Basic Tools for Would-Be Fiction Writers

There is nothing stranger than fiction – its imaginary, it never happened yet it has the power to move us to tears and laughter.

A phrase, an idea, a line from fiction can stay in our minds forever. You doubt that? How about “quite frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” from Gone with the Wind or “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others” from Animal Farm? Some, we have even forgotten the source of but use in everyday conversations, from The Godfather comes “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” used by all sorts of people in a variety of situations. Most don’t attribute it to the author Mario Puzo. James Heller coined the phrase “Catch 22” used by many who have never read the book of the same name.

Its easy to write a novel – fact or fiction? A bit of both really but its certainly not as easy as the people who say to you when you tell them you write” Oh lucky you, I’d love to write a book if only I had the time.” Yeah right!

Time, you make, if writing is what you want to do. Fay Weldon rose at 4am to write till 7 when she got her children up and herself ready for work.

Another famous excuse is “there is so much going on in our house, somebody always needs me for something.” Reminds me of the writer who wrote his first novel, an hour a day, in a bath full of cushions. His family thought Dad was being extra clean – a shower in the morning and a long soak in the tub at night. I’ve heard of someone whose only time to write coincided with the only time her son had to practice the drums. She bought herself a clipboard and every afternoon, at the appointed time, she drove round the corner and parked in a leafy suburban street. There she wrote for an hour, Monday to Friday, before going home to cook the family dinner.

Writing is like chronic constipation; it can be difficult to “do” every day. But, like healthy bowels, writing requires a regular habit, even if its only for an hour a day. That keeps the story flowing seamlessly on. Another good way to ensure seamlessness is to never, ever finish your daily output at the end of a chapter, paragraph or even sentence. Do that and the next day you might be sucking on your pen, staring out of the window or doodling, wondering where to take the story next. No, you stop right in the middle of a sentence. When you come back to your opus the next day you have to finish that sentence first and as you are writing the juices will begin to flow again and you will know where the story is going.

An essential ingredient of any work of fiction is hooks. Certainly, at the very beginning of your work, after all if your reader is not hooked after the first page they may never read the rest of it. Then there are the hooks at the ends of chapters. How often have you said to yourself “I”ll just finish this chapter then I’ll turn the light out and get some sleep’ only to find that when you get to the end of the chapter something hooks you and you just have to read on? The next morning you are bleary-eyed and yawning!

Always try to “show” rather than “tell” your reader “huh?” you say, “explain”. I will give you examples:

Telling: It was 4 O’clock on a cold day and she felt sad.

Showing: She heard the rattle of teacups from the kitchen. “Nearly time for afternoon tea” she thought as she stood by the window watching the snow falling from a lead grey sky. She hugged herself for warmth and bit her lips to prevent the tears forming.”

The three C’s of good fiction are character, conflict (or change) and conclusion. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Most ingredients do, taken on their own. What could be simpler than a cup of flour or two eggs? Let’s analyze what we mean by each C.

CHARACTERS

Your characters have to be real, which means human, with faults, frailties, strengths and weaknesses. Gone are the days of pure heroines and evil villains. Readers are now more discerning, they want to be able to identify with characters and understand them. They don’t want cardboard cutouts.

CONFLICT OR CHANGE

Something has got to happen. The characters have to interact, grow, become better people, survive, attain or go to hell. If nothing happens you haven’t got a story.

And in conclusion we come to:

CONCLUSION

Make it a goody; don’t you hate books that end unsatisfactorily? You are either left up in the air craving some sort of resolution or the end is too trite or belabored. Even worse are the endings where you feel the writer got fed up with his story but doesn’t know how to end it so ties it up in a nice, neat little box that doesn’t fool anybody. Of course the ending doesn’t have to be happy, in life things don’t always end “happily ever after” but it has to be real and conclusive.

No, it isn’t easy to write fiction but its not that hard either. For me, its exciting, I don’t know what my characters are going to do till just a few minutes before they do it. So pick up a pen, or turn that computer on and give it a go – I bet you get hooked too!