Writing Tips for All Types of Fiction Writers: 60 Tips

By sue viders and Becky Martinez

Sixty tried and tested TIPS to improve your writing!

Years of teaching and working with fiction writers has demonstrated to us how differently writers approach the creative process. Some choose to plan every detail, while others write instinctively. Another group uses a combination of both techniques.

 

This book of writing tips was written with the goal of benefitting all three different types of writers:

 

1 - Plotting/planner writers

2 - Intuitive/instinctive writers

3 - Hybrid/combination writers

 

Not certain about which type of writer you are? Try all the different tips until you find the one that best suits you.

 

About the Authors:

Sue Viders and Becky Martinez have taught writing for the past 20 years. They have published more than 40 books—both fiction and nonfiction. They have used all three methods in their own writing work. These tips come from their own experiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: sue viders
• Release date: May 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9780942011784

sue viders

Sue is the author of numerous nonfiction books. She has also written extensively for a variety of magazines and newspapers. A national columnist for many years on art marketing in The Artist’s Magazine, Sue has spoken to various groups and organizations both nationally and internationally on marketing and writing for over thirty-five years. She continues to lecture and teach writing onsite at colleges and universities as well as at national conferences. She regularly teaches online through numerous writing groups and organizations throughout the world. When she isn’t busy churning out a writing book for aspiring writers, she explores the complexities of everyday life with her “light bulb” thoughts in her essay book, Out-of-the-Box, now up on Amazon. On the drawing board is the next PICK-A-NUMBER book Finding a PLOT in this series and should be finished soon.

Book preview

Writing Tips for All Types of Fiction Writers

by Sue Viders and Becky Martinez

Copyright © 2021 Sue Viders and Becky Martinez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying form without written permission of the publisher. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-942011-79-1 (print)

ISBN: 978-0-942011-78-4 (eBook)

Cover and book design by NZ Graphics

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

INTRODUCTION

I. GETTING STARTED

1. GATHER IDEAS

2. TAKE NOTES

3. TAKE CLASSES

4. STUDY YOUR GENRE

5. LEARN TO RESEARCH

6. BE AWARE AND OBSERVE

7. UTILIZE PINTEREST

II. CHARACTERS

8. CREATE REAL CHARACTERS

9. MAKE CHARACTERS DIFFERENT

10. KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS

11. CHOOSING NAMES

12. MAKE HERO/HEROINE UNIQUE

13. GIVE HERO/HEROINE FLAWS

14. GIVE CHARACTERS A PROBLEM

15. CHARACTERS NEED SECRETS

16. MAKE HERO/HEROINE GROW

17. MAKE VILLAINS WORTHY

18. UTILIZE SECONDARY CHARACTERS

19. UTILIZE UNSEEN CHARACTERS

20.INVENT FANTASY CHARACTERS

III. PLOTTING

21. TRY A TROPE

22. PLOT BY CHAPTERS

23. USE WHAT IF OFTEN

24. UTILIZE SUBPLOTS

25. SPRINKLE IN BACKSTORY

26. FIGHT A SAGGING MIDDLE

27. MAKE THE ENDING COUNT

28. PLOT WITH A STORYBOARD

29. USE RED HERRINGS vs. CLUES

30. CREATE AN OUTLINE

31. REPLOT AS NEEDED

IV. WRITING THE BOOK

32. STUDY WRITING GUIDELINES

33. LISTEN TO WRITE DIALOGUE

34. RESEARCH THE SETTING

35. CREATE A REAL WORLD

36. STIMULATE THE FIVE SENSES

37. LOVE SIMPLE WORDS

38. BEWARE MISUSED WORDS

39. MAKE SCENES COUNT

40. KEEP UP THE PACE

41. WATCH SENTENCE LENGTH

42. BEWARE INFO DUMPS

43. SECRETS ARE USEFUL

44. PLAN YOUR ENDING

V. EDITING THE BOOK

45. STUDY METHODS OF EDITING

46. BREAKING EDITING RULES

47. FIX IT WHEN YOU FIND IT

48. USING ELLIPSES AND EM DASHES

49. DON’T OVERUSE NARRATION

50. DIALOGUE CAN MOVE THE PLOT

51. KNOW WHEN TO STOP

VI. THE WRITING LIFE

52. FIGHT WRITER’S BLOCK

53. PROTECT YOUR SPACE

54. TRY A CRITIQUE GROUP

55. LET YOUR IDEA GROW

56. SURVIVE CRITICISM

57. KEEP ON READING

58. KNOW THE MUSE vs. THE CRITIC

59. FINISH THE BOOK

60. THIS BOOK SELLS THE NEXT

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Just so you know …

We have more than 50 published books to our credit—both nonfiction and fiction—ongoing blogs, and even a newspaper column. We love to write and have coauthored several writing books. We discovered when we first began working together that we had different writing styles.

Sue is the plotter. She has to have a wellwritten outline before she even puts one sentence into a new file.

Becky writes as the muse strikes her, unless she has a deadline to meet. Then she puts the muse to work and writes down everything that comes to mind.

Sometimes, depending on what we are writing, we are hybrid writers.

Being writing instructors who have worked with hundreds of writers, as well as being published authors, we wanted to share what we have learned over our many years of working with different kinds of aspiring writers. We hope that these tips will be useful to you in your endeavors as well as help you to improve your writing.

Sue Viders

[e-mail]

Becky Martinez

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Introduction

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The one and only truth about how to write is that no two writers conceive and compose their works in exactly the same way. Any book on the writing process or offering writing tips is going to be lacking if it doesn’t consider the different ways that writers approach their work.

Basically, we have found three major categories of writers:

Plotter/Planner Writers

Make notes on characters or build character charts/backgrounds in advance

Usually highly organized

Take time to outline their stories BEFORE they start writing

Know the beginning and ending before they begin to write the story

Follow their notes and their outlines

Intuitive/Instinctive Writers

Gowiththeflow writers

Often let their characters lead the way

Write instinctively without any sort of plan

Often write out of sequence

Can be called pantsers because they write by the seat of their pants

Love to be surprised by how the story develops

May find themselves stuck in the middle

Prefer to go back and reorganize or change early parts than be trapped by plot

Hybrid/CombinationWriters

Combine different parts of Plotters and Instinctive writers

Plan part or beginning and ending of story but let their