Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

Patreon LogoPatreon

affective power

How to Less Is More in Fiction

February 15, 2021

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, exposition, less is more, over-explaining

Notice how the title of this post is an example in itself. I didn’t say “How to Do ‘Less Is More’ in Fiction”, or anything like that. Yet still, you figured it out. The meaning was conveyed.

Of course, this blog post is nonfiction, which makes it about facts. Fiction is about affect, which makes “less is more” even more crucial.

Why?

But because learning how to “less is more” in fiction allows you precisely to strip any excess preoccupation with facts and focus on conveying this affect.

I have partly talked about this before, mostly in my posts on narrative exposition and over-explaining, so feel free to take a look at those two posts as well. You’d also learn a lot reading about the lessons from my poem shuffler program.

In this post, we’ll instead focus more on, well, how to less is more in fiction. In other words, I’ll show you some practical tips on how to make sure you strategically withhold some truths from your readers.

less is more in fiction
Less is more in fiction means to forget meaningless details and focus on the truly affective part of your text; what makes your readers feel, think, and reflect
(more…)

Inevitable Narrative: How to Detect what Is Necessary in Your Fiction

December 7, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

characters, ending, narrative, plot, writing

Learning how to detect what is necessary in your fiction allows you to write an inevitable narrative. A narrative that is inevitable is structurally solid and leads to a sense-making ending.

Therefore, it should be fairly obvious that learning to see what’s necessary and what’s not when writing is very important. To put it simply, without having an inevitable narrative you will likely have problems with narrative pace as well as a problematic ending.

Moreover, a non inevitable narrative… inevitably creates problems with over-explaining and exposition. The reason? If something that shouldn’t be there actually is, you tend to (sometimes subconsciously) rationalize it with superfluous content.

In this post we’ll take a closer look at inevitable narratives. I’ll show you how to decide what is narratively inevitable and what isn’t, as well as how to structure your narrative in a way that precisely favors its inevitability.

inevitable narrative
An inevitable narrative helps you find the only way to a sense-making ending
(more…)

Finding Connections in Writing Fiction: Why It Is Important

November 2, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, connections, fiction, meaning, symbolism, writing

The title of this post claims finding connections in your writing is important. Actually, it’s more than that: It’s crucial. Indeed, I’d go as far as calling it critical. If you can’t find connections in your writing, you’re in serious trouble.

I’ve mentioned this before, in my post on imagination and creativity: “Creative writing is a connection game, and that’s where imagination plays a major part; in helping you see the connections”, I then said.

In today’s post we will expand on this concept. I will show you

  • why finding connections in your fiction is crucial
  • how to find such connections
  • what to do with them

As a sneak preview I could mention that finding connections in your writing has to do with the bigger picture and the affective power of your novel.

finding connections in writing
Finding connections in your writing is the foundation of affect
(more…)