Writing Fiction for dummies #1

Part 1) Getting Ready to Write Fiction
Chapter 1) Fiction Writing Basics

* 5 urban legends that can hurt you

Legend #1. You are not smart enough to write a novel.
> The main thing any novelist needs is the ability to tap into her own emotional wellsprings and create a story that can move her readers.
> Fiction writers are exceptionally honest people who don't balk at telling their own inner truths.

Legend #2. You are not talented enough ti write a novel.
> "Persistence"

Legend #3. You have nothing to write about.
> If you've ever known fear, joy, rejection, love, rage, pleasure, pain, feast, or famine, then you have plenty to write about.

Legend #4. You have to know people to get a novel published.
> All you have to do is show around what you have, and the right people will find you.

Legend #5. You will forget your friends when you are famous.


* 4 stages on the road to publication

1. Concentrating on craft
> Nobody ever got good at writing by talking about it. Or hearing about it. Or reading about it. You get good at writing by doing it. Then you get your work critiqued, figure out what's not up to par, and try it again. And again. And again.
> By writing, by getting it critiqued, by studying the craft of fiction, by writing some more.

2. Tackling the proposal
> *** Book Proposal, Synopsis, Query Letter
> By writing, by studying how to write a proposal, by writing that first practice proposal, by testing the proposal at writing conferences.

3. Perfecting their pitches
> By striving for perfection in craft, by polishing proposals, by pitching projects to live agents or editors.

4. Preparing to become authors
> By ignoring rejections and continuing to submit a polished project until a publisher buys it.


*** Getting Yourself Organized

4 things to turn great ideas into great stories

1. Story World: "setting" or "milieu," the world in which your story takes place.
2. Characters: having a past, a present, & a future.
3. Plot
4. Theme: a core idea.

[Editing your fiction: great writing never happens in the first draft. It happens when you edit your work - keeping what works, chucking what doesn't, and polishing it all till it gleams.
* Reworking your characters so that they come fully alive & revising your storyline at all six layers of plot.]


note taking from
"Writing Fiction for Dummies"
by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy,
Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ingermanson, Randy, and Peter Economy. Writing Fiction for dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010. 9-19. Print