THE STORY PROPER: How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

 

THE STORY PROPER

by Leslie Quirk

 

 

The ideal short story is the relation of an isolated incident. In a novel you may introduce your heroine in one chapter and your hero in another, and then shift scenes and seasons with bewildering rapidity to the very end. There is a runaway, perhaps, in which the man saves the girl's life. There is a forest in which the lovers get lost together. There is an automobile wreck that drives them to a farmer's house for supper. But each of these leads up to the climax the inevitable marriage of the two.

Now, any one of these counter-incidents would make a short story, but all of them together lack the fundamental requisite of brief fiction unity. The ideal short story begins in one place and ends in that place. It begins with a certain number of characters and ends ​with that number. It is an incident by itself, isolated from the other happenings of everyday life.

It may be any length, provided it is not too ungainly to crowd between the covers of a magazine, or too tiny to demand a place at all. Generally speaking, a short story should run between 1,000 and 6,000 words.

Length, of course, is largely a matter of demand rather than of choice. You can't tell some stories in less than 5,000 words without condensing them so sharply as to destroy utterly their charm, and you can't stretch others above 1,500 words without padding them unduly. As in all other things, the ones that do not come close to either extreme are most apt to prove acceptable.

Whatever the length, the ideal short story is one complete chapter. Above all else, it is a unit; and any plot that necessitates chapter divisions is faulty and had better be discarded.

Many of the stories that are sliced up in this fashion by beginners, however, really possess unity. The divisions are ​false, and are the result of the writer's idea that they make his story more presentable. The scene may be the same and no interruption to the action have taken place.

Young writers have a habit of using a series of stars or dashes to indicate the lapse of time in their stories. There is no reason for this, other than that the plot is wrongly constructed or that the writers err flatly. The craze for chapter divisions is a senseless one, and comes from a study of the novel.

Perhaps the most common error of the young writer is the unconscious padding by the use of remarks, comments, stray bits of information, or morals entirely foreign to the plot. The proper way to tell a short story is to draw a line from the striking introductory sentence straight to the climax, and never, by a hair's breadth, deviate from that line. Remarks and comments are for the editorial, information for the essay and scientific article, and morals for the religious article. A salable short story is nothing more nor less than a good plot ​draped enough to soften the naked crudities without hiding the general beauty of form.

No two stories are alike in structure. For this reason, it is impossible to give specific advice as to the telling. But if you have something with a laugh, a tear, or a thrill, and go about presenting it in a straightforward, natural manner, without hurrying or lagging overmuch, you are pretty sure to produce a story that will sell.

It seems to be the fate of most writers to have a tendency either to take up a great deal too much time in telling their story, or to do it admirably nearly to the end and then seemingly to tire and hurry through to the climax. You will find, most likely, that in writing a story you have a habit of completing it in 1,000 words, or even less, or else taking five or six times that many. In either case, you can easily discover your weakness and strive to correct it.

After you have acquired a little ease in your composition, you will find that there are a dozen ways of telling the same ​story, and that your way is apt to be the one that comes to you most easily.

Now, it may be worth while, financially, to try an experiment. After you have your plot well in mind, pick up some magazine and study the structure of its predominating stories. Then adapt your style to that of the magazine, and write your story with the idea that it must follow precisely the model you have chosen. It seems to me that in this way you have a story exactly fitted to a certain line of publications rather than one adapted, almost, to anything published.

You will find, however, that on at least one point all editors are agreed; that is, that conversation is always preferable to description. It is a good plan to go through a completed story and substitute the former for the latter wherever possible. I think I can offer no more forcible advice than that of the writer who said: “It is not necessary to say that a woman is a snarling, grumpy person. Bring in the old lady and let her snarl.”

​But no matter how you tell your story, it must follow the general rule of leading up to a climax. In its broadest sense, this may be illustrated by recalling a good detective or mystery story. It is this very thing that makes the poorly educated read stories; the very thing that makes some people turn to the last chapter in a book before reading the others; the very thing that makes a child urge you to go on and on in telling a story—merely the desire to see how it all comes out, to know why this character did that and that one this, all through the narrative. It is really inborn curiosity, and if a story did not hold out the promise of a denouement or climax very few would read it.

