Character in Fiction

Source: steampunk.com

Complex characters are crucial to successful storytelling. You can develop them in several ways.

1. Concreteness- They have specific homes, possessions, medical histories, tastes in furniture, political opinions. Apart from creating verisimilitude, these concrete aspects of the characters should convey information about the story: does the hero smoke Marlboros because he is a rugged outdoorsman, or because thats the brand smoked by men of his social background, or just because you do?

2. Symbolic association- You can express a characters nature metaphorically through objects or settings. These may not be perfectly understandable to the reader at first (or to the writer!), but they seem subconsciously right. Symbolic associations can be consciously `archetypal', linking the character to similar characters in literature. Or you may use symbols in some private system which the reader may or may not consciously grasp. Characters names can form symbolic associations, though this practice has become less popular in modern fiction except in comic or ironic writing.

3. Speech- The characters speech helps to evoke personality: shy and reticent, aggressive and frank, coy, humorous. Both content and manner of speech should accurately reflect the characters social and ethnic background without stereotyping. If a character speaks prose, his or her background should justify that rather artificial manner. If a character is inarticulate, that in itself should convey something.

4. Behavior- From table manners to performance in hand-to-hand combat, each new example of behavior should be consistent with what we already know of the character, yet it should reveal some new aspect of personality. Behavior under different forms of stress should be especially revealing.

5. Motivation- The characters should have good and sufficient reasons for their actions, and should carry those actions out with plausible skills. If we do not believe characters would do what the author tells us they do, the story fails.

6. Change- Characters should respond to their experiences by changing or by working hard to avoid changing. As they seek to carry out their agendas, run into conflicts, fail or succeed, and confront new problems, they will not stay the same people. If a character seems the same at the end of a story as at the beginning, the reader at least should be changed and be aware of whatever factors kept the character from growing and developing.

Tips for Wrting Flash Fiction

With the advent of the Internet, editors are looking for shorter works, more easily read on a computer screen. The current term is flash fiction, a tale between 300-1000 words long. Longer than micro-fiction (10-300 words) but shorter than traditional short stories, flash fiction is usually a story of a single act, sometimes the culmination of several unwritten events.

1. The small idea

Look for the smaller ideas in larger ones. To discuss the complex interrelationship of parents and children you would need a novel. Go for a smaller piece of that complex issue. How kids feel when they are not included in a conversation. What kids do when they are bored in the car. Middle child. Bad report card. Find a smaller topic and build on it.

2. Bury the preamble in the opening

When you write your story, do not take two pages to explain all the pre-story. Find a way to set it all in the first paragraph, then get on with the rest of the tale.

3. Start in the middle of the action

Start the story in the middle of the action. A man is running. A bomb is about to go off. A monster is in the house. Do not describe any more than you have to. The reader can fill in some of the blanks.

4. Focus on one powerful image

Find one powerful image to focus your story on. A war-torn street. An alien sunset. They say a picture worth a thousand words. Paint a picture with words. It does not hurt to have something happen inside that picture. It is a story after all.

5. Make the reader guess until the end

A little mystery goes a long way. Your reader may have no idea what is going on for the majority of the story. This will lure them on to the end. When they finish, there should be a good pay off or solution.

6. Use a twist

The twist ending allows the writer to pack some punch at the end of the story. Flash fiction is often twist-ending fiction because you do not have enough time to build up sympathetic characters and show how a long, devastating plot has affected them. Like a good joke, flash fiction is often streamlined to the punch-line at the end.

Manuscript Format Checklist

Source: sfwriter.com

Manuscripts being submitted to editors should be in the standard format expected by the publishing industry. Although some idiosyncratic variations are occasionally seen, this format is accepted universally at virtually all magazines and publishing companies, and is designed to facilitate the process of line editing, copyediting, and proofreading. Only deviate from it if you have received specific instructions to do so.

Header/Footer Material

1. Printed on one side of white 8.5x11-inch 20-pound paper; pages not stapled or bound.

2. Authors real name, address, phone number, and email address in upper left of page one.

3. Approximate, rounded word count.

4. Notice that this is a Disposable Copy if you only want the editor's reply but not the actual manuscript returned.

5. Title and authors name (or pen name) centered about halfway down the first page.

6. A page header identifying the author, story, and page number on each page after the first, flush with the right page margin: Author Name/Name of Book/Page Number.

