One of the main reasons we must read other writers in our genre is that we must know what is usual. Readers of a particular genre come to it with a set of expectations. You may tweak those expectations to make your work unique, but if you violate genre expectations …
Tag: Elements of Fiction
Avoid extraneous details in your fiction
Part of achieving balance in your descriptions is managing the details. While on the one hand it’s possible to give the reader sensory deprivation by not providing enough details, on the other hand you can give the reader sensory overload by including too many details, especially if they are the …
Details embed the reader in your storyworld
One of the most difficult aspects of novel-writing is finding the right balance between providing enough description to create an image of the storyworld in your reader’s imagination, and providing so much that the story is bogged down and ceases to move forward. This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact …
Use similes and metaphors to aid description
Several years ago, Margie Lawson taught a workshop put on by the Florida Writers Foundation in advance of the annual Florida Writers Association Conference. Margie teaches about the need to delve deep into character emotion to reach readers. When, at the end of the course, she asked what most struck …
Give richer descriptions of important things
One key to having an appropriate amount of description in your story is proportion. The amount of time you spend describing an object should be relative to its story purpose. ☐ Settings and objects are described in proportion to their importance. It’s easy to spend lots of time describing the …
Use description to engage the reader
Description is a necessary element of fiction, but people differ greatly on how much is enough and how much is too much. When you show your draft to critique partners and beta readers, you may get wildly different evaluations about how you’re doing on this point. I recently finished the …
Em Dashes in Dialogue
Last time, we looked at using ellipses in your dialogue. Up next: em dashes. ☐ Punctuation such as em dashes and ellipses are used correctly. The em dash—it looks like this—is used to indicate a break of thought or speech. It can be used parenthetically, as in the previous sentence, …
Using Ellipses in Dialogue
Punctuation is hard to master in everyday writing. Fiction adds a layer of complexity because of the different way dialogue is punctuated. As if commas weren’t hard enough to wrangle on their own, dialogue puts a special twist on a couple of marks that don’t otherwise see a lot of …
Use speech and action to convey emotion
Many new writers—and, frankly—some experienced writers—take a short cut in first draft writing by using labels to convey emotion. Do what you must to get through the first draft, but our editing pass is the time to root those things out and replace them with something meaningful. ☐ Emotional states …
Use dialogue tags wisely
Dialogue tags seem simple, but in practice they are a complex element that many new writers fail to appreciate. One characteristic that distinguishes great writing from good writing is the efficient and elegant use of dialogue tags. ☐ Dialogue tags convey meaningful information, such as action beats. One of the …