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Advice on Writing Fiction


The Writing Advice


You read a story. Bradley Fortune just got his novel about the rich man who found an abandoned child and raised her, published, or Mrs. Marshall's son found his mother's manuscripts based on her life in the orphanage in a dresser drawer and sent
them off to the publisher who did not care that Mrs. Marshall's use of grammar and spelling was not even close to medium. They were just interested in her native charm.
That never happens. Writing is hard work. You need at least five days a week and possible six days to write. Oh the seventh? Well that's the day of rest.

When to Start


You can start anytime. It does not depend on experience (although a knowledge
of grammer, which you can always aquire, is essential. ) or age.
You need writing essentials, that is, pen, pencil, paper,notepad,etc. You need ;a typewriter and computer or if not, someone who will type the manuscript for you. I figure the question comes in next is what do I write and how much time ;do I use as well as how many words do I do in a setting.

Someone made this idiotic rule, to write what you know which resulted in extensive journal writings, the thinly disguised autobiography, the lawyer ;writing about crime cases, etc. Well forget about that. If you do not know about a subject, find out. If you are shy and do not want to ask, for example, a chef, how he went through cooking school, go to the library, go on the internet and find out there. Listen to how people speak to find out their dialects. Watch good television shows and not so good ones like talk shows. By the way, the Sally Raphael Show is a good talk show with many relevent subjects. The guests on the latter often are from various parts of the United States and since a lot of them are usually poor and uneducated, you can record their way of speaking. Take a note pad or a tape recorder (hidden) to a mall, school, or any place and record the conversation. Take notes of what people are doing.
Write your impressions, your dreams, describe the scene outside the car, plane, or bus when you went on vacation. Go to an office, write down how the insurance agent does things, etc.
This is good for background or maybe a story. After you get the characters, change the settings. Instead of an insurance office, make it a dentist's office. Make the woman with red hair,a woman with black hair. Make the man from Arkansas, a man from Toledo. Make the couple discussing their son's new bicycle, two policemen discussing the up coming barbecue. With fiction ;anything goes.

Writing Fiction and the Pro Life Movement

The Pro Abortion movement has gotten a lot of help from those who wrote stories of abused wives,impoverished mothers saddled with large families, and girls abandoned by their families because of an unwanted pregnancy. Often the hardship is written in graphic detail, so that the unborn baby is seen not as a joy but as an inconvenience. Also too is the dreadful genetic disease that caused a girl to abort her baby. Unfortunately, abortionists seem to give the impression that horrible things will happen to a woman who does not abort her unwanted baby —her husband will leave her, her friends will abandon her, the baby will have a rare genetic condtion that causes his mother immense financial hardship, etc. Adoption stories are written from the standpoint of unloving rich parents just tolerating adoptive child. Often times, sexual abuse is shown in these fictious accounts.

How should the Pro Life writer fight back? Not all large families are poor. Parents do help their daughter make the right decision for her unborn child and forgive her for not marrying first. Adoptive parents are just as loving as birth parents, the new baby or older child being a joy to them. One does not need to be sentimental or Pollyanna (got that from a Disney movie). Oh yes, even if the baby is first unwanted, it will not be the only one in the family with that rare genetic disease, and not all husbands nor friends will abandon the mother because the baby was first unwanted. Rich people are just as loving as poor people. Half a truth is just as bad as no truth at all.

The Cursing Thing


I decided to put it here rather than further on, because I feel it is important. If you want your story believable, you have to make accurate dialogue. Unlike certain movies, people do not go around saying "how the f- are you?" I am not using the full word, because most people know what it is and besides you might have a little child with you, your minister might have dropped into visit,etc. Besides when you use the actual swear word, even when the character is a person that sprouts profanity, a reader may assume that it is you speaking and not the character.

I will give you an example and in the place of the swear words, use "**xx00" I will pretend I am a writer, "Bobbie Smith" (apologizes to any real Bobbie Smith who might be out there.) writing about a couple of low class/low educated/quit school because they did not want to study/etc. type scum on the edge of a separation or divorce.
I'll give you an example of a story about a divorced woman who finds herself pregnant with a decision to make. Should she get rid of the baby or not? The following scene is before the divorce.

First how the writer does it, and then how it may be conceived.

Look you **xx00," said Sheila, "I don't care if you want a divorce, I won't give you one."

Harold turned on the light, and looked in the beer, ignoring her.
"Where's the beer, you **xx00," he said.
"Look here, you **xx00 loser," she ranted, "if you did not hang around all year with your beer belly showing, we'd be drinking champagne."
Sheila then took out her broom and hit Harold.
Now here is how a God fearing person, or a person like your cultured Victorian grand parents or great grand parents might see the passage.

Look you **xx00," said Bobbie Smith, "I don't care if you want a divorce, I ;won't give you one."
Bobbie Smith turned on the light, and looked in the beer, ignoring her.
"Where's the beer, you **xx00," he said.
;"Look here, you **xx00 loser," she ranted, "if you did not hang around all year with your beer belly showing, we'd be drinking champagne."
Bobbie Smith then took out her broom and hit Bobbie Smith.
Now back to the swear word discussion. Most people use swear words in frustration. They are late for work and the bus just left the curb. They are annoyed by the late salesperson. Their kid did not clean the room, and they ;discovered he is smoking pot. They hit their thumb with a nail. They do not use swear words in a normal conversation.
You can refer to it indirectly. You are writing about a thief breaking into a business complex. You do not have to show all the dialogue when he cannot open the grate. You show the action.
You can use the usual f- or d- or something like that, but some people might want you to write the actual profanity (they might also send you links to porno sites, etc.) so it is best to be careful. This is if you write on a web page. If you use the swear word in a published book or magazine, be sure there is a warning that the following book contains adult content, profane language, ;etc.
If you use profane language and blasphemy, be sure to get the time sequence correct. I have seen movies where the actor and actresses use the "f" word at a period of time when it was not as well used. They should have used the "b" word or the "s" word. Blasphemy is a tricky thing. You have to be careful. It is better to say "he raised his hand, cursing God and waited for the crowd's adulation" then to actually translate his cursing God into English.

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