In writing your story, therefore, you must keep this always in mind. Little suggestions whet the reader's appetite and make him eager to go on. These, however, should not be broad. “Little did she think that ere the setting of another sun a great calamity would be upon them.” This method lacks delicacy and is certain to create disgust. ​Strike out along new lines, that your reader may never guess how the story is to end, and then lead him on, step by step, till the climax comes, sharp and clear, like the snap of a whip.

 

 Excepted from How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

THE INTRODUCTION: How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

 

 

THE INTRODUCTION

by Leslie Quirk

 

 

A story well begun is half told. Unless you can interest an editor in your first two or three paragraphs, your story may be submitted to every periodical in the country without the slightest chance of acceptance.

So much depends on the introductory sentences, from the viewpoint of the editor, that fully three-fourths of the stories submitted are never read beyond the first page. If they are lacking in interest here, the editor realizes that the writer knows nothing about the fundamental principles of story-writing, and that what follows is practically certain to violate all its rules. Unless the beginning interests him, therefore, he rejects the manuscript promptly without further reading.

An editor's method of determining the value of a manuscript is very simple. ​He scans the introductory paragraph, and if he finds that the writer plunges into his story at the very outset he is interested enough to skim over the entire first page. If nothing is found that condemns the story, the editor now turns to the last page and studies the conclusion. If he finds this weak, the story is returned without further reading; but if it ends with a quick, sharp turn, or in a manner that suggests rapid dramatic action somewhere earlier in the story, he dips into the middle and glances over the other pages; not systematically, but in a hop-skip-and-jump manner. Then, if the first promise is fulfilled, he leans back and reads the story clear through. If he does this, the chances are all in favor of an acceptance, though some detail may still warrant a rejection; or, possibly, the tenor of the story may not be in line with his publication.

From the foregoing it will be seen that if you expect even a careful examination of your story, you must interest the editor at once. You cannot do this with a long description. You ​cannot do it by labeling your characters, in imitation of a theater programme. You cannot do it by presenting familiar and worn-out situations.

Ninety per cent of the “unavailable” stories have one of these faults in their introduction. A good majority of those that are accepted begin with conversation that arouses interest, or striking sentences that make the reader anxious enough for an explanation to read further.

Your first sentence should plunge your reader into the action of your story. Leave your descriptions until you have interested him; then what would have bored him at first will prove only a pleasing explanation of the situation. In the ideal short story, the descriptions are sifted in so adroitly that there is no lagging of movement.

Don't begin your story by having a beautiful maiden wondering if her lover is true. Don't begin by saying that the heroine, dressed in well-fitting clothes, makes a handsome picture. Don't begin by presenting a girl who is ​reviewing her past life. All these have been done time and time again. Strive for originality if you would write acceptable stories.

Why not have the girl watching her faithless lover, ten miles away, through a telescope? Why not have the heroine dressed in brightest crimson and living in a convent? Why not have the girl wondering if the man she just pushed in the cistern is dead? All these are far-fetched and extravagant, I admit, but they illustrate the point I would make: that you must begin your story in a manner novel and original.

A goodly number of the light little love stories of to-day need no setting beyond that suggested by the conversation. It is pure idiocy to dilate upon the beauty of the scene, or the charm of the weather, or the innermost feelings of the characters. If you must get these points into your story, do it by suggestion. Make the man and woman so thoroughly in love with each other, that neither you nor a master-hand can keep your reader from knowing that the ​scenery is magnificent, nor that the sun is shining its brightest, nor that every sentence your lovers utter is bubbling with sentiment. If you can't get this happiness into your love story, you have failed. Tear it up and write it all over.

Did you ever study Hope's “Dolly Dialogues”? If so, you have found that, although there is no direct information given or scenes described, you are in full possession of all the necessary facts, gleaned through the words and actions of the characters. Yet the stories start abruptly and go forward in a natural sequence of events.

It is the best practice in the world to write a story without the use of any method of presenting ideas except direct discourse.

