I recently found this book that I used in one of my fiction/novel writing classes at SLCC. I remember how much I loved the book and how it inspired me to write. I decided I would re-read it and take notes on what struck me the most. Then I decided that others could benefit from my inspiration as well. So I am posting my notes on how to write great pieces of fiction. Feel free to be inspired and end up writing something that turns you into a millionaire. I only ask that you remember me and the part I played and perhaps reward me with some small example of your appreciation. (sideways winky face)
Gotham Writers' Workshop
Writing Fiction
by the Gotham Writers' Workshop Faculty
Edited by Alexander Steel
CHAPTER 1
FICTION: THE WHAT, HOW AND WHY OF IT
By Alexander Steel
WHAT IS FICTION?
A made up story told in prose with words alone.
Words alone.
That's the unique challenge and wonder of written fiction...Everything is done with
those little symbols we call letters, which are melded into words, which multiply to form
sentences and paragraphs. And by some alchemical process those words interact with
the reader's imagination in such a way that readers are taken inside the reality of a story...and experience and feel and care about this alternate reality as deeply as they do for the meanderings and heartbreaks of their own lives.
Why Fiction?
(A) Entertainment
(B) Meaning
A good piece of fiction will satisfy one or both of these needs extremely well and do so in
a miraculously low-tech manner.
A MATTER OF FORM:
1. Novel (symphony)
*80,000+ words
*320 pages double-spaced
2. Short Story (song)
*15,000- words
*60 pages double-spaced
3. Novella
*15,000-80,000 words
LITERARY AND GENRE FICTION:
1. Literary Fiction:
Stories with some aspiration of being considered "art."
2. Genre Fiction"
Stories that usually fall within the popular genres of mystery, thriller,
horror, fantasy, science fiction, western, and romance.
*Both types of fiction are equally valid! The literary writers need not view the genre writers as slackers and the genre writers need not view the lit writers as snobs. They can learn a great deal from
each other.
Here are a few examples of past works of fiction that satisfied the dual need
for entertainment and meaning:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
"The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
SEE THE SEEDS
In the beginning is an idea. Ideas are seeds from which the mimosa tree or watermelon or delphinium of a story will arise. It can be a character, a name, a situation, structure, overheard dialogue, a setting, a theme, even a vague feeling...Ideas are everywhere. The writer of fiction must learn to search the world for these seeds. Probably the most fertile place to look for ideas is right inside the backyard of your own life: your home life, relationships, work, hobbies, chance encounters. Even the little things in your life can spark a story.
Flannery O'Connor said, "Anyone who has lived to the age of eighteen has enough stories to last a lifetime." week and chances are you'll find a multitude of stories.Write what you know? No.immediately around you and feel free to absorb the world that is around you in a broader sense. Even if that takes you to other time periods or the far reaches of the universe. Ideas are everywhere, and there is literally no limit to what you can write about.
YOUR TURN:
Write down ten things that might possibly serve as story ideas, drawing Look outside from home as well. Look in the newspaper any day of the Write what ignites your interest! Feel free to absorb the world that is from things that happened to you over the past week‒people, emotions, thoughts, situations. Nothing is too big or too small. Then review your list and pick the idea that looks most promising for a story The right idea will probably give you a buzz when you see it. Then list several ways in which this idea might be turned into a fictional story Will your idea result in a brilliant story? Maybe, maybe not. But you'll probably discover how plentiful ideas can be.
Soon it won't be that you don't have any good ideas but that you have too many. This is a wonderful problem for a writer to have.
When the right idea enters your head it will loudly and persistently announce its presence.
The fiction writer must water the soil with imagination until the story yields the maximum amount of entertainment and/or meaning.
SHOW UP FOR WORK
For a work of fiction to exist it must get written down. For it to be any good, a lot of work must be done.
Frequent practices is how I (Steele) made the passage from the worst writer who ever lived to someone who occasionally turns out something worth reading, and most of the fine writers I have the pleasure of knowing will tell you the same thing.
If you’re serious about creating fiction, you should set aside designated writing times, preferably most days of the week.
