Fiction Writing Tips Archives - Page 9 of 19 - Home For Fiction

Fiction Writing Tips

17 Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention

September 21, 2020

affect, fiction, guest post, Igor Livramento, writing

Today’s post – showing you 17 ways to grab a reader’s attention – is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.

Fiction is an invitation to journey alongside characters, through places, with affect and a pinch of reflection.

Due to our increased inattention, the first few sentences are a hook in the sea of readers. Seeking our fish’s bite, we must answer at that initial stage: What is this text about? How will it be told?

A walk amongst bookshelves is a stroll beside infinitely many closed doors one may choose to open. Just flip the page and greet a plethora of people dealing with the most diverse situations in as many ways as possible.

Here I offer 17 sneak peeks that captivated me and might inspire you to captivate more readers. Join me on this ringing doorbells spree! (One could also label this techniques for speed dating the reader – preferences…)

grab reader's attention — There are many ways to grab a reader’s attention, and here are 17 of them to get you started

(more…)

Concept Fiction: a How-to Guide for Intelligent Narratives

August 11, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

concept, creativity, fiction, genre, imagination, literary fiction, narrative, writing

By “concept”, we usually refer to an abstract theme, topic, or group of ideas. And so, in this context, concept fiction refers to writing that is not plot-based but rather themed-based.

In some way, this might make you think that concept fiction is a matter of genre, but this is not entirely accurate. True, most e.g. crime fiction is plot-based (whereas literary fiction isn’t), but there is an important difference.

Whereas the idea of genre fiction (or of literary fiction) informs the aesthetics and form of the narrative – that is, what it looks like – concept fiction refers to the process itself: how to write the narrative.

Of course, having a different methodology of writing directly affects the outcome – and so, to some extent, the aesthetics. This means that:

although concept fiction is applicable to any genre (or literary fiction, or experimental fiction), it does somewhat blur the established borders between genres and can destabilize its own position in the literary category.
it’s an invaluable tool of imagination and creativity.

Especially if you’re a genre writer, the first element above might sound like something bad. It isn’t, but it also depends on your priorities. We’ll get back to this later in the post. For now, a simpler way of putting it would be this: “Concept fiction helps your work stand out from the vast crowd of mediocre works”.

Much better, isn’t it?

In this post we’ll take a closer look at all these elements, and see how writing concept fiction can help you produce intelligent narratives that are cohesive, symbolically rich, and intriguingly original.

(more…)

How to Divide Chapters Creatively

July 30, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

chapters, creativity, fiction, literature, writing

As a fiction author, perhaps you’ve never given much thought to chapter division in your novel. After all, there doesn’t seem to be anything too complex about it – dividing chapters (and parts) is just a matter of organization, right? Well, no. Learn how to divide chapters creatively, and you’ve just acquired another tool of expression.

Remember that literature is more than a sum of its parts. Chapters can be so much more than just a way of grouping scenes together. And that’s precisely what I’ll show you in this post.

We’ll first take a look at ways you can divide your novel – chapters and parts are two basic ways, but there’s more to it than just that. Then, we’ll see how dividing a novel into chapters can be used creatively.

divide chapters — Houses have doors and windows for practical purposes, but also for **creative** (i.e. aesthetic) purposes. Dividing a book into chapters is a very similar process

(more…)