There are times, of course, when a description of the setting of your story is absolutely necessary. Suppose you wished to say that a man who had been away for years from a girl he loved was approaching her house, a great stone structure high on a hill. You might follow the beginner's example, thus: ​“The house of Dorothy Owens was a magnificent stone mansion, beautiful inside and out. It stood on a high hill. But, in spite of its beauty, Dorothy was not happy. Years before she had had a lover, who, could she but have known it, was even now approaching the house, mounted on a mettlesome steed.”

Your ear tells you that this is trite and dull. There is no reason to go on reading; no promise of anything better. Would it not be more interesting if begun a little differently? For instance :

“The horse stopped suddenly, and the man lifted his head with a jerk. For the last mile he had been sitting in the saddle, not caring whom he met, not seeing. Now he looked ahead at the road that led straight up the hill to a house that stood on the summit. For a moment he stared at it, debating with himself. Then he smiled and dug his spurs into the horse.”

The one objection to this latter method is the necessity of saying, more or less bluntly: “But I must now explain that years before this man and woman ​had been lovers.” Now, above all else, a short story should possess unity. With this quality of paramount importance, any retrospection is apt to mar the artistic handling. But even this objection may be overcome by the use of suggestive conversation that gives the reader enough of a clue to enable him to understand the situation.

Remember, then, that readers are a busy people, who would have their stories served in condensed pellets if they could, and that to win their approbation you must begin well along in your tale, where enough complications are to be found to catch the interest. In writing, as nowhere else, can be seen the truth of the trite old proverb, “Well begun is half done.” 

 

 Excepted from How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

METHOD OF NARRATION: How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

 

 

METHOD OF NARRATION

by Leslie Quirk

 

Now that you have your plot well in mind, you must decide how your story is to be told. You must not go about writing it in a haphazard, hit-and-miss fashion, just because you have an idea.

First of all, as I say, you must decide on the method of narration. And right here let me set down a few “don'ts.”

Don't write in the first person till the conceit of being a mainstay of a story is a thing of the past. If you persist in being one of the characters, just study yourself. You will find that in the story you are either a conceited ass or a person of impossible intelligence. Telling a story in the first person is open to serious objections. Either you must keep in the background and only guess at what is going on around you, or else you must ​put yourself in the middle of the stage, where you can see the full action and where you will be certain to indulge in bits of moralizing and criticising. In a short story, absolutely every paragraph, and even every sentence, should be an unfolding and a development of the plot. You must not preach nor teach in your story; not even hint at such things.

Secondly, don't tell your story by the use of letters or diaries. It is just as impossible to narrate a good story in this manner as it is for an old soldier who fought at Gettysburg to describe the charge up San Juan Hill. To be natural, you must bring in details foreign to your plot, and the story that is not sharply condensed is hopeless.

Thirdly, don't allow an animal or inanimate object to relate the story. The one argument against this course is that no magazine in the country will accept such a story.

Fourthly, don't attempt dialect stories. Although they were in vogue a few years ago, there is now no market at all for them.

​Fifthly, don't have a story within a story. All of us have read tales of a railroad wreck, where in the course of a thousand words an injured man is carried to a farm house. Just when you get interested, the man rises up in bed and says: “I will now tell you of my past.” And then you find that the real story is about to begin, and that the wreck, and the girl who bandaged his head, and the quaint old farmer really had nothing to do with the story proper. Common sense should teach that this style is to be avoided.

Successful stories have been written along the above lines, it is true, but the beginner has no right to handicap himself by using these methods.

The best short stories have been written in the third person. These are far more apt to be simple and direct, free from irritating deviations from the central theme, and withal stronger and more interesting. You stand just behind the curtain, with your hand on your puppets. You observe from a distance, and there is no obtruding of your ​personality. You tell your story in a perfectly natural, straightforward manner, that is bound to be a pleasant contrast to the affected, slinking way of the first person, of the diaries or letters, or of the narration within narration.