7. On the last page, an indication that this is actually the end of the story: "# # # # #" or "The End,"

The Actual Story:

1. One-inch margins on all four sides of the page.

2. Ragged right margin (not right-justified).

3. Hyphenation turned off.

4. Double-spaced lines.

5. Punctuation inside of quotation marks.

6. A new paragraph every time you change speaker.

7. Scene breaks shown by a number sign (#) centered on a blank line.

Copyright the Documents

Source: fictionfactor.com

Its surprising that people never copyright their documents when it is one of the basic ways to provide protection for your work as an author.

Copyright is represented by the symbol © followed by the name of the author or publisher and the year in which it was published.

Why Copyright?

Copyright gives the author or the publisher the legal ownership rights to control production, sale and distribution of particular documents or images.

Protecting your intellectual property is a vital part ofcreating and selling your own digitally published works.

Registering your copyright establishes a public record of your copyright worldwide.

When you run an online business be aware of the copyright laws in other countries and compare them with your own countrys laws and how they may also apply to you.

The information in government documents is usually not copyright and available for use by everyone, but always check to be sure.

When you have created your e-book you do not want an un-authorised party to illegally copy your work or claim it as theirs.

Along with the other pirating proliferating on the net the stealing of ebooks is growing at an alarming rate.

There have been many cases where authors have found their work on other author's sites under the name of the other author. If your work is copyrighted you can at least legally sue for copyright infringement.

You can password protect your e-book and other documents to make cyber piracy of your work more difficult, but PCs and the document compiler software you use can never provide total security against the determined cyber thief.

Copyright law covers most material on the Internet and extends to text and images placed on another persons web site. If a feature does not appear to have a copyright marker you should still assume it is copyright and requires permission before using.

Tips for becoming well paid Author

Source: fictionfactor.com

It is the dream of 81% of the population to write a book. No matter how many times people tell you how difficult it is to do, nearly everyone wants to do it. There hangs a certain romance around writers. We long to return to a place where magic and imagination are revered.

Others may just want the quick glory or fast buck they associate with being an author. But whatever you want, getting a 6-figure book advance is possible if you have the skill, drive and know-how. Following are some tips for becoming a well paid witer.

1. Know the Industry

Educate yourself on how the publishing industry works. Unlike the old days when publishers were looking to cultivate long-term relationships with authors who would be in their stable, today their top priority is just to sell books. You must be able to substantiate your claim that your book will fly off the shelves, without any help from the publisher.

2. Prove There is a Market for Your Book

In todays world you need to show that your book will sell to one large audience, or many smaller niche audiences. Quantify each audience with statistics that show that they buy books on that subject. Its not enough to say that this audience would be interested in your topic. You must be able to prove beyond a doubt with your well-researched facts that your readers are a book buying audience.

3. Develop a Platform

This is the most important aspect of your proposal after you have proven that there is a pressing need for your book and that book buying audiences will scoop it up. A platform is simply your ability to sell books to the audience that you have said will buy-from you.

It is all about the numbers. How many people are on your e-zine list? How many people do you speak to every month? How many people buy your products and services now? Do you have big name corporations or organizations that will buy your books in bulk? Do you have a regular column, or write for publications? Are you frequently seen in the media? If you do not have an impressive platform you do not get a 6-figure advance.

4. Map out a Marketing Plan to Promote Your Book.

Your plan should include everything from speaking engagements, online marketing, licensing, and media placements. It must be realistic and do able. In other words you can not say that you will speak to organizations of 1000 people or more if you have never done it.

How to Write a Cover Letter

Source: sfwa.org

The appearance of the cover letter, and its adherence to standard format, is far more important than the contents of its actual message.

In all cases, include the following information on the cover letter over the salutation: Your name, address, phone number, social security number, fax number, favorite lottery number, height, weight, shoe size, political affiliation, number of words in the story, number of words not in the story, number of numbers in the story, an acknowledgment of the designers of all the type faces used in your story, and the number of pages in the story. Staple a glossy photo of yourself to the page.

