Bibliotheca

Writing Serial & Series Fiction
Not just another Novel idea

Please note, this is how the Professionals do it. Those of you who are Not professional are free to write (and post) as you please.


( THIS is how the Professionals do it... )

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

The Mystery of the Missing Best-selling Authors.
-- You see it all the time. A hot new author puts out book after book, then suddenly the story quality drops, and those books aren’t so wonderful any more. But you keep buying them on the hope that what made them great (in the first 9 books,) will resurface. Instead, that author suddenly drops off the face of the earth; sometimes for years – sometimes forever.

What Happened?
( THIS is what happened...  )

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

Modern Fiction Story Structures

PLOT ARC - The events that happen while the characters make other plans.
CHARACTER ARC - The emotional roller-coaster that the character suffers in dealing with the Plot.

Where to go from there.

 

( Read more...? )

Whoever told you that writing fiction for publication - for money - is supposed to be Artistic, Fun, or Easy -- LIED.

Writing may look artistic, and creative writing certainly is artistic (that's why they call it Creative writing,) but writing for a living; writing for publication with the intent to get paid on a regular basis is NOT artistic, it's NOT always fun, and it certainly is NOT easy.

Writing for publication is WORK. Sure, some of it is fun, but the bulk of it is mind-bending, eye-straining work. Don't get me wrong, creativity is part of the job of writing for a living, but if you think us professional writers turn on "the Creative Muse" at 8 AM and shut her back off again at 5 PM then you are missing the point entirely.

( So you wanna write for Money?  )

----Original Message----
"What are your thoughts on Good Deus Ex Machinas? I find them hard to pull off realistically in a plot." -- Puzzled Writer
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( A GOOD Deus Ex Machina? )

If there's one thing that any writer is guaranteed to hear too many times, it's the dictum, "Show, Don't Tell."

There is a lot of truth to this rule of thumb. The purpose of fiction is to give the reader a Powerful Emotional Experience. And the best way to give the reader that Powerful Emotional Experience is by "showing" the good parts, rather than "telling" them.

In short, at the points of highest action in the story, you ramp up the pace by spending more words, "showing" everything in brilliant, Technicolor, slow-motion detail.

But, um, what about the boring parts? Should you "show" those too?

Some of my agent and editor friends have complained to me in recent years that the manuscripts they are seeing these days "show" too much. Sometimes, it just plain makes sense to "tell," rather than "show."

( Yes, you can TELL too! )

-----Original Message-----
The middle KILLS me. I freeze when I have to decide which way things are going to go, and how, and that happens during the middle for me.
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-----Original Message-----
Middle, middle, middle... It's the Slough of Despond!
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-----Original Message-----
The Middle is where I usually fizzle out.
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( Conquering the MIDDLE...! )