your piece. And don’t just rely on spellcheck. Sometimes, it doesn’t work, and especially not for grammar. It’s only good for indicating things that you need to change, but the suggestions are not always reliable.
Tip: Reading books is a good way to go about improving spelling, grammar and vocabulary. You don’t have to read what is termed ’serious literature’. For me, anything that’s published is good enough.
I suppose style would be included under technicalities. Don’t try to use big words if you don’t normally use them. That just makes the writing sound awkward and forced. Be natural. Use your own voice. Mine tends to be sarcastic or frivolous, depending on my mood. Write like you talk; just correct the grammatical mistakes.
Prior Preparation
As with everything else, writing a piece of fiction requires that you know something about the subject which you want to write about. However, I don’t believe in the ‘write what you know’ mantra. If everyone stuck to that, there would be no Tolkien, no Harry Potter, no Pirates of the Caribbean. A better way to describe it is ‘write what you believe you understand’. Anything that your knowledge is a bit fuzzy on, you can fill in with your own imagination.
For example, I want to write Historical Fantasy, so I research the period in which I want to set my story, and I figure out how things differed from the modern world. Understanding the setting is very important, because then you can shape characters which are compatible with the setting.
Plot
I once went to a writing class, and the tutor said that plot is basically this: ’A character wants something, but there’s an obstacle. How will the character overcome the obstacle to get what s/he wants?’ It’s your job, as the writer, to throw in interesting obstacles for the characters to overcome. And they can’t be too easy either, or else the story wouldn’t be exciting.
Characters
I find that creating realistic likeable characters the most difficult part of writing anything. Once you’ve got your characters sussed, you’re basically halfway towards success. A character cannot be flawless, or else he/she wouldn’t be human. For me, the best way to create characters is to visualize someone in my head. I usually base my characters on historical figures or actors. People watching is a good way to get idea for characters. Everyone speaks, moves and reacts differently. You gather a variety of these characteristics, mix them up to form realistic, likeable (or in the case of the villain, depicable) behaviour sets, and voila! You have a character. That’s harder than it sounds, by the way. I still haven’t been too successful in creating my own original protagonist.
Ways to go about writing
When I write, I tend to visualize a film in my head. A film is more than just images and dialogue. It has different angles to show different perspectives, and lighting and music to show the atmosphere. Every scene that I write has its own accompanying soundtrack and therefore, I find it very useful to have music which will go with the film in my head while I’m writing. My favourites at the moment are from actual film soundtracks and music by Immediate Music.
A comfortable work station is important. You don’t want anything distracting you from your work. I either work in my room with the door closed and the music on, or I write on the computer early in the morning when the sky is dark, and the house is quiet because everyone’s asleep. Hot chocolate or one of those creamy coffees make good imagination boosters.
Sometimes, when I get Writer’s Block, I find that changing the writing materials help. Lately, I’ve been writing on the computer only because I couldn’t do it on paper with pencil or pen. However, my essays have been written by hand because I couldn’t write them on the computer. I’m not sure how that works, but that’s how it is with me. Not everyone’s the same.