But even in this method there are pitfalls for the unwary. You are apt to believe yourself a regular magician because you can create people out of nothingness, and to imagine you have a perfect right to put down the innermost thoughts of all your characters. This is a wrong view-point. In reality you are the mind of some one of your characters. You can write of his actions, of his likes and dislikes, of his thoughts. But there your power ends. You must not err by putting down the thoughts of all your characters. With the single exception of the one whom you push to the foreground, you must make the minds of your people closed books. You don't know what they feel. You are breathing, thinking, living with just one person. You observe the others as he might.

​These rules hold true, of course, only in the ideal short story; the presenting of a bit of real life, the relating of an incident covering only a brief period of time.

No matter what method of narration you may choose, you must make up your mind at the outset to be simple and direct in telling your story. If you try to put style in your work, it will fall flat. After all, style is more or less of a humbug. If your writing is correct, and straight from the heart, and you put your individuality into it, critics will label your way of telling things “style.”

Not long ago Mr. Frank A. Munsey said some good things in regard to this quality to the students of Yale University.

“The style that means most,” he averred, “is that which comes from a man's own soul. Every one who cuts any figure in life has his own individuality, and it is this very individuality that gives character to style and lifts it out of the rut of machine-made stuff. No man ever gets very far with the ​public who squares his work to the slant of other writers.

“The best way to tell your story is to plunge right into it, and let the atmosphere take care of itself, which it is sure to do in good time. The closer you can write to the way you talk, the closer you will come to interesting the reader and attaining a good literary style.”

Charles Darwin once said to a young writer:

“Do not despair about your style. I never study style; all that I do is to try to get the subject as clear as I can in my own head, and express it in the commonest language which occurs to me. But I generally have to think a good deal before the simplest arrangement of words occurs to me. It is a golden rule always to use, if possible, a short old Saxon word. Such a sentence as ‘so purely dependent is the incipient plant on the specific morphological tendency’ does not sound to my ears like good mother English—it wants translating.”

​I think there is nothing to add to the foregoing, except that style is largely a quality that comes only after much practice in writing. A beginner apes those who have gone before, and as soon as he learns that in his own individuality lies the only style he can hope to acquire, he is on the high road to success in literature. He must learn to be himself; to make his writing, not affected, but natural. When he fully comprehends this fact, and begins to profit by it, he sets about cultivating style. 

 Excepted from How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

THE PLOT: How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

 

THE PLOT

by Leslie Quirk

If you want to write a short story, and doubt if you have anything worth the telling, go to bed early some night, get up with the sun the next morning, and take a long walk. Now, with the smell of nature in your nostrils, let your imagination run “as wild as a spook on a spree.” Suppose that cloud up there were an air-ship, with a kidnapper aboard, and suppose the boy who had been stolen were the king of Spain. Can't you work out the details of what might happen? Or suppose that girl over there should come to you, silently and mysteriously, and place a roll of greenbacks in your hand, with the words, “To pay for your burial.” How would it end? Or suppose you stumbled over that bush there and dropped into a deep hole, where you lay, ​far below the surface, listening to the drip! drip! of water near you. And suppose you became thirsty and crawled nearer for a drink, and instead of water found a stream of red blood gurgling among the rocks. Can't you make a story out of that?

All this smacks of the sensational, I grant, but I am going at this theme in a practical manner. I believe your first story will be sold because of its plot. Nine first stories out of ten are. The language is handled carelessly, the situations clumsily, and the development illogically. Yet the stories go right into the heart of things, and are different from those of the rank and file. So I say, if you want to get into print, your story must have a strong plot.

Write love stories. “All the world loves a lover,” and editors are human. But make your love story one of action. Don't, as many writers do, take a man and a woman and a dozen meetings and an engagement, and call it a story. Make it unique, make it worth while, make it different from the other love ​stories of yesterday and the day before. Make it dramatic; melodramatic, if you will. But wake up your reader; startle the editor and make him read it in spite of himself.

It may interest you to know that fully three-fourths of all the stories submitted nowadays are rejected because of weak or trite plot-interest. In this connection, the following statement, issued by the Frank A. Munsey Co. to its contributors, is of interest:

“We want stories; not dialect sketches, not washed out studies of effete human nature, not weak tales of sickly sentimentality, not pretty writing. We want fiction in which there is a story—action, force, complications. Good writing is as common as clam shells; good stories are as rare as statesmanship. We get thousands of manuscripts, alleged stories, in which the story is not worth the telling, meaningless, flat, inane; and yet many of these stories are cleverly told. They lack merely one thing, and that is the story itself.”

