The Magic of Reading Fiction: Unlocking the Path to Becoming a Fiction Writer by Olivia Salter

 

The Magic of Reading Fiction: Unlocking the Path to Becoming a Fiction Writer

 

by Olivia Salter

 

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Introduction

Reading fiction has been an age-old pastime that offers endless entertainment and escapism. But did you know that it can also be an invaluable tool for aspiring fiction writers? The art of writing fiction requires skill, creativity, and an understanding of narrative techniques. In this article, we will explore how reading fiction can enhance your writing abilities and unlock the path to becoming a successful fiction writer.

1. Expanding Your Imagination

When you read fiction, you enter a world of endless possibilities. Every story you encounter introduces you to new characters, settings, and plotlines, stimulating your imagination. By immersing yourself in different fictional worlds, you can gain inspiration and expand your creative thinking. As a writer, this allows you to break free from conventional ideas and explore unique concepts, resulting in more imaginative and engaging storytelling.

 

2. Observing Narrative Techniques

Reading fiction exposes you to various narrative techniques employed by experienced authors. Through careful observation, you can analyze how they structure their plots, develop characters, and create tension and conflict. By studying successful fiction, you gain a deeper understanding of pacing, dialogue points of view, foreshadowing, and other essential elements of storytelling. This exposure allows you to identify effective techniques and apply them to your own writing, enhancing the overall quality of your work.

3. Enhancing Language and Vocabulary Skills

The beauty and power of language are at the heart of fiction writing. By immersing yourself in well-crafted prose, you become more adept at using language effectively. Reading fiction exposes you to a rich range of styles, tones, and voices, allowing you to develop your own unique writing voice. Additionally, exposure to diverse vocabulary enhances your linguistic skills, enabling you to articulate ideas with precision and creativity.

4. Understanding Character Development

One of the fundamental aspects of fiction writing is creating compelling, well-rounded characters. By reading fiction, you have the opportunity to study the complexities of human behavior and emotion. You can observe how authors develop their characters, making them relatable, believable, and multidimensional. Analyzing character traits, motivations, and conflicts in various stories helps you develop your own characters with depth and authenticity, ensuring that readers can connect with them on a deeper level.

 

5. Absorbing Different Writing Styles

Every writer has their own unique style, shaped by their individual reading experiences. By exposing yourself to a diverse range of fiction, you can explore various writing styles and genres. From classics to contemporary literature, each author's distinct craftsmanship can leave a lasting impression. This exposure to different writing styles broadens your writing palette and enables you to experiment with different techniques while discovering your own voice.

 

Conclusion

Reading fiction is not only a source of entertainment but also a catalyst for personal and creative growth. When you immerse yourself in the world of fiction, you not only experience captivating stories but also learn valuable lessons about the art and craft of writing. Through exposure to diverse narratives, character development, narrative techniques, and writing styles, you enrich your own writing abilities. So if you aspire to become a successful fiction writer, open a book and embark on a journey through the magical realm of fiction. It may just be the key to unlocking your potential as a talented storyteller.

 

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Your Inciting Incident by Randy Ingermanson | Advanced Fiction Writing

Your Inciting Incident

 

by Randy Ingermanson 

 

Advanced Fiction Writing

 

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A novel is not just some random collection of events.

A novel is a story. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they’re connected. There’s a direction to the story. The beginning is about the lead character’s pursuit of a certain ending. The middle is about all the complications that come from pursuing that ending. The ending is about whether the lead character gets the ending he wanted, or some other ending. 

The ending that the lead character wants is called the “story goal.”

But it’s a rare novel in which the lead character knows on page one what the story goal is. In many novels, the lead character doesn’t even know on page one that there is a story goal. Often, the lead character begins the story with nothing more than a vague discontent with The Way Things Are.

Something has to happen for the lead character to decide on a specific story goal. That’s often what the beginning of the story is all about. By the end of the beginning, the lead character should know what that story goal is and be committed to getting it, at any cost.

But what is it, exactly, that moves the lead character off his butt from his initial vague discontent? What leads him to begin trying to define a story goal?

