Category: Fiction Writing Tips

Writers new to the fiction racket are often confused about first principles. And why hot? First principles are rarely stated fair and square. Or at all.

Here’s one: You can write fiction as if it’s a true story. You can write it as if it’s a fake story. It makes a difference.

Some stories are obviously made up. You can tell from the first few words: “A guy walks into a bar.” “Once upon a time.” Others are more subtle. Some stories are obviously true. And some that aren’t true look and feel as if they are.

This appearance of truth buys you things worth having.

How People Tell Real Stories

The world is awash in published true stories: things that actually happened and are told truthfully, more or less. And you know what? If written halfway competently, truth has the ring of truth about it! Not because of what it says, but the way it says it. In this sense, truth is stronger than fiction. We can use that.

Continue reading “Write Stories as if They’re True: Truth is Stronger than Fiction”

Lester Dent was the creator of the classic pulp-fiction hero, Doc Savage, and a powerful story-creation formula, The Lester Dent Master Fiction Plot, published in 1939. I’ve presented it below, fleshing it out where needed with my own commentary.

From here on out, Dent’s words are shown in normal text, while mine are in italics.

The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6,000-word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western, and war/air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words. Continue reading “All About the Lester Dent Master Plot Formula: Step-by-Step Story Creation”

If you have a main character who’s articulate and has plenty of attitude, then first-person narration has more sizzle and sparkle than a more neutral third-person viewpoint.

Why? Because a first-person narrator can tell their tale with passion and conviction. This is quite hard to do with third-person narration.

One of my stories starts like this:

My boyfriend is a real piece of work. Oh, I’m sure you’ve heard of girls whose boyfriends are vampires, werewolves, or even zombies. Those girls are lightweights. I don’t mean to brag, but they wouldn’t last five minutes with my boyfriend. Not that Frank is undead or anything. That would be too easy.

That’s Jen. She has a sharp tongue and a soft heart and her storytelling gives the reader both barrels. Continue reading “Using First-Person POV for Characters With Attitude”