Find a place where you feel comfortable creating. A regular time and place for writing seems to be the key for most writers. Then again. Joyce Carol Oates claims to have no regular writing habits and she turns out more fiction that, well, just about anyone. So the real trick is to find what works best for you.
YOUR TURN:
Create a week-long writing schedule for yourself, encompassing at least five hours of writing time, with the installments lasting at least an hour each. Work on a piece of fiction using this schedule for a full week. (If you have a story in progress, use that.) The idea is to utilize a writing schedule, not to write a masterpiece, so don’t worry about the result. When the week is done, analyze how well the schedule worked. If the schedule needs adjusting, do so. If your discipline needs adjusting, do so.
2 kinds of writing time:
*hard time ‒ what is normally thought of as “writing”‒at the computer screen or pad of paper.
*soft time ‒ time when you are not actually writing but pondering your work.
Preferably soft time is best in the early stages of a project and to help you out when you’re stuck: research, conversations about your ideas, taking notes, writing fragments, etc. Then you put the story into hard time and the ideas will flow better.
*Instead of desperately searching high and low for that elusive solution, let the solution come to you. Like a runaway cat that grows hungry, that solution will return home when it’s ready.
2 Types of writers inside every person:
Free Spirit ‒ writes whatever and whenever she wants and doesn’t give a fig what anyone thinks of it.
Stern Editor ‒ won’t allow a single word that isn’t necessary and he can be a stickler for logic and grammar
*Both are crucial to a story’s success. But they seldom see eye to eye to it’s best to keep them separated.
In the early stages of a work, banish Stern Editor from the room and let Free Spirit reign in chaos. Yes it will be fragmentary, rambling, and incoherent, but you will be tapping into that deep well where your thoughts are both wise and childlike.
YOUR TURN:
Take this opening phrase: Sam wasn’t sure if it was a wonderful sign or a sign of disaster but Sam knew…Write down that fictional opener, then keep going. Free write, meaning write without stopping or even thinking too much, just scribble away however things come out. You should write for at least five minutes but feel free to go as long as you like. No one will see this but you, and you have permission for this to be nothing but gibberish. Just feel what it’s like to write in a white heat.
At some point, perhaps not until you have a complete first draft, send Free Spirit of for a rest and invite Stern Editor in. He’ll make you correct and shape and answer a bunch of difficult questions, but pay attention, because your future readers will be every bit as demanding as he.
DON’T BE A CHIMP
Promising ideas + hard work = good fiction?
Not quite, something is missing.
You need some mastery of craft! A working knowledge of craft is almost always necessary to make a story really good, worthy of being read by all those strangers You should learn craft because it works. The “rules” of fiction craft weren’t created by any one person in particular. They simply emerged over time as guiding principles that made fiction writing stronger.
Show don’t tell - tell a story about when Protagonist was dishonest rather than saying ‘Protagonist is dishonest.’
You haven’t grown any wiser or more intrinsically talented. You’ve just picked up some craft. And craft makes all the difference.
When you work with craft, you’re not floundering so much, waiting to stumble accidentally onto something good.
This book will focus on craft and how to use it so you can break it.
But wait...You can actually break the rules better if you know a little something about them in the first place...Rules are made to be broken.
Read widely and adventurously. There is no telling where you might pick up something useful. Ask yourself the why? Why do I like/dislike this book?
Trust your own taste. At the end of the day, you should be writing the kind of thing you enjoy reading.
YOUR TURN:
Return to the work of fiction that you chose as a favorite. Get your hands on a copy of this story, then pick a passage that you especially like. Write out a page or so of this section, word for word, just to let yourself feel what it might have been like to create that particular arrangement of words. You may gain some insight into the how the author did what he did. At the very least, you’ll see that everyone does it the same way one‒word at a time.
Out of nothing‒literally nothing but the invisible vapor of imagination‒you will create stories that tickle, torment intrigue, inform, entertain, and maybe even change your readers. All with words alone. Your words.
Perhaps that is the reason we write fiction. The satisfaction, nay, the intoxication, of creating something we sense will soon captivate legions of readers. Great fiction could give us our one real shot at the impossible‒immortality.
There is no ultimate answer for why we write fiction. It’s as mysterious as everything else about human nature.
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