In this statement lies the nucleus of ​all I would say. Your first story is not going to be accepted because it has the grace and polish of a master-hand, but because it has something in it worth the telling. This does not mean that it must be sensational or impossible, by any means, but that it is something out of the rut, something that has not been repeated again and again since the beginning of time, something that shall interest the editor and make the public glad that it has been written.

The prime requisite in the manufacture of all such plots is imagination. You may get your suggestion as you will, in the night-time staring hard into the darkness, from a stray paragraph in a paper, from a scene on the street, or in any other way; but you must dress it up, and smooth off the corners that are impossible, and the edges that are not to be told, and build up the hollow places, all with your imagination.

Your plot must be simple enough to meet the requirements of a short story. In novels and in dramas there are a dozen skeins to be untangled, and a ​dozen joyous reunions in the last chapter, or just before the curtain drops. The short story should concern itself with but one of these tangles.

Action is the fundamental requisite of a good plot. It transposes affections and situations from what they were at the beginning. A good, selling plot should bridge seeming impossibilities over practically certain disasters to a pleasing end. It should have unity of time, place and action; it should be brief, compact and plausible.

All these qualities are the result of the molder's skill. Let me outline a few methods of obtaining the raw material.

Since the origin of advice, writers have been told to search the newspapers for plots. It is probable, indeed, that a majority are secured through these mediums. Sometimes the plot is the development of a hint or suggestion, sometimes the completion of an unfinished bit of action, and sometimes, more rarely, an incident itself, precisely as it happened.

​Again, writers are told to observe the unrecorded incidents of a busy world, the everyday events of their own lives. This method, too, is responsible for many good plots.

In spite of a process for manufacturing plots, however, there are many writers who sit at their desks, gazing blankly at the white paper and praying for inspiration, which in most cases includes something to write and the thoughts to clothe that something. If writers would only concede that in many instances inspiration is only another name for inclination, there would be less praying of this nature.

Very naturally the voluminous writer, i. e., the much inspired writer, soon runs short of plots. Here the amateur flounders; the experienced writer plods on with scarcely a pause. If plots fail him for the moment, he creates situations that afford ample opportunity for dramatic action. The man who writes the Nick Carter weeklies confesses that he forces his characters into some position from which escape, by all the laws of ​chance, is impossible. Then he leans back, presumably elated over his skill, and for the first time conceives some method by which the characters may once more acquire liberty and the privilege of more adventures.

In this method lies another plot producer. Outline, in your mind, some situation, improbable, inconsistent, inexplicable. Then fit in the characters and incidents necessary to make it altogether probable, consistent, explainable. Have the country lass, whom the hero loves devoutly, discover him in her father's chicken-coop with a fat pullet under his arm. There's material for a little love comedy. Or have the tourist, begging a drink at the hermit's hut, suddenly cringe at his feet. There's material for a melodramatic tale. Or have a page from a diary, telling of a man's undying passion for a woman, flutter to her feet in some deserted place, preferably from a balloon, an air-ship, an exploding shell far overhead, or what you will. There's material for an unique love story.

​It takes imagination, of course, to work out the logical explanation; but if your intellect is not equal to the task, you have no business in the profession of writing fiction. And even when you have supplied your plot in this fashion, and written your story, it will not be a literary production. It will be just the “stuff” of a hack-writer, just a “pot-boiler”; but pot-boilers sell. 

Excepted from How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

INTRODUCTION: How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

 

INTRODUCTION

by Leslie Quirk

 

Nowadays a good short story is a cash asset. The demand is steady, the market unlimited, and the prices good. No other form of writing attracts half the attention nor commands half the rates of payment. “Fiction,” says Jack London, “pays best of all, and when it is of a fair quality, is most easily sold.” A literary beginner, I firmly believe, has a much better chance in this field than in any other; and if he possesses a fair education and is in earnest, he has the chance to make a good living and acquire a modest fame.