Many people recommend that you submit to a particular person, rather than just to The Editor. This is good advice, but it does not go far enough in the present day. The would-be author must make his or her (or its) editor her or his (or its) constant study. Your research into your editor has not finished once you have selected your target. Indeed, it had hardly begun. To illustrate the proper scope of research, consider the information that the savvy submitter adds to the cover letter, above and beyond the conventional editors name, title, and business address. It is also wise to include the name of the editors spouse, the editors home address, her home phone number, her usual hour for leaving the office, the address and schedule for the school or day care center of any children, her bank account numbers, any surveillance photos you have obtained, and any other information that would demonstrate the degree to which you have been studying, obsessing upon, and otherwise stalking the person to whom you are submitting your life work. Having disposed of the above formatting issues, let us touch briefly on the content of the letter. There are several acceptable techniques. Here is one frequently successful format, reproduced in full.

Dear (Editor Name);
Once upon a time...

The editor will of course turn to the next page to see what comes next. She will then encounter the first page of your story, and, assuming that it is merely a continuation of the letter, will read further. As getting the editor to read the story is one of the would-be authors major challenges, there is much to recommend this technique.

Advice to New Writers

Source: mzbworks

The main way to get started as a writer is to write: apply the seat of the pants firmly to the seat of the chair and just get down to it. Having a thousand good ideas in your head is no good; you have to get them on paper. Just sit down and do it.

There is no magic secret; writing is like everything else; ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work. Persistence; keeping at it till you get there.

A thousand pages sounds like a lot. But write three pages a day and a year from now you will have a book.

There are a few things you have to learn that is learn to type. You do not need a computer, or a thousand dollars worth of word processing equipment, but you should beg, borrow, or steal a typewriter. No editor will read a manuscript that does not look professional

Professional training. Forget the creative writing classes in school or college; if the writer is a good-selling professional he should be selling, not teaching, and if he is not, he has nothing to teach you. On the other hand, don't go for extensive mail order writing courses. Stay out of amateur writing workshops where amateurs sit around and read their failures to each other. Twenty times zero is still zero. Never listen to criticism from anyone unless they can sign a check. Never mind what your best friend, or your aunt, or your English teacher thinks. Trust only professional criticism and read a couple of good books on technique.

When you finish your book, wrap it up, and send it to an editor who publishes that kind of book. Agents? You do not need one till you have a good track record of sales; in fact, most reputable agents will not touch you till you have sold a lot of work. The kind of agent a beginner can get, you are better off without.

Finding the perfect literary agent

Source: firstwriter.com

Most of us dream of being published and having our books become movies and sell like Harry Potter. The first step to that is a literary agent. Agents are a must now a days and to find one is extremely difficult. Some are snotty and some are sweet. Some can be really great and others can be a pain in the butt. Following are the tips for finding the perfect agents.

1. Look for an agent that matches your work

Make sure that they specialise in it or it is one of the areas they can work with.

2. Never pay reading fees

If they charge you, then they are a fake.

3. Check their Membership of AAR

Usually these types are the good ones. If they aren't then do more homework on them.

4. Be a professional

Do not even think about sending golf ball tees to an agent if you are writing about golf, or bloody ink if you are writing a horror story: not only does it look unprofessional, it is pure stupidity. Look like you know what you are talking about. Be smart. Be seductive with your book and nothing else.

5. Be nice and be patient

The worst nightmare of any agent is someone who calls them every day which makes them want to kill you. Be nice and be patient to literary agent.

Learn from other authors Experiences

Source: firstwriter.com

Mistakes are costly, no matter what the situation. They may cost your money or your reputation. You may lose faith in yourself and your ability. Sometimes they cost people their very dreams since many authors and artists do not recover from bad experiences to go on, persevere and get published or recognised.

1. So be informed. Get all the information you can before you sign a contract. Check company statistics, personal background information on the people involved. Check with local and national Better Business Bureau to see if there is any information. If it is a new publisher, ask for business plans, financial records, something to ensure they are legitimate.