The Inciting Incident

Something has to happen to change things. Very often, that “something” is external to the character. It happens to the character and focuses that vague discontent into a stronger emotion—rage or terror or desire or whatever. 

That “something” is called the “inciting incident. Every story needs an inciting incident. It can come early or it can come extremely early, but it needs to push your lead character off balance and into the story.

Example 1: The Hunger Games

In The Hunger Games, the inciting incident comes quite early. Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, goes to the Reaping ceremony, just hoping her name doesn’t get drawn. That will enable her to get on with her life.

The good news is that her name isn’t drawn.

The bad news is that her little sister’s name is.

That’s the inciting incident. Up till now, Katniss has been unhappy with the way the Capitol is running things. She’s thought of escaping District 12. But she hasn’t taken any action or even decided what action she might take.

But now her sister’s name is called. Her sister is a young kid, and going to the Hunger Games is a death sentence. Katniss doesn’t even think about it. She reacts instantly, volunteering to take her sister’s place.

Her assumption is that this means she’s going to die. It hasn’t occurred to her that she might win the Hunger Games. That thought comes to her later. 

The novel is the story of Katniss’s attempt to win the Hunger Games. 

But that story would never have even been possible without the Inciting Incident—the Reaping in which Katniss is forced to volunteer.

Example 2: Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice starts fairly quickly. In the first scene, we learn that a certain eligible bachelor, Mr. Bingley, has moved into the neighborhood and he’ll be making his appearance at the coming country ball.

Our heroine, Lizzie Bennet, is not particularly interested. She finds most men to be dull and narcissistic. She suspects she’s going to die an old maid, because she wants to marry for love, and that’s just not going to happen.

At the ball, Mr. Bingley brings his best friend, Mr. Darcy. Bingley has a fine time dancing with Lizzie’s older sister, but Darcy makes a bad first impression on everybody as a man who is stiff and formal and arrogant. 

In reality, Darcy feels socially inept and is afraid to be friendly because he doesn’t know how. But he’s powerfully attracted to Lizzie Bennet, which leads him to make an off-hand comment to his friend Bingley denying his attraction. 

Unfortunately, Lizzie hears the comment and is deeply offended. She’d like nothing more than to put him in his place.

Darcy leaves the dance wrestling with the terrible fact that he’s now infatuated with a woman who is far below him socially. 

The dance is the inciting incident for this story. Early in the story, Darcy will fight his feelings and Lizzie will subtly mock him. At a certain point, Darcy will realize that it’s no use fighting. He’s going to have to pursue Lizzie, because he has to. But by this time, she’s committed to evading his pursuit.

The novel is the story of Darcy’s pursuit of Lizzie, and Lizzie’s attempts to evade. 

None of this would have happened without the Inciting Incident—the dance where Darcy and Lizzie meet.

Example 3: The Godfather

The Godfather is a massive novel about a thoroughly repugnant character, Don Corleone, the godfather of a Mafia family. 

The story begins with the wedding of the godfather’s only daughter. A lot happens at the wedding that will be relevant later. But the story really hasn’t begun yet. Fact is, the godfather is sitting rather pretty right now. He has multiple streams of income, he has the honor of his community, and he has any number of judges in his back pocket. The one nagging concern is that none of his sons is quite right to replace him as the godfather, but that’s not a big issue. He’s healthy and apparently has many years ahead of him.

Soon after this, he meets with a young gangster named Sollozzo. Sollozzo works with a rival family, and he wants to begin importing a new drug that has enormous profit potential—heroin. Sollozzo needs the godfather’s help in getting legal protection. His men are going to get arrested occasionally. It will be crucial to be able to bribe the godfather’s pet judges.

The godfather says no. He doesn’t care about the people who will be harmed by heroin. His concern is that drugs are too hot, that his judges will balk, and his empire will be harmed. So he refuses to cooperate.

But the godfather’s impetuous son Sonny expresses interest. Verbally. To Sollozzo.

Sollozzo leaves the meeting and orders a hit on the godfather. It nearly succeeds. Don Corleone is now terribly wounded and his empire is thrown into disarray. 

