The main or lead character in any story is a lynchpin and has very definite qualities. Miss one of these and your story may well grind to a halt! This article takes a look at three crucial aspects of the main character.

The main character in any work of fiction is the one around which the entire story revolves. He or she must possess certain values or abilities if your story is to work, yet many aspiring writers miss one or more of these vital points and become frustrated when their story fails to work as it should.…

Point of view one is of the fiction writer’s most powerful techniques. Writing from your character’s POV means that you get inside the main character’s head, heart and gut –literally see the world through the character’s perspective. So, for example, when you are in the “bad guy’s” POV, be true to that POV. An excellent example of this is Crime and Punishment where Raskolnikov thrusts an ax into his landlady’s head. Thus begins one of the greatest novel ever written. Did Dostoevsky have to put an ax into anyone’s head to write this? Clearly not. And neither do you.…

by Philip Yaffe

I have never written fiction and never intended to. My 40-year career has been in journalism and marketing communication. However, a few months ago someone who had read my book on expository (non-fiction) writing and speaking contacted me to ask if I could help her with some fiction projects. I was inclined to say “no”, because I couldn’t really see what my kind of writing had to do with hers. By chance, a few weeks earlier I had came across a compilation of comments on writing by noted novelists and was…

If you want to learn a lot about writing take a stab at a Fiction Writing course.  My instructor was great and the students all eager to improve upon their writing.  It was an intenstive course where we had 10 stories to be completed in a 10 week course.  The April course was perfect for me as it finished before all the hot weather.  Eagerly I would wait in turn to read my truly wonderful fiction story.  You should never take the critiquing that follows to heart as every student is there to learn where they can improve in…

Whenever an aspiring writer speaks to me about fiction writing tips, one of the most frequently asked questions is: how do you find the time to write?

The answer I want to give, “just do it,” doesn’t quite suffice. So in this article, we’ll examine the matter in a little more detail.

We live in a busy world, with numerous demands on our time: jobs, spouses, children, draining work commutes, TV shows we want to watch, emails to read and respond to, phone calls to family and friends. When you look at your daily schedule, it may appear that…

The name of the game in fiction writing. Can I do it? Can I develop an intriguing plot? Can I keep up my energy? Can I finish what I started?

I don’t know about you but these and many other questions like this are racing through my mind when I begin a new story. How can I wrestle myself to accomplish the goal that stands before me.

Well I have some answers for that. You shouldn’t have to wrestle yourself. OK, yes almost all goals are trying and testing. And anything worth having is worth working for.…

In fiction writing, events occur in strict chronological order. If you would like to know what this means, please read on!

In previous articles I’ve used my fictional tongue-in-cheek character Detective Jake Bullett to help me along. Jake’s tough and gets into a lot of scrapes where things happen quickly. Let’s see what a sample could be like:

‘Jake lashed out and the gunman fell over, taking Jake with him. At the same time Sally screamed ‘Look out, Jake!’ and Jake saw another man pulling a gun as he scrambled free.’

Jake’s in trouble, and so…

There is a path to fiction writing success that is quick and sure, even obvious. It’s a path that’s simple to explain. In fact, I’m going to explain it in this short article. And when I’m finished, most of you who read this will nod and say to yourselves, “I knew that.” Then you’ll move on without giving it another thought. And you won’t do it.

And that will be a shame.

As with any profession, writing good fiction requires a learning curve. It begins with the very basics – the rules of proper grammar. From there,…

How can book writing software help you with continuity in your novel? Indeed, even before we start talking about that, we need to discuss what I mean by continuity in your novel and why that’s important in writing a novel. You might be aware of websites which share the various mistakes that are bound to be found in movies. And there are always loads. Making a movie is a hugely complex process, and mistakes creep in.

Thing is, though, writing a novel is also a massively complicated process and mistakes creep in there too, such as continuity mistakes (I’m…

There is a plethora of novel writing software on the market, each of them doing different things. But before you even consider investing in one of these, you need to decide if you need any novel writing software at all. The answer, of course, is that you do not. All the great masterpieces, and indeed all the lesser works, were written without novel writing software, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that you cannot write your masterpiece without using it.

However, those classic novels were also written without computers, and no modern writer would turn up her nose…