How to write a story
You can write a story about anything. Even something as mundane as going to the supermarket. If you want to write fiction, then writing a short story can be a good way of starting. You can make it a few thousand words or very short and try to pack it into 500 words.
Writing for an emotional response
Whatever you are writing, you want some kind of emotional response from your reader. You want them to say to themselves, ‘that’s clever’ or ‘that’s funny’. Better still, you hope they will share their thoughts with their friends.
Resolutions and goals
We all complain about our lives, but we do little to try to change them. I was reminded the other day that there are billions of people worse off than me. Many people my age can’t even switch a computer on, let alone type a blog and run a website. I have known things to be much worse than they are now. 2008 was a bad year and I resolved to make 2009, a lot better. I wrote a novel!
How to write a novel | The storyline
When you start to write fiction, whether it’s a short story, novella or a full length novel; you need some idea of what you’re going to write before you start. I find taking a notebook and writing a few notes helps and you also need to think about it a lot. You need a beginning, a middle and an end. You need a climax for the story and maybe an ante climax. First however, you need a protagonist, your main character and a place to start. I think I’ll call my protagonist Nick; it took me a while to think of that name. We often choose names we are familiar with, but they aren’t always suitable. We don’t really want our friends asking if we named our psychopath after them… (more…)
How to write a novel | Style
As a writer you have to try to develop a style, preferably one that is interesting to read and easy to read. If you use lots of words that the reader is unfamiliar with, that will frustrate them. If you fill whole pages with lengthy descriptions of rooms and places rather than people, it will be boring. Writers’ complain of writers’ block, not knowing what to write next. This is often because the story is boring; if it’s absolutely riveting you tend to write like someone possessed, wanting to get to the end. (more…)
How to write a novel | People and Places
I think a photograph can inspire us to write about a place, but you need people in that place. In this photo is the ruins of a priory, would that inspire you to write? In the novel I wrote in 2009 I had the main character travel from England where he complained constantly about the weather to a Mediterranean island where he hoped to enjoy beer, babes and sand. The contrast between the two places made it more interesting. We go through life going through a chain of events and we constantly make comparisons; so it can be useful to make comparisons between extremes in a story. (more…)
Mike10613's Blog 