Every day that passes adds new markets for the short story. Says Frank A. Munsey:

“The great field to-day is for writers of fiction. There is not half enough to go around. Publishers all over the world are reaching out for both short and ​long stories. Good ones are extremely difficult to find. Prices have gone up and up and up, but the supply does not begin to equal the demand. Nothing appeals to so wide a class or gives so much pleasure. Love, romance, mystery, adventure, will never lose their charm. They are as fresh to-day with the human heart as they were in old Pompeii and countless ages before."

Nor is the call only for stories by well-known authors. The editors of the very best magazines are constantly on the alert for new writers. Mr. Alden, editor of Harper's, says that were it not for these contributors "the magazine would languish in all its fine tissues for lack of the infusion of new blood."

To-day the literary beginner who succeeds is the one who welcomes suggestions. He knows he cannot turn author on the instant, merely by wishing; the wish-appeasing genii are not abroad in this enlightened age. On the contrary he realizes that he must study the profession; must fit himself for the work.

"In my own case," says ​William Dean Howells, in his recent book, "Literature and Life," "I noticed that the contributors who could be best left to themselves were those who were most amenable to suggestion and even correction, who took the blue pencil with a smile, and bowed gladly to the rod of the proofreader. Those who were on the alert for offence, who resented a marginal note as a slight, and bumptiously demanded that their work be printed just as they had written it, were commonly not much more desired by the reader than by the editor."

In conclusion, it may not be amiss to suggest that the short story writer often becomes a novelist. It is true that all who can write short fiction cannot produce a readable book, but a little reflection will show that a large percentage of the novelists served an apprenticeship writing short stories. 

 Excepted from How to Write a Short Story by Leslie Quirk

Writing Prompt: Foreshadowing (Version 2)

 Writing Prompt: Foreshadowing  (Version 2)

 

These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop. 

 

 ____________

 

 Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a story that uses foreshadowing as a plot device to hint that something is going to happen, then fulfill that hint by the end of the story.

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Foreshadowing is a tool we can use to build interest and suspense, plant a
seed in the reader's mind, provide a clue that will keep thereader turning the pages. Foreshadowing can be presented in dialogue, action, or description. It could be an omen or prophecy--a mirrorbreaking on the first page could presage bad luck, a prediction of a bad end for someone could come true. Foreshadowing might be one small detail or action, or a larger event, as long as it echoes through the plot or a character's development and fulfills itself.

Want to know more about this literary device? In his satiric essay on writing in the journal The Onion, John Grisham gives some good basic advice on foreshadowing.  Follow this link to learn and laugh.

Now That I've Learned About Foreshadowing

So, construct a story of 400 words or less that makes use of foreshadowing to advance the plot or develop a character, or both. Be sure that the foreshadowing comes early in the story and is seen to resolve itself in the end.

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In critiquing, point out the foreshadowing, tell us whether it was easy to see
and whether its promise or threat was carried out. Did the writer use the
device skillfully? Was it obvious or was it subtle?

 Some more writing prompts for you to try.

How to Write a Fiction Book: 10 Steps You Can't Miss! by Hannah Yang

 

How to Write a Fiction Book: 10 Steps You Can't Miss!

So you want to write a novel.

Maybe you have a great idea for a story that you’d love to see on the page. Or maybe you just love reading books and want to try creating one of your own.

Regardless of your reasons, you’ve come to the right place. This article will give you a step-by-step guide to help you start writing your first novel.

Contents:

1. 10 Steps to Writing Fiction Novels
2. Conclusion: How to Write a Fiction Book

10 Steps to Writing Fiction Novels

Here are ten steps you can follow to write your first novel.

Step 1: Choose a Story Idea

The first step is to choose a story idea.

You might already have a compelling idea developing in your head. If you don’t, here are some prompts to get you started:

• Are there any experiences from your own life you can draw from?
• Are there any headlines in the news that intrigue you?
• Are there any images or photographs that you could turn into a story?
• Are there any popular stories you love that you could add a new spin to? (e.g. Sleeping Beauty in space)

It’s okay if you don’t know all the details of your idea at this stage. All you need is a basic premise, which we’ll be fleshing out as we go.