2. Check agents out with AAAR (Association of Author and Artist Representatives).

3. Be wise. If you get a contract with a new or even bigger publishing company, try and negotiate keeping your existing contract intact for sometime. Many publishing houses take up to 2 years to get your book on the shelves, do not lose out on that precious time to promote your existing career! Do not get swept away by what might be and never give away control of any existing books you still have.

4. Be discerning and be patient, it takes time and perserverance to establish any career! Especially writing.

5. Most of all, be loyal. To yourself and to your integrity. If you have a bad or negative experience, warn others without trashing someone else. We all have big dreams. We all experience the not-so-good in life. We all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. So, remember the Golden Rule and do not exalt yourself by lowering someone else in others eyes.

Five Ingredients of the Scene

Source: thefictionwritersjourney.com

There are 5 Ingredients of the scene in Novel writing, Short story writing and the Memoir.

1. Point of view or who is story are you telling..POV puts you inside your main characters head, heart and gut-you are seeing the world through the eyes of your character.

2. Dialogue is one of the fastest ways into character and allows characters other than your POV character to reveal who they are. Letting the dialogue "roll" often offers up unexpected what happens next? and other surprises. Dialogue is a great way to show tension. Glance through at a novel. Most novels are anywhere between fifty and eighty percent dialogue. Think you cannot write dialogue.

3. Dramatic Tension/Action. You cannot have a story without dramatic tension. There are many different ways to create dramatic tension, which can come from something outside the character or something internal.

4. Mood, some people call this description. Thinking mood instead of description is better because mood is character driven. How does your character see a scene? In other words, what the character sees is more important than what you as the writer want to describe.

5. Flashback is a scene from the past that informs the present and tells the reader something important about the character. Once you are in the flashback, you are once again in scene. All of the above applies.

Writing Erotic Fiction

Source: writing-world.com

Erotica is any literary or art form that arouses sexual desire or even love in an audience. Put simply, erotic writing is writing that has the potential to turn your reader on. That is a nice broad definition, limited only by the range of your potential readers, desires. Given this range, erotic writing can encompass any aspect of sensuality, from the sensual depiction of a hot bath to descriptions of an explicitly sexual act.

Erotic literature is a growing field and one that spans a multitude of genres, as well as being one unto itself. There is erotic horror, science fiction and fantasy erotica, literary erotica and erotic romance, just to name a few genres that are receptive to erotic writing. There are also sizable markets specifically for heterosexual, gay, and lesbian erotica, as well as a smaller number for bisexual and transgender erotica. Sex sells is a saying that is been around forever and for once, it is true.

Saleability is not the only reason to write erotica, however. Writing erotica can improve other types of writing that you do by honing your descriptive skills and your awareness of how your characters occupy physical space in your stories. You're writing for impact so story line, characters and word choice have to work together even more closely than in many other types of fiction writing in order to be effective. All of this will serve you well if you go on to write in other nonerotic genres.

In order to have the most impact, your literary erotica needs to be more than just a long sex scene. For one thing, most editors and readers are going to want your story to have some sort of plot to make it more interesting. For another, since you are somewhat limited by the human body, you are unlikely to come up with a sexual or sensual description so wildly original that no one has ever written anything like it before. Make your story stand out with interesting characters and story lines instead. These should carry your story line forward, not the sexual situation alone. Below are some questions to ask yourself about your erotic writing. If you can not answer these questions or the answer is no, it is time to go rewrite:

1. Is there a story without the sexual angle? It is erotica, after all, so you have to have erotic elements to your story but they should not be standing alone.

2. Do the erotic elements move the story forward?

3. How does the sensual/sexual scene affect you/your reader? Finish your story, then take some time away from it. Then go back and reread it or better yet, have someone you trust read it. Does it have an impact on them? On you? Is it what you are striving for?

Catching Ideas

Source: pgtc.com

The more you write, the more ideas you are going to generate. It is inescapable; as your brain gets used to being creative, you are going to create, and probably many more ideas than you need. And at some point later, you will be able to use those ideas. But only if you catch them.

It is essential to get your ideas recorded permanently as soon as possible after you think of them. The longer you wait, the more the idea will fade, and the less will remain when you finally are ready to take it down. This means you have to be able to take your ideas down wherever you are. To help you catch your ideas:

1. Keep a dashboard clipboard with a small notepad in your car.
2. Carry a small notepad in your purse, briefcase, or pocket.
3. Keep a notebook on your bed stand.
4. A handheld computer or PDA can also be great for catching ideas; especially when you are in public.

