Writer's Tips: Where to Begin?
Although I’m
not a published author yet, I have spent many hours practicing my skill
of writing and have done a great deal of research on how to write well. With that said, I wanted to share with you
some tips that I’ve discovered for writing fiction, particularly novels. Yes, I write Christian fiction and I am a
firm believer in Jesus Christ, but many of these points of advice that I share
from my own experience can be applied to all genres of fiction.
All right, so you have a great idea
for a story plot, and you’re eager and ready to get it down on paper. Where do you go from there? Where do you begin? Many people consider the background, setting,
and time period to be the next first things to establish in writing a story, so
we’ll start there. Most of us probably
know what these terms mean, but for those of us that don’t, here’s a simple explanation. After all, there’s no way to learn if no one
ever tells you. Even those of us that
are already familiar with these terms had to be told sometime.
Let’s start with the
background. The background is what
happens before your story begins. This
could include an event or a character’s life-story in former years. For instance, let’s say you want to write a
story about the term of the American President Abraham Lincoln. Your story obviously begins when he’s already
President because that’s what your story is about- his presidency. Therefore, the background to your book would
be about Abraham Lincoln’s life before he became the President of the United
States, and it would include the political tension that was arising at the time
between the northern and southern halves of the country because this conflict
eventually erupted during Lincoln’s term as President. Sometimes the background is just helpful in
getting to know your characters and the plot of your story better, but
sometimes, the past events can play an important role in the development of
your storyline. For instance, my first
novel was about an ex-military man.
Because of his past experience as a general in the U.S. Army, he had a
drive for control that he struggled to overcome in the chapters of the
book. See how the past was crucial for
developing the conflict in the story?
Now let’s move onto the
setting. The setting of a book is where
your story mostly takes place, where most of the scenes happen. Let’s use the example of your imaginary book
about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency again.
The setting for that book would probably be Washington D.C., the
nation’s capital where the President and his family lives, and if you wanted to
be even more specific, you could even say the setting was the White House, the
exact residence of the President. For
further examples, consider Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice where the
setting was England, or Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind where the
setting was Atlanta, Georgia.
And for the time period of your
story. The time period is exactly what
it sounds like; it’s when your story takes place. Again, using the example of the book about
the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, we would say that the time period for the
story is 1861 to 1865, the years he held the office of President of the United
States.
It’s generally a good idea to write
down the background, setting, and time period of your story, although I admit,
I normally just keep this information in my head. But then, I don’t always follow all of the
rules when it comes to writing. But
that’s how it is with writing fiction; there are “rules”- advice of methods
that have worked well for others- but every writer has his or her own style so
not every tidbit of advice that an author can give you will fit well with your
way of writing. Some aspects are
straight-up the way you have to do things, like making your characters
realistic, making your dialogue sound natural, etc, but other aspects are
simply optional and just advice, like not using slang and not describing the
kind of car your character drives. The
important thing is to take what you learn, figure out what works with your
writing style and apply it well, and learn how to tuck the rest away in a file
of your mind for future reference. I say
to tuck it away because when I first began writing, there were many tips of
advice that I had read but didn’t find them necessary or applicable to my
writing. But as my writing has improved
and I have matured in my knowledge of the art, I have discovered that some of
those tips that had seemed just tedious or needless at the time, are actually a
great help to me now that my knowledge of writing dynamics has increased so
that I can fully appreciate the advice now.
Just make sure that if you find a bit of advice that doesn’t fit well
with your style of writing, you don’t try to make your writing fit the
advice. That will only produce a piece
of work that is choppy, awkward, reveals nothing of your own individuality, uniqueness,
and creativity, and is a disappointment to you.
All things considered, figuring out
the background, setting, and time period to your story doesn’t sound so hard,
right? And it isn’t; in fact, it’s
probably the easiest part of writing I’d say.
Maybe that’s why so many people consider it to be step one after
deciding on a plot for a book. I hope
you’ve found this helpful at all in the least, and next post we’ll take a look
at some things to keep in mind when you’re coming up with your characters and developing
them.
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