Once you have a list of possible story ideas, it’s time to choose the one you’re most excited about.

Don’t worry about what your friends will think of it, or how many readers will like it, or what critics will say about it.

Write the book that you would want to read. Follow your gut and choose the idea that sings to you.

Step 2: Define the Central Conflict

Every great novel needs a conflict. After all, there’s nothing less exciting than a book about someone waking up, having breakfast, and going about their normal life without running into any obstacles.

So before you commit to writing the idea you’ve chosen, make sure there’s a central conflict in play.

Ask yourself these two questions:

• What’s the protagonist’s main goal in this story, and why do they want it?
• What’s stopping them from achieving that goal?

Give the protagonist a really convincing reason for wanting to achieve their goal. The more the protagonist cares about their goal, the more invested readers will be in your story.

If they’re in this story for no apparent reason, it will be easy for readers to put the book down. But if their life, or their reputation, or their relationship with their family is on the line, readers will be hooked.

Once you know the protagonist’s goal, figure out what’s getting in their way. It might be an evil villain, a force of nature, or even the protagonist’s own fears and flaws.

If you want some ideas for what’s stopping your protagonist from achieving their goal, check out our article on the seven main types of conflict.

Let’s take The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins as an example. The protagonist’s goal is to win the Hunger Games because she promised her little sister that she’d come home alive.

The central conflict is that 23 other contestants are competing in the Games too and only one of them can survive. This is a great example of a story with a high-stakes central conflict.

A grammar guru, style editor, and writing mentor in one package.

Try it for free!

Step 3: Develop Your Characters

The next step is character development. It’s time to figure out who your story’s about.

Start with the main character.

First, figure out what they sound like. Are they talkative or quiet? What kind of slang do they use? What is their sense of humor like?

Next, work out what they look like. Do they have any defining gestures? What’s the first thing people notice about them?

Finally, and most importantly, understand their motivations and their internal characteristics. What are their flaws? What are their values? What are they afraid of? How will they change and grow over the course of this story?

One easy way to create character growth is to give your protagonist a flaw that connects to the central conflict in some way.

For example, if your protagonist’s primary flaw is that she’s afraid to trust anyone, the central conflict should force her to trust others in order to get what she wants.

That way, for better or for worse, she’ll have a different relationship with trust by the end of the story.

Once you have the protagonist planned out, it’s time to think about the antagonist and major side characters.

Ask yourself the above questions for each of your most important characters.

It’s okay if you don’t have them all figured out yet. Many authors write new characters into their novels as they go. As long as you know your main characters enough to start drafting, you’re on the right track.

Step 4: Set the Stage

Once you have your characters down, it’s time to decide where and when your story will take place.

You might want to set your story in a fictional world of your own making. Or you might want to set it right in your own backyard.

Maybe your story works best in a big city, or in a small village, or in a forest, or on a beach.

Time is an important component of setting, too. What decade is your story set in? How much time elapses over the course of your book?

Is it a single night, like in A Christmas Carol, or a year, like each book in the Harry Potter series, or decades, like in David Copperfield?

Whatever you choose, you should make sure the setting works well with your story concept and central conflict.

The time and place of your story will really affect its mood and atmosphere, and might even play an important role in how the conflict gets resolved.

Step 5: Plan Your Key Plot Points

At this point, it’s time to do the step that some authors love and some authors hate: outlining.

Outlining the important plot points of your story in advance will help ensure you don’t run into major roadblocks along the way.

There are countless different forms of classic story structure you can reference. Some, such as three-act structure, give you as few as three beats to work with.

Others, such as the Save the Cat beat sheet, give you dozens, with specific beats to hit throughout your story.

If you’re a pantser rather than a plotter, meaning that you prefer to discover the story as you write, you don’t have to create a detailed outline.

However, you should still plan out the key plot points to give yourself a sense of direction. At the very least, plan out the inciting incident, the midpoint turn, and the climax.