However you decide to capture your ideas, you must do so as soon as possible. Immediately, if you can. This applies even at night perhaps even more so at night. At no time is an idea likely to be more vivid than at night, and at no time is it likely to fade faster. If you wake up in the middle of the night to a great idea, you really need to write it down. Get yourself a drink of water, jot the thing down as completely as you can, and go back to sleep. In the morning you will be in a much better position to judge whether the idea holds any real promise. This is much better than waking up certain that you had the inspiration for the next Great American Novel last night and now you cannot remember what it was.

Advice for Beginners

Source: stephencoonts.com

Beginning writers are well advised to write about something they know. Many beginners try to write about people and places and events that they know absolutely nothing about, and consequently expend vast quantities of time and effort but cannot get the story to read right. Do not write about the world of Manhattan high fashion and glamour unless you have been there and seen it from the inside. Do not write about the sins of the Hollywood film industry unless you know this world well. The sole exception to this rule is this: you can write about anything that no one else knows anything about this category would include science fiction, fantasy. Even so, you must always master the rules of the genre in which you wish to work. Science fiction sells to hard core fans who read little else. You have to know this genre inside out if you expect to write and sell books to the Trekkies. Ditto horror, romance, porn, and a few others.

Writing is very hard work. Those folks who try it for any length of time understand that fact. Writing good fiction is so damn tough very few people succeed at it. It seems that those people who do it best are thoughtful, careful readers who study successful writers and learn the techniques. Like glassblowing or painting, writing is a craft that can be learned, but it must be practiced diligently and painstakingly.

Like every craft or art, good writing requires a spark of originality or all the sweat will have been in vain. Talent is an elusive, hard-to-define quality. Yet, like pornography, most of us know it when we see it. Craft compliments talent but is not a substitute for it. Talent needs workmanship and sweat to succeed, but workmanship and sweat are not enough. There are thousands of bricklayers yet only a few artists in stone.

Craft aside, to write successfully you must have something to write about. Every word you write is a distillation of everything you know about life, about how the world works, about how people think and feel, their motivations, their hopes, their dreams, and so on. How do you write a woman in love? Well, if you are not a woman, it would help a lot if you had known one or two who were desperately, hopelessly in love. To write successfully you must understand what it is to be human. Only then can you reduce the human experience to language and put it on paper. Our best writers drank deeply of life.

One of the common mistakes of aspiring writers is to write about themselves. Some do it to explore their inner emotions, others do so for the simple reason that they know themselves best. Regardless, writing about yourself is a literary dead-end, a place where readers do not care to go.

Students of writing must write about other people, learn to create characters that live within the boundaries of the fictional world created by the writer. This is the very essence of the craft, without which you cannot progress.

At some point every aspiring writer must evaluate his or her work and make a realistic appraisal of its worth. Are you just laying bricks? It helps to have unbiased readers who will give honest criticism. Do not try to write unless you are willing to fail. If you are unwilling to let your friends read your stuff because they might not understand it, it is unpublishable the book buying public will not understand it either. This leads inexorably to my next point: if you have to explain to a reader what they should have gotten out of a story, it did not work. Go back and work on it some more. The story must stand on its own. How well it stands is a direct measure of how well you have mastered the craft of writing.

Editing your Work

Source: fictionfactor.com

When editing your own work, it is often easy to miss or overlook minor problems. This is usually because you are so familiar with your own work that your mind automatically replaces the tiny typo with the correct word. There are also times where your mind will completely overlook glaring holes in your plot line, because you know what your story is supposed to look like.

In order to edit your own work properly, you will need to go back through your story remembering to read it as a reader would. This means stopping to analyze your choice of words, or phrases, or dialogue and taking particular notice of all the loose-ends being drawn neatly together before the resolution.

Following are some points you should look for:

Plot

1. Is there a clear, believable main plot?

2. Is your plot clearly resolved, so that the reader understood the sequencing of events which led to this resolution?

3. Do the subplots advance the story or are they simply window dressing to stall on ending the piece? Is your sub plot more than just a thinly disguised, overly drawn-out love scene?

