These two categories can then be classified into two other groups of fiction; “Short Fiction” and “Long Fiction”.

‘Popular Fiction’ is a form of fiction that is easy to read and understand and appeals to the average reader. It is usually a story that is plot driven rather than character driven and can usually be placed within a certain genre of fiction such as romance, mystery and crime.

‘Literary Fiction’ focuses more on style and effect and often appeals to the more academic reader. Where “Popular Fiction” is usually driven by plot, “Literary Fiction” is often character driven and the story may be more experimental and harder to place within a certain genre.

These two forms of fiction can then come under the headings of “Short Fiction” or “Long Fiction”. “Short Fiction” is a short piece of up to 8,000 words and can be read ion one sitting. “Long Fiction” is often a novel of more than 40,000 words and often contains a plot that unfolds through characters’ speech, thoughts and actions. A piece that falls between 8,000 and 40,000 words is often classed as a novella.

The Writing Process

There are six general steps in the Writing Process. These are “Idea Generation”, “Rough First Draft”, “Revision”, “Setting Aside”, “Editing”, and “Proofreading”.

‘Idea Generation’ is the first step in the writing process and includes brainstorming, free-writing, clustering, writing down questions and outlining. This is followed by a “Rough First Draft”, with the idea being to write quickly and release the creative juices.

After you have completed your “Rough First Draft” you are ready for “Revision”. When revising you should try to streamline the story line, add developments and improve structure and style. After this comes “Setting Aside”, where you leave the story alone for two weeks so that when you next come to read it you will be doing so with a fresh perspective.

‘Editing’ means fixing any mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, conventions and typos, and once this is done you are ready for the final step of “Proofreading”. “Proofreading is the last thing you do before you are ready to send your story out into the world and is a chance to catch any further typos and to make sure that all your corrections from the “Editing’ process have been made.