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Entering The World Of Fiction Writing ! 11/5/2012 3:04:19 PM
Finding the right fit for your books or story writings ! So now you’ve chosen Fiction as your avenue for writing. There are many ways you can go. You may choose to write a short, short story, which is usually between 500 to 2000 words. Or maybe you’d like to try your hand at a short story, which usually consist of about 2000-10,000 words. Not ready to tackle a novel yet? Then maybe the Novellas are for you. They are not as long and may sound more appealing. Novellas usually run from 10,000 to 30,000 words, where as a novel is 50,000 and counting ! Where ever you choose to start, you need to decide the category you writing fits into. There are four.
1. Mainstream- this type of fiction appeals to the widest number of readers. The readers want a well written story that has sound ideals and morals and is presented in a concise, entertaining way. The stories usually deal with everyday problems that the readers can recognize and identify with, while still letting him/or her escape into a different time and place nothing like their own. If you want to write a bestseller take the advice of Literary agent John Boswell in his book
“:The Awful Truth About Publishing “
“… the key to writing publishable novels is to study that fiction which has recently been published…… Study the bestsellers. How for instance do these authors manage to make you keep turning pages? Rate the various novelistic elements in terms of their best selling importance: Characterization; theme; pacing; plot; dialogue; texture; voice; setting; suspension of disbelief. What determines chapters? Do they begin and end discriminately, or do they often leave you hanging, and pick up the next chapter with a different character of sub-plot? Robert Cook a doctor and the author of “Coma” and several other bestsellers, said that once he decided to write fiction, be began to read a hundred bestselling novels, one after the next, before writing a single word….”
.Mainstream readers like a good original story that uses characters, situations, and events that could happen to someone like them, but instead is happening to someone else..
2. The second category is. Literary Fiction. Its function is to make the reader think, to enlighten the reader about a specific subject , to arouse an emotion and make the reader spring into action from what they have read. Literary fiction goes deep into the characters mind, the struggles they face, their behavior, their fears, and sometimes the darkness that makes them into what they have become. It can often me scary, and quite different from Mainstream fiction., and often refuses to soften or sweeten the story for the reader.
3. Last but not least- Genre Fiction- You might call this one the cousin of Mainstream, because it’s the publishing industry’s name for stories and books that go into the following categories
Romance
Mysteries
Westerns
Thrillers
Science Fiction
Juvenile Fiction for children and young adults
Its very important to know where your story or book fits. It is always best to find your category, and read as much as possible in that category to see what makes those books sell. Then you will be on the road to becoming like them… a published author !