4. Are your characters seeing any real consequences to the plot-line you have thrown them into, or are they simply along for the ride?

5. Do all of your subplots reach their own individual conclusions? Are they all wrapped up neatly before the end of the story?

6. Keep in mind that writing a short story is far different than a full novel. Squeezing six subplots into a short story will not only be difficult to resolve, but will also feel rushed, without providing a sense of realism.

Pacing

1. Does the plot move fast enough to grab the readers attention?

2. Have you glossed over important details in your hurry to get to a more interesting scene?

3. Did the plot move so fast you are still trying to catch your breath?

4. Does the pacing match the style and genre of the story? A melodrama should not be moving at the same pace an action/adventure story.

Setting

1. Does the description of the setting transport you into the fictional world between the pages or are you still sitting in your chair bored to tears?

2. Do the descriptions amble on for pages or are they interspersed throughout the story, via characters observations or through the effect each setting should have on characters?

3. Do the characters, their actions and the time period agree or conflict? A American Civil War-time attitude will not work for a Chinese woman in the Ming dynasty. Nor will current slang work for an 1800s western.

Street Fame, by K Elliot

K Elliot, the African American author of Entangled is back with yet another gritty work of fiction. The book is reminiscent of Entangled only in the manner that it contains references to certain characters in the first book. Dream Nelson is alluded to along with a couple others. K Elliot has by all means surpassed himself in this fresh work. The background is the same The dark world of violence, payoffs, disloyalty, drug dealing and death. But the essence of the book is that of friendship.




For hard copy please click here


The protagonist of Street Fame is Tommy fat boy Dupree. The plot revolves around him and his friendship with Twin and Jojo. The nucleus is about the result of the ultimate deceit in friendship. The friends get a hustle, thanks to Tommys contacts in Miami. Twin employs a psychopath to rob Tommy and Jojo of the money paid to them. Meanwhile Jojo is busy sleeping with Tommys girlfriend. The novel goes on to picture the consequences of being let down by those you love. Its a woeful, though racy and adventurous tale about being let down by friends you thought you could trust your life with. There is an interesting twist to the story when Alicia Anderson, rich daddys girl challenges fat boy to give up his ways. What does Tommy has up his sleeve for his back stabbing buddies? Does Tommy make it big in real estate? What about street fame? Can he let go of that? Read the novel if you must know!

It is a book you can not let go of until you have flipped through its pages to the explosive end. Picture the action packed drama unfolding on the streets of Charlotte, Miami and San Francisco. Love, deceit, adventure, drama, action, Street Fame has it all. Read this piece of captivating street fiction to find out for yourself. It is like being on a roller coaster ride. Enjoy it to the hilt!

Strategies For Making Yourself Work

Source: sfwa.org

Work avoidance is one of the major paradoxes of the writing profession. Generally, writers want to write, but all too often we find ourselves doing anything else but. We will mow lawns, do the dishes, polish silverware anything to keep from facing the blank page. At the same time we know we eventually have to get to work, so we come up with all sorts of strategies for forcing ourselves to the keyboard.

Following are the strategies for making yourself work

1. Set a quota of pages written per day. Make this realistic. The object is not to prove anything to anybody, but to give yourself a reasonable goal to shoot for, one you will actually be able to hit every day. If you go over it, that is cool, but all you have to do each day is hit the quota. The catch: Extra pages do not count toward the next days quota.

2. Set a quota of hours worked per day/week. The same applies here as with page quotas. Make it realistic.

3. Write a story or chapter a week.

4. Pay yourself an hourly wage for time worked, and do not allow yourself leisure activities (movies, dinner out, etc.) unless you can pay for it with this writing money.

5. Have someone else pay you for writing. Use the coin of whatever realm you happen to be in: someone else cooks dinner when you finish a story, or a friend buys you a cookie, or your significant other does that kinky thing with the chocolate syrup.

6. Write to music. Put two or three CDs in the player and stay at the keyboard until they're done. Crank it up. Boogie a little. That's not just background noise; that is the sound of you working.

