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

Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott (1995)

Shitty First Drafts
from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott (1995)

"We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid. The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time."

"The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page."

"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something-anything down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft-you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's looses or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy."

"Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children anyone who is whining in your head. Then out the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want-won't give them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn it all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of anger, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft."