Every good fiction editor knows that their job is based on how well the author that they are editing knows the fundamentals of good writing. That’s not to say that every client you accept as a book editor should have the skills on par with a professional writer, but there are some fundamentals to good writing that should be constant throughout.

It’s important to remember that the shortcomings that we face as either the writer or fiction editor come to us from all the way back in grammar school and no matter how hard most of us…

I recently had the pleasure of watching Marc Forster’s film, Stranger Than Fiction, which I found to be a delightfully charming, intelligent comedy written by first-time screenwriter Zach Helm. I give it two guitars up. Way up. (Platonically speaking of course).

It’s about an uptight IRS agent, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), who realizes that his mundane life is being narrated by the voice of a chain-smoking novelist played by Emma Thompson. The novelist is suffering from a bad case of writer’s block and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because she can’t decide the ending to her…

In fiction, the writer’s job is to entertain, to draw an emotional response from the reader. The reader is often looking for suspense, action, and to go on a journey they have not been on before, one they will not easily forget. Readers want to get drawn into and experience the story for themselves. They want characters they can relate to and form a personal connection with. But most importantly, they want a good book. One that leaves them anxiously awaiting each turn of the page.

Here are five crucial elements of a good fiction book:

Well-developed characters: The…

Back in the days, the games came with only very basic writing to get the user by until the game play had started but today’s gamer requires so much more from their games that they choose. This is where the interactive fiction genre has come into play. For many, this has been the best there is in excitement and thrills for their time in the games.

The ride that this kind of writing is able to produce makes certain that the player has a much better time in respect to the other games that are operating on the same…

Harry Potter has “disapparated,” A Series of Unfortunate Events has come to its tragic ending. So what’s the next great children’s book series? And more importantly, could you be the one to write it?

It seems every other writer wants to pen “the next Harry Potter.” But before plunging headlong into the world of juvenile series fiction, there are a few things to consider.

Why write a series?

The benefits of writing series fiction for kids boil down to three essentials:

1. Hone your craft. I learned the craft of mystery writing by selling the…

You can learn a lot about what it takes to place a story in an ezine by starting up one of your own.

Last month we started work on a new ezine for writers, which we intended to use to publish high-quality, contemporary fiction, from writers all over the world. We placed a few adverts asking for submissions of just that. What we got was a revelation.

As a writer myself, I know how competitive the market is. Even non-paying markets are deluged by wannabe writers desperate for a by-line and some publicity. Competition, I…

Writing a novel is an act of discovering yourself and discovering your potentials – Writing a novel is not as difficult as you might think, and completing a novel is one of the most exciting feelings in the world. many writers say the hardest part of writing a novel is starting it. The problem is that writing a novel is hard but there is help at hand! Why struggle on your own ?

<b>The Role Of Characters In Writing A Novel</b>
.The most important part of writing a novel is for you to know your characters well and setting…

Ask anyone that you meet if they’ve ever had an idea to write a book and I bet that 99% of the time their eyes light up and they say ‘Yes.’

Everyone has numerous wonderful book ideas. My experience and conversations with thousands of people tell me that this is true. The difference between those that actually write a book and those that don’t is simple. Those that don’t write a book don’t believe that they can.

That’s simply not true. Anyone can write a book.

If you can talk, you can write.

Take…

If your readers don’t care about your characters, you’re sunk. Readers don’t necessarily have to like all of your characters, but they have to care about what happens to your main character, or there’s no reason for them to keep reading.

Which means you have to care about your characters, and you have to know them, maybe even better than you know yourself. To create characters that live and breathe on the page, you must first create characters that live in breathe in your psyche. This is why you need to know much more about them than you’ll…

Writing a book is a lot like getting married. It is intensely personal, it calls for a big commitment, and it requires a sustained effort. And like marriage, it carries no guarantee of success. Books and marriages often fail for the same reasons. The most common reason is that the writer doesn’t know enough about the four essential components of a successful book. It may surprise you to know that the first and most important of these components is the self.

1) self — Many writers get an idea and jump into writing about it, never giving any thought…