The novel is the story of Don Corleone’s search for a successor—one powerful enough to regain the Corleone family’s standing as the premier Mafia family. And ruthless enough to exact a stunning revenge on Sollozzo and his backers.

None of this would have happened without the Inciting Incident—the initial meeting between the godfather and Sollozzo.

Homework

1. Do you know the Inciting Incident for your novel? 
2. If so, does it begin as close to the beginning of the story as possible? 
3. If not, can you think of some scene early in your novel that could serve as your Inciting Incident if you tweaked it a bit?
4. What external forces tip your lead character off his or her balance?
5. Does your lead character have a choice after the Inciting Incident? If so, what part of his character leads him to make the decision to enter the story you want to tell?

 

About The Author

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

 

 Randy Ingermanson Books at Amazon

 

More Advanced Fiction Writing

How to Measure Motivation by Randy Ingermanson | Advanced Fiction Writing

How to Measure Motivation

 

by Randy Ingermanson 

 

Advanced Fiction Writing

 

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Practically everything in fiction eventually comes down to your characters’ motivations. The lead character in your story wants something, One Thing. 

It’s tempting to say that the strength of your story is directly proportional to how much your lead character wants that One Thing. 

But that’s false. It’s so far from being true, it’s not even wrong.

Let me explain how you measure motivation. I’ll do that by telling you a little story…

Back in August, most of America took a day off to watch the total eclipse of the sun. By good luck, the path of totality came very close to where I live. We were scheduled to see 99% coverage at my house. Which is not bad, but I wanted more.

On the day of the eclipse, my daughter and I got up early, packed our gear, and left the house at 4 AM to beat the traffic. We drove for a couple of hours until we reached a friend’s house in Salem, Oregon, dead center in the path of totality.

Then we waited for a few hours to watch the show. 

When it was over, we waited several hours for the traffic to die down, then headed north. The freeway was slogging along at parking lot speeds. After an hour of that, we took an exit and zigzagged across the countryside on back roads, using our phones to navigate. It took us four hours to get home.

The trip burned an entire day, and it was quite an adventure, just to see two minutes of eclipse.

Why’d we do all that, when we could have watched the eclipse from our own back yard?

Because 99% isn’t 100%. It’s not even close. I watched the coverage go from 0% to 99% and it was qualitatively the same thing. Sure it was less and less sunlight, but sunlight is sunlight. Then I watched the last little bit of the sun wink out, and a hole appeared in the sky where before there had been blinding light. A hole is not sunlight.

The difference between 99% and 100% is huge. They are different kinds of things, not different amounts of the same thing. The reason is because 99% totality is 1% sunlight, whereas 100% totality is a hole in the sky—no light at all. 

Something is qualitatively different from nothing. 

When you have the chance to see a total eclipse of the sun, you should take it. The opportunity doesn’t come along very often.

But I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do when the next total eclipse comes along. I’ve seen one and it was pretty cool. But I’ve seen one and I don’t feel a strong need to see another. If it’s convenient next time, I’ll probably go watch. Otherwise, I might just give it a pass.

Now contrast my attitude with those people who get addicted to seeing total eclipses. They’ll spend thousands of dollars. They’ll take days to reach the zone of totality. They’ll camp out in insanely terrible places. They’ll charter boats or airplanes to get themselves to exactly the right spot at exactly the right time. They’ll risk the possibility of a rain-out or cloudy weather.

All for an experience that never lasts longer than seven minutes.

That is some serious motivation.

These eclipse addicts are all-in. Whereas I’m not all-in.

My level of motivation to see a second eclipse is 99%. Theirs is 100%. 

Those are qualitatively different motivations. When you’re all-in, when you’re 100% motivated, you’ll do anything, no matter how crazy, to feed your need. 

When you’re not all-in, when you’re only at 99% motivation, you’ll do whatever’s convenient.

Write stories about characters who are all-in on their story. 

Characters like Luke Skywalker, who’ll do anything to defeat the Evil Empire.

Like Lizzie Bennet, who would never think of marrying a man unless she loved him 100%.

Like Katniss Everdeen, who’ll do whatever it takes to survive the Hunger Games.

If your lead character is all-in on your story, then your readers will be all-in too.

