Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

literature

Expectations vs Reality, Writer-Style

April 17, 2023

Writing

book, creativity, fiction, literature, social masses, society, writing

So, you too want to “become a writer”, right? You’re in good company! You and another 5 billion people apparently want the same. But this, too, is a club where expectations and reality don’t quite match.

Inspiration for this post came when Alicia, a friend of the blog, shared with me a map that shows what is the dream job of people by location. As you have perhaps guessed it, people from Finland to Algeria and from India to Trinidad & Tobago answered that their dream job is writer. Other popular choices were “pilot” and “influencer” or “youtuber”.

As someone who has experience of… one and a half of those professions, I feel it’s important to talk a bit about the “expectations vs reality” factor of our choices.

The key takeaway here is, we are very often attracted to certain activities and we’d like to make money out of them. That we enjoy doing them is precisely the reason why we should never attempt to bring money into the picture – or, in any case, not so before we fully realize the repercussions of such an action.

expectations vs reality
“You are special, just like everybody else”
(more…)

How to Introduce Characters: Examples, Problems, and Genre

March 20, 2023

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

characters, creativity, fiction, literature, narrative, writing

Whether you write short stories or novels, fantasy fiction or literary fiction, you have to deal with characters. Even experimental fiction needs some sort of characters. Is there an optimal way of introducing your characters to your audience?

This might feel like a deceptively simple thing. Surely, one might think, introducing characters can’t be that hard? Well, writing is as hard as you make it, in a way, but that’s beyond the point. Rather, our point in this post is to discover whether there is an optimal way of presenting your characters to your readers.

Obviously, the statement is rhetorical.

Of course there are more than one ways of introducing your characters to your audience, which automatically makes some of those ways “better” – and we’ll soon have to define that – and some “not so great”. Which means, as a writer you have a strong incentive to reflect on how you introduce your characters in your fiction.

That’s what I’m here for!

In this post I’ll show you – with examples – the different ways we can use to introduce the characters of our story. I’ll explain why some ways are “better” than others (and what that really means), though we’ll also take a look at some problem points; gray areas, if you like. Sneak preview: These have to do with the ever-lasting struggle to balance between genre and literary expression, between marketing and art.

how to introduce characters
The “right” way to introduce the characters of your story depends on artistic priorities, narrative balance, and affective intent. In plain terms, it depends on you, the author
(more…)

Unfinished Books: Do It the Right Way!

February 27, 2023

Literature

book, criticism, fiction, literature

Unfinished books are an inevitable part of reading. Perhaps you took a chance on a completely unknown author, or perhaps something everyone else praised just wasn’t for you. If we only read books we knew we’d like, we’d never discover anything new. Indeed, in some extreme expression of this strategy, we’d never read anything.

But is there a “right” way of abandoning a book you’ve started?

My own long (and occasionally painful) experience with unfinished books leads me to say: most definitely! This doesn’t mean there’s an objectively right or wrong way (hence the quotation marks above). As with everything else in literature, your mileage may vary. You are the sole authority on what “the right” way is, just as, if you’re a writer, you’re the sole authority on your own work. I’m here only to offer you the method; not the criteria.

And so, with this mini disclaimer out of the way, let’s see my way of dealing with unfinished books. You can then adapt it to your own preferences and make sure you’ll never abandon reading a book for the… wrong reasons!

unfinished books
Unfinished books are an inevitable part of reading, but there are justified and not-so-justified ways of leaving a book unfinished
(more…)