7. Hide your wristwatch in a drawer.

8. Lighten up on yourself. Give yourself the freedom to write when the urge strikes, and not write when you do not feel like it. That is one of the attractive things about the popular conception of the writing life, right? So enjoy it!

9. Set a timer for a short period of time (15 minutes or so) and stay at the keyboard no matter what until it dings. Then do it again. Only allow yourself to get up after the timer dings, and always set the timer again if you stay at the keyboard. This will hold you in place long enough for the first impulse toward work-avoidance to pass, and you will often discover yourself eager to keep going when your times up.

10. Form a support/nagging network of other writers.

Tips for Short Story Writers

Source: shortstorygroup.com

Writer's should keep in mind the following points while writing short stories.

1. Have a clear theme. What is the story about? That does not mean what is the plot line, the sequence of events or the characters actions, it means what is the underlying message or statement behind the words. Get this right and your story will have more resonance in the minds of your readers.

2. An effective short story covers a very short time span. It may be one single event that proves pivotal in the life of the character, and that event will illustrate the theme.

3. Make every word count. There is no room for unnecessary expansion in a short story. If each word is not working towards putting across the theme, delete it.

4. Do not have too many characters. Each new character will bring a new dimension to the story, and for an effective short story too many diverse dimensions will dilute the theme. Have only enough characters to effectively illustrate the theme.

5. Focus. The best stories are the ones that follow a narrow subject line. What is the point of your story? Its point is its theme. It is tempting to digress, but in a short you have to follow the straight and narrow otherwise you end up with either a novel beginning or a hodgepodge of ideas that add up to nothing.

Point of View and Perspective

Source: pgtc.com

Point of View and perspective are actually two different things, but the distinction can be confusing. Until you are sure of which is which, it is hard to know when to use each.

Perspective

Choosing a perspective means choosing a character to tell the story. Stories are generally told through the eyes of a single character, and although that is usually the main character, that isn't always the case. The Sherlock Holmes tales, for instance, are always told from the perspective of Watson, Holmes' assistant.

Point of View

Point of View is a little more difficult to describe. Selecting a point of view means deciding how to tell the story. Point of view is traditionally divided into four methods:

1. First person-This is used very frequently in young-adult fiction, somewhat less frequently in mainstream fiction. The story is told as if the perspective character is telling it directly. The major pronoun here is I.

2. Second person-This is probably the least used point of view in mainstream fiction. It is occasionally used in young adult fiction (the Choose Your Own Adventure series, for instance). The story is told as if it is happening to the reader. The major pronoun here is you.

3. Third person, limited-The story is told as though by a narrator, but the narrator only knows the thoughts of the main character. The major pronoun here is He/She. This is probably the most-used point of view in modern mainstream fiction.

4. Third person, omniscient-The story is told as though by an all-knowing narrator who can describe the thoughts and actions of all characters.

Tips for Novel Writing

Source: fictionwriters.com

Keep these points in mind to include in your novels first three pages:

1. Start with an important action. Unpublished writers do not have the luxury of building up to a conflict or other main event. Something must happen right away to hook the reader.

2. Develop conflict. Things need to be stressful. If life is too easy for your characters, you will not hold the readers attention.

3. Make promises-and keep them. Romance readers want romance; mystery readers expect a good puzzle, adventure lovers expect fast-paced action. Hint at things to come, then deliver. Everything must be resolved by the end of your novel, including the few little asides you might have introduced along the way. The lost dog found its home; the red herring was explained away; the secondary character's role was revealed, etc.

4. Introduce or foreshadow your main characters. Who the star of your story is should be clear from the start. This also goes hand in hand with point of view. Decide before you start writing what viewpoint you will be using-first person, limited third person, multi-viewpoint, omniscient.

5. Develop a main character your reader can identify with, worry about, and root for. Let the reader know who the good guys are-and the bad guys.

6. Establish the setting. Let the reader know where we are, and when.

7. Let the reader know up front what is at stake. Whats the conflict, what stands to be lost?

8. The beginning must foreshadow the conclusion. Your story is not a random series of events. All activities are carefully linked together. All plot elements must intertwine with one another. And you must know the ending of your novel before you begin it.