If your lead character isn’t all-in, then you won't be either, and neither will your readers.

That’s how you measure motivation. All-in. Or not all-in. As Yoda once said, “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Homework

• What is the One Thing your lead character wants?
• How bad does she want it? Does she want it 100%? Or only 99%?
• If she’s not all-in on that One Thing, then fix your story or kill it.
  

 

About The Author

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

 

 Randy Ingermanson Books at Amazon

 

More Advanced Fiction Writing

A Quick Note on Personality Types for Writers: Developing Compelling Characters for the Novice Writer by Ryker J. Phoenix

A Quick Note on Personality Types for Writers: Developing Compelling Characters for the Novice Writer

by Ryker J. Phoenix

 

Character development plays a crucial role in storytelling, and as a writer, understanding the intricacies of personality types can greatly enhance your ability to create compelling characters. By exploring different personality traits, you can craft multidimensional and relatable characters that captivate your readers. In this article, we will delve into a few key personality types that can serve as a valuable framework for character development.

1. The Introvert vs. the Extrovert:

Understanding the fundamental differences between introverts and extroverts is essential for creating authentic and multidimensional characters. Introverts are typically introspective and reserved and draw energy from solitude. They often prefer calm surroundings and thrive in their own company. On the other hand, extroverts are outgoing social creatures and gain energy from being around others. They are more likely to seek stimulation and enjoy being the center of attention.

By exploring the traits associated with introversion and extroversion, you can shape your characters' behaviors, preferences, and interactions. How they respond to social situations, the types of relationships they form, and their emotional reactions will all be influenced by their position on the introversion-extroversion spectrum.

2. The Thinker vs. the Feeler:

The thinkers and feelers represent another important dimension of personality. Thinkers tend to make decisions based on logic, rationality, and objective analysis. They prioritize facts and efficiency and often approach relationships from a more detached perspective. Conversely, feelers are driven by emotions, empathy, and subjective values. They place importance on personal values, harmony, and the emotional impact of their decisions.

This distinction can help you shape your characters' decision-making processes, their moral compass, and how they form connections with others. Thinkers may make decisions that prioritize logic and practicality, while feelers might make choices based on emotional considerations or empathy for others.

3. The Optimist vs. the Pessimist:

The outlook a character has on life can drastically shape their personality and actions. Optimists tend to have a positive perspective, seeing opportunities in challenges and having a hopeful view of their future. They are resilient, persistent, and often inspire others. Pessimists, on the other hand, have a more negative lens through which they view the world. They tend to anticipate failure, focus on obstacles, and struggle with self-doubt.

By exploring the traits associated with optimism and pessimism, you can add depth to your characters' personal journeys. How they navigate adversity, their motivations, and the overall tone of your story can be influenced by their perspective on life.

4. The Leader vs. the Follower:

Leadership qualities, or the lack thereof, can greatly impact your characters' roles and interactions within your story. Leaders are confident, assertive, and possess the ability to influence others. They take charge, set goals, and make tough decisions. Followers, on the other hand, may lack confidence or prefer to take a subordinate role. They are more comfortable following others' lead and may struggle with decision-making.

Understanding the dynamics between leaders and followers can create tension and conflict within your story. The interplay between characters with strong leadership qualities and those who prefer to follow can generate interesting plot developments and character arcs.

It is important to note that these personality types are not mutually exclusive, and most characters will exhibit a combination of traits from various categories. Furthermore, each individual is unique, and your characters should reflect that complexity. However, by using these personality types as a starting point, you can create characters that feel authentic, relatable, and engaging to your readers.

In conclusion, understanding personality types is a valuable tool for writers to develop compelling characters. By exploring traits such as introversion vs. extroversion thinking, optimism vs. pessimism, and leadership vs. follower tendencies, you can bring depth and authenticity to your characters' personalities. These traits shape their behaviors, motivations, and interactions, allowing your readers to connect with them on a more profound level. So next time you embark on character development, consider the influence of different personality types to create vibrant and captivating individuals within your story.

Also see:

• 16 Personalities 
• 16 Personality Types
•  The Myers & Briggs Foundation

 

More Quick Notes for the Novice Writer