• The inciting incident, also known as the catalyst, is an event that changes your protagonist’s normal life and propels them into the central conflict of the story.
• The midpoint turn is a major discovery in the middle of the story that increases the stakes and forces the protagonist to become more proactive in pursuing their goal.
• The climax is the culmination of the main conflict of the story when the protagonist either achieves or fails to achieve their goal.

Knowing these three beats will give you a roadmap for your first draft.

Step 6: Pick the POV That Suits Your Story

Before you start drafting, you need to decide the point of view you’ll be writing in. Here’s a quick reminder of the four most common POVs in fiction writing:

• First person
• Second person
• Third person limited
• Third person omniscient

Each option comes with its own positives and negatives. For example, first person will feel more intimate than third person omniscient, but third person omniscient gives you access to more characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Point of view is also closely intertwined with form and structure.

For example, if your story takes the form of a confession from one person to another, first person makes the most sense. But if your story is a choose your own adventure story, second person makes the most sense.

Step 7: Set a Writing Schedule

Now that you have the basics of your book planned out, it’s time to plan your writing sessions.

Many people have an idea for a novel, but few actually make it to the finish line. That’s because writing a book takes a long time!

Remember that the key is consistency. If you don’t have hours of time to write, you can find smaller moments.

Every time you’re waiting in line, pull out your notebook. Every time you’re about to open a social media app, open the Notes app instead and work on your story.

You can set daily word count goals for yourself if you want. Depending on the genre you’re writing, a typical novel is between 60,000 and 100,000 words.

First, figure out when you want to finish your first draft, such as three months from now or a year from now.

Then, figure out how many words you need to write each day in order to accomplish that goal. For example, if you want to write 100,000 words in two months, you’ll need to write 1,667 words a day.

Using daily or weekly word counts will give you more manageable, bite-sized goals. You can track your word counts in a calendar, journal, or spreadsheet to keep yourself motivated.

Step 8: Write Your First Draft

Remember that first drafts are meant to be messy! It won’t be perfect. The point of this draft is just to conquer the blank page and tell yourself the story.

If you get writer’s block, remember that it’s okay to jump forward to a later scene. Many fiction writers draft their books out of order.

You can also use placeholders to keep yourself going. For example, if you’re stuck on a chapter, you can summarize that chapter in one or two sentences and just keep going.

You could make a mood board or playlist to get yourself into the mood of your book.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t hit your word count. Do whatever you need to do to get to the words “The End.”

Step 9: Put the Draft Away

This step is difficult, but necessary. Once you’ve finished your first draft, give yourself some distance from your book so you can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Put your manuscript in a drawer for at least a week, ideally a month. That way, you’ll be able to see its strengths and flaws more clearly when it’s time to edit.

Step 10: Revise, Revise, Revise

Now it’s time to take your messy first draft and make it better!

You should start with big-picture developmental edits.

For now, resist the urge to start making line-level edits, such as adding commas or rephrasing sentences. Chances are, you might not even need those paragraphs after your developmental edit.

Instead, focus on fixing plot problems, strengthening your character arcs, and adding or deleting scenes if necessary.

After those structural issues are solved, you can go back in and revise the smaller things, such as checking your transitions to make sure they’re flowing smoothly and making sure your dialogue is clear and readable.

ProWritingAid can help you edit your manuscript by checking your sentence structure, word choices, sensory details, and more.

Once you feel you’ve revised your book as much as you can alone, it’s time to ask other writers you trust, or beta readers within your target audience, to give you feedback on your manuscript.

If you plan to self-publish, you may even want to hire a professional editor to take a look at your story and help you improve it.

Conclusion: How to Write a Fiction Book

There you have it: our favorite tips for writing fiction.

Novel writing is a daunting task, but anyone can do it if they take the time to build their writing skills and work on their story consistently.

Do you have any favorite tips for writing a novel? Share them in the comments.

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 About the Author

Hannah Yang

Speculative Fiction Author

Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. She holds a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her painting watercolors, playing her ukulele, or hiking in the Rockies. Follow her work on hannahyang.com or on Twitter at @hannahxyang.