9. Set the pace. To some extent, the genre will dictate that for you. Historical romances are more leisurely, filled with description and flowery language; mysteries must go faster.

10. Do not digress. Everything mentioned in your book must have a reason for being there. If it does not advance the story line, it should not be in your book. This includes dialogue for dialogues sake, motives that are weak, description of irrelevant items or scenery, gratuitous red herrings, and plot twists that do not ultimately tie in.

Facts About Editing

Source: writersbreak.com

Whether you are interviewing for a new job, trying to woo a love interest on a first date, selling your work on the Internet, or submitting a query to an editor, you can never make a second first impression. It is true. It is just one of lifes hard facts.

To sell your article, novel, product, or yourself, you need to work on that very critical first impression and a surefire way to make a bad impression is to present poorly edited work. All the hours of researching, outlining, and writing are squandered if the final version of your manuscript is not tightly written and error-free.

Following are the different ways to error proof your work.

1. Editing Cures More than Typos. Proper editing cures not only typographical errors, but also inconsistent statements, ambiguities, poorly written sentences, and weak word choices. Appropriate attention to these aspects of writing makes all the difference between a mediocre piece of work and an excellent one.

2. Spelling and Grammar Checks. Standard spelling and grammar checks are available to you, so use them! Remember, however, they will not catch everything.

3. Print Your Work. Print a copy of your manuscript and whip out the red pen. Generally, you will find mistakes you were not able to detect when reading on the monitor.

4. Let It Simmer. Put your manuscript away for a period of time so that you can look at it later with fresh eyes. After the established time period, print another copy of your work and again, pull out the red pen. Tighten your sentences, examine your word choices, and hunt down any errors you could not find before. I find this step to be invaluable!

5. Join a Critique Group. Peer critiques can be a terrific way to get feedback on your work, and to offer feedback on the work of others. As an added benefit, you will learn that there is a lot to gain from correcting others' mistakes. There are many online critique groups.

6. Ask a Friend to Read. Its helpful to have friends look at your work. They will see it with a new perspective, which in turn will help them find things you may have missed. But remember, non-writer friends may not always know what to look for. Friends may also be shy about correcting you. You need dead-honest criticism, so if you feel you will not get it from a particular person, do not ask him to read.

Baby Steps to Writing Success

Source: writersbreak.com

Following are the steps for writing which are vital if you follow them and not only will you be successful at writing at some time in the future, you will be successful right now.

1. Write every day

Writers write. Thats all. And they write every day, just like plumbers fix taps and electricians wire houses. Writers write. It's a process. You can outline and plan your writing all you want, but at some stage, every day, you must sit down and write.

2. Pay attention to what you love

You will write best about what you love. So take note of the things you love. Make a list. Do not ever think that no one else is interested in what turns you on. Enthusiasm is contagious.

3. It is the journey…

Beware of fantasies like: "When this is published," the joy is in the journey, in the writing. When your fantasy comes true, the glow will last for a short time. What lasts longer, is your memory of the pleasure the writing brought you, while you were writing. So since the joy of writing is your takeaway, take that joy right now. It's yours already.

4. Be courageous: submit your work

The final baby step is submitting your work. Consider yourself a success as soon as you've submitted your work. You do not have any control over whether someone buys it, but you do have control over the submission process. There is only one guarantee: if you keep writing and keep submitting, sooner or later you will sell your work.

Writing Length

Source: pgtc.com

The length of the fiction works is very important. There are different questions arises in the minds of the people about the length of the works like "how long does it need to be?".

It is important to keep in mind that the lengths of various works are very flexible, and vary with the publisher you are working with. Lengths will also vary from genre to genre in general a fantasy novel can get away with many more pages than a romance.

With that in mind, though, there are certain benchmarks for various works that seem to be fairly industry-standard. Here are the generally accepted word counts for fiction works, from shortest to longest:

Epic	Over 150,000
Novel	50,000 to appox 150,000
Short Story	1000 to 7500
Flash Fiction	Under 1000

Do not let this table be an absolute for you do not write based on this table. Write first, let your creativity be your guide, then consult a word-count table to see exactly what it is you have produced. Knowing what to call the piece you have written is the first step in finding viable markets for it.