Modern Fiction Writing
Modern fiction writing is an craft molded by the demands of today’s readers. The general principles of novel writing haven’t changed in centuries, but the readers’ exposure to various media, especially the visual, has brought about a change in the craft of writing. The modern readers expect novels to be visual like movies or stage plays. This site’s shows you how to create a visual fiction.
The Craft Of Fiction
The word novel comes from the novella, originally Latin, and later Italian. Novel is defined in many ways. The most comprehensive definition is as follows:
A novel is a fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters. ~The American Heritage Dictionary
Some words in this definition have been italicized purposefully. This section is all about them. Here you will learn how modern novelists create great novels.
You will learn:
- How to put together a fictional narrative (The story and plot)
- Create befitting characters
- Describe what they do (actions)
- How they think and speak (thoughts and dialogue).
The Story and the Plot
Anyone about to write a novel must have a story to tell. All stories have a beginning and an end. If you were writing someone’s biography, you would have to know all about him from beginning to end, from birth to death in chronological order. In life events happen in chronological order. But a novel is a long story, which doesn’t have to be told in chronological order of events. Usually it has a central character, and unless this person is a time traveler, and is able to arrange events in any preferred order, events will happen in a time sequence, but a novelist doesn’t have to describe them in that order. An accomplished novelist rearranges events, starting with the most exiting or captivating in the first chapter.
A plot is a sequence of events that make up a story. While the novel is by definition fictional prose, it shouldn’t sound fictitious to the reader. One event should lead to the next, former being the cause of the latter, with logical progression. Of course, some events can be mere coincidences. But these are kept to a minimum, and mostly avoided by writers. The writer’s objective is to hold the readers’ attention and to entertain them. What holds the attention is suspense. That is, each event must arouse enough curiosity in the reader, and even anxiety, to force him or her to read the next. Maintained all the way to the end, suspense is what makes the novel a page-turner. Couple it with visual writing techniques and you have the best seller on hand.
The rest is yet to come. Please have patience.