If You Really Want to Write Fiction

 

Welcome. All of the links on this page are free.

Some of them will download as a PDF document in a new window.

Others will link you to articles that are invaluable for new writers as well as those who have been writing for awhile but consider it labor. Writing fiction is actually a great deal of fun.

One Bit of Advice

If you really want to write fiction, first forget all the nonsense various shysters tell you in order to sell their how-to books on writing fiction. They are playing on your ego, knowing you will spend your hard-earned cash to learn the “secrets” to success.

  • don’t outline — as Stephen King says, life is spontaneous. So are great stories.
  • don’t plot a story that hasn’t happened yet. Plot is only the footprints the characters leave behind as they run through the story.
  • DO trust all the knowledge you’ve absorbed about writing without even knowing it from reading fiction (not how-to books) and watching or listening to films, television sitcoms, and radio programs (if any). You Know How To Write Fiction. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t.
  • If you need a story starter, pick any character with a problem (doesn’t have to be “the” problem of the story) and drop him or her into a setting. Then
  • put your fingers on a keyboard and write whatever comes. Run through the story with your characters as it unfolds all around you. Trust it. The characters will lead you through to the end. Trust it. Trust your characters and yourself. Believe in yourself.
  • Then, after you’ve written,
    • don’t revise with your conscious critical mind (don’t “look for” things that are “wrong”)
    • don’t rewrite except to editorial order, and then only if you agree
    • don’t “polish,” whatever that even means
    • don’t participate in “critique groups” by any name unless everyone in the group has published at least 10 novels and/or dozens of short stories.
    • Avoid ANYONE who tries to tell you how they would have written your story. No urge is greater than that of a writer to change another writer’s work.

The only “secret” to writing fiction is to let go of all that nonsense, put your backside in a chair, and write.

To do that, and to have more fun than you have ever imagined writing fiction could be, I suggest you commit to Heinlein’s Rules. They’re five ridiculously simple rules that are all but impossible to follow. But they work.

To download them free, click Heinlein’s Business Habits For Writers (Heinlein’s Rules), Annotated.

You might also want to download and read

I also recommend the following links:

Finally, if you want to write effective cover blurbs and descriptions for any genre of fiction, I strongly recommend Dean Wesley Smith’s How to Write Fiction Sales Copy. I also recommend spending five bucks and buying the paperback. Mine is dogeared.

Happy writing!