POETRYISM » fiction writing tips

Theme And Style of the Story

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:21:28 +0000

Theme

The theme of a story is often abstract and not addressed directly in the narrative. It is imparted to the story by the concrete events occurring in the story.

Style

Style is the way the writer uses language. The longer the work the less important language becomes. Above all, the writer’s work must tell a story. The writer should not be more concerned with the words used than with the story the writer is trying to tell. Don’t be a fanatic about words. The language is less important than character and plot. However, a combination of a good story and good English will be a delight to read.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Component of The Story – Point of View

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:13:52 +0000

Fifth part of major components of the story is Point of View.

First person point of view has the main character telling the story or a secondary character telling the main character’s story. Everything that happens in the story must be seen or experienced by the character doing the narration. The reader’s judgment of other characters in the story will be heavily influenced by the narrator. This can be very limiting. Also, a story written in first person usually means that the main character won’t die in the story. However, first person point of view gives a sense of intimacy to the story.

Third person point of view can be objective or omniscient. An objective narrator describes actions but not the inner thoughts or feelings of the characters. An omniscient narrator can describe all the actions of all of the characters but also all of their inner thoughts and feelings as well.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Component of the Story : Dialogue

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:03:08 +0000

Forth part of major components of the story is Dialogue.

Dialogue makes fiction seem real. However, dialogue that copies reality may actually slow down a story. Avoid unnecessary or repetitive dialogue.

Dialect in dialogue can be difficult to read. A small amount of it can be used to establish the nature of a character, but overuse will intrude on the story. The level of use of language by the characters- pronunciation, diction, grammar, etc.- is often used to characterize people in a story. Most often the main characters use the best English.

Profanity and vulgarisms can be used where they seem appropriate. Overuse amounts to author intrusion and can interrupt the reader’s belief in the story.

Too much exposition through dialogue can slow down a story. Characters should not repeat in dialogue events which have already happened in the story.

Also, one character should not tell another character what the second character should already know just so the writer can convey information to the reader. The conversation will sound implausible: author intrusion. The information can be conveyed in simple narration or by having a knowledgeable character explain something to another character who reasonably should not know the information already.

The form of dialogue should be varied to keep the reader interested. However, don’t try to find too many different ways to say “said.”

Interior dialogue is what a character is thinking. Dramatic dialogue is a character thinking out loud, without response from other characters. Indirect dialogue is the narrator telling what a character said.

Dialogue should be used to develop character or to advance the story. It should not be used just to hear characters talk.

Incoming search terms for the article:

site:poetryism com

Setting of the Story

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:34:44 +0000

Third part of major components of the story is Setting.

Setting includes the place and time in which the story takes place. The setting should be described in specifics to make the story seem real, to set the atmosphere and mood of the story, to place limitations on the characters, or to help establish the basic conflict of the story. Weather can be an important part of setting.

The setting can be used for contrast, having something taking place in an unexpected place. Also, the more unfamiliar the reader is with the setting, the more interesting the setting.

Characters Inside The Stories

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:22:05 +0000

Second part of major components of the story is characters.

The reader should be able to identify with and care about the characters in the sense that the characters seem real to the reader. The characters must do something, and what they do must seem reasonable for them to have done it.

Characters should be introduced early in the story. The more often a character is mentioned or appears, the more significance the reader will attach to the character. Also, the main character should be introduced before setting, so that the setting can be introduced from the point of view of the character.

The nature of characters can be brought out through minimal description and the actions, thoughts, and dialogue of the characters. The writer should allow the reader to make judgments about the characters; the writer should avoid making the judgments for the reader. The feelings of the character should be demonstrated rather than told by the narrator.

Yet, there are some very good stories in which much of the narration is about a character’s feelings and thoughts or in which the narration goes into great detail and analysis of a character’s feelings and thoughts at some point. So one rule about writing is that there are no rules, or maybe: If it works, it works.

Incoming search terms for the article:

site:poetryism com

Fiction Writing Tips – Major Components of Stories

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:01:37 +0000

After brief introduction of fiction writing tips on the previous post, now we continue to the second part of tips which is major component of the stories. Here are important components of the stories:

Plot is the organization of events that will take place in the story.
Characters are the people or animals who will be in the story.
Setting is the physical time and place in which the story takes place.
Dialogue is the spoken words of the characters in the story.
Point of view is the relative identification of the narrator with the characters.
Theme is the main idea or meaning behind a story.
Style is the writer’s use of the language.

Each of the component will be discussed in the next posts.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Fiction Writing Tips – an Intro

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:26:00 +0000

Almost of the fiction writers learn to write by writing. Though writing is an art, there are also skills, software, vocabulary game and include many techniques that should be learned to develop inner talent of the writers. Additional help from constructive criticism and feedback should make it better in the end.

You need to read a lot in order to be a good writer. On the other hand, you should observe and analyze everything around you more carefully. Based on your observation, you should write a lot to practice. Writing needs discipline, it can be a hard work but can be fun also. Scheduling your activity is very important since you will have structured terms and goals and make your writing better.

Fiction writers need to have a brilliant, or at least good grasp of the language, they also must be storytellers. A very nice story may compensate for less-than-brilliant writing, but brilliant writing will not save a bad story.

Readers of your story want the story to be believable. And your task is produce a story that fulfil their requirement. The writer should write about what he or she already knows through experience or can learn about through research. The narrative should read as if the writer really knows what he or she is writing about.

The article above is just brief introduction of the tips, next we’ll talk about major components of the stories.