5.1: Fiction

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Tweet by @WritingCraft on November 21, 2021 says: The best novels are those which are realistic and natural, with characters and scenes drawn from real life, although not necessarily from common, everyday life. Extraordinary characters, doing extraordinary things, and saying extraordinary words. #novelwriting #writetips \(^{66}\)

chapter 5: fiction

The typical layout to any story\(^{67}\) is a beginning, middle, and end. The middle is a traditional hotspot where the climax of the story occurs.

character development:

Characters are what they do on the page, so you'll need to justify the behavior of characters (show their fears, hopes, loves, hates, motivations and how these led to action).

What readers need to know about a character is typically less than writers think!

Multidimensionality: What do they hate? What is their favorite color? Are they obsessive about something, and if so what? What are their favorite expressions and exclamations? What are they afraid of?

plot development:

Writers need to create conflict and turmoil, and the opening scene is where one can get into the conflict quickly. Good writers show who their characters are instead of telling the reader. Example: Instead of telling the reader a character is kind, they narrate a scene where the character is being kind to another character, etc. Good writers use narrative skills and exposition (examples).

You may choose to have a weaving back story that pops up in the story. The basic plots (there are fewer than 25 original plots) are useful to research, and in each scene, the writer might need to ask: Which comes first? The character or the plot? The writer, at times, might have to decide if there will be secondary plots...

climax:

The reader expects a climax to the story and closure so, as a writer, you can satisfy the reader or play on their expectations. Ultimately, you decide a good and logical spot to quit as well as a good peak/twist for the story.

setting and scene:

Each scene or chapter should answer: Where, When, Who. These scenes are the drivers of the plot. It will be up to you as the writer how to arrange and order scenes; it's important to keep the story moving and keeping the reader interested. It's useful to alternate between fast action and slow action. When you start to edit, you'll decide then what scenes are needed and which are useless.

dialogue:

Writers can easily show who their characters through dialogue. Dialogue also allows for the revealing of back story (and making it sound natural).

The use of interior monologue can also be useful when a writer wants to show who a character is and move the plot along.

“He’s such a jerk,” she stated calmly.

“But he’s in love with you.”

She looks up from her phone with a perplexed look on her face: “Well, he’s got a screwed-up way of showing it.”

point-of-view:

Is it First Person? Third? Be clear on how you set this up and keep it consistent, unless as a clear and distinct device (e.g. Game of Thrones).

First person point of view involves the use of either of the two pronouns “I” and “we”. Second person point of view employs the pronoun “you”. Third person point of view uses pronouns like “he”, “she”, “it”, “they” or a name.

lengths:

Most define a short story as a story that is under 7,500 words in length.
Novellas can be defined as longer than a short story, yet shorter than a novel; novellas are typically 17,500 to 39,999 words long.
Novels contain 40,0000+ words.

novel writing:\(^{68}\)

SELECTING A THEME

No matter what it is that you want to write about, the thing to do is to GET STARTED. The idea is not to wait for the whole story to crystallize, and not to keep procrastinating; pick up your pen (or get down to your keyboard) and start - that is the only way to get it done.

When thinking about a theme for your story, be sure not to confuse it with the conflict, as they are two very different things. Conflict is what drives the events of the story, whereas theme is the overall idea or emotion that ties it all together. For example, imagine you are writing a crime story, and the conflict occurs when the hero comes home to find a note saying that his daughter has been kidnapped by an escaped convict. Possible themes for such a story could be good vs. evil, the strength of the human spirit, or the unbreakable bond between parent and child.

RESEARCH

It is very important for a novel to be well researched, no matter what the subject or topic is. It makes the story more interesting and authentic. The research that goes into each of their books is what makes them all the more interesting.

Research can help you add detail and texture to your story that might otherwise be lacking. For stories that you invent spells (fantasy), research into existing methods of magic can help you come up with ceremonies that you

might well be able to adapt, adding a colorful touch to your fiction.

CREATING YOUR CHARACTERS

How do you decide the personalities of characters in your novel? A suggested method is to base them on real people you know (without offending them). Another idea along those lines is to take characteristics of some friends (or enemies) and take them to the extreme. Breathe life into your characters and make them think on their own. Once your characters are living breathing creatures, the plot should fall around them.

Take characteristics of yourself, or the opposite characteristics of yourself, and spread them through many characters. Experiment: give your female characters characteristics of male friends, and vice versa.

Another way to build up your characters is to keep your eyes and ears open. Look around you, especially in public places such as airports and malls and college campuses. Observe the people around you: how they behave - the way they scold their children, the way people in love show affection openly. You will learn a lot of nuances which you can include.

The way people dress is often reflective of their attitude. A lot of good authors use this technique of describing a person's clothes and thereby reflecting their characters' personality. Try this: notice people in a public place and try to describe their clothes by linking this with the way you picture their personality.

Naming your characters is another very important aspect to take seriously.

PLOT HOLES

Something that might be scary to deal with is plot holes. A reader might point out a little mistake your character said that could contradict something you wrote earlier on. Hopefully it will not be such a huge mistake that you will have to write half your book, but believe me, it can happen. Do not feel bad about making mistakes because everyone makes them. You are not a bad writer because you made a huge mistake and had to rewrite a whole chapter.

A hard lesson you may have to learn is simply letting go of things. It depends on what you are writing, but if there is something in your novel that is completely unnecessary (i.e., no character development in a particular scene, a particular scene is not very entertaining, or introduces a minor character that will confuse things later) you may need to erase it and forget about it. It is hard, but before you erase big parts of your novel, however, SAVE EVERYTHING! Especially on a computer. This is another reason feedback is important. You might think it is the worst trash ever written but if a hundred other people think it is brilliant, you need to consider that.

an example of fiction: “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894)\(^{69}\)

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will–as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him–sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door–you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.”

“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of the joy that kills.

student example(s):

questions / activities.

HERE IS THE PRACTICE PROJECT =

Write about yourself as a villain, in third-person. Be sure the piece includes the elements of: character development, dialogue, plot, climax, and setting.

\(^{66}\)Do you agree with this tweet’s message?

\(^{67}\)"Creative Writing/Fiction technique." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 28 Jun 2016, 13:38 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 20:36 <https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php? title=Creative_Writing/Fiction_technique&oldid=3093632>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{68}\)"Creative Writing/Novels." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 4 Mar 2011, 19:49 UTC. 16 Nov 2016, 21:26 <https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=2064408>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{69}\)Retrieved from Lumen Learning: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/in...y-kate-chopin/ This piece is in the public domain.