Fiction vs Nonfiction Part 2

Fiction vs Nonfiction Part 2

         As with the first part of this article, I will present the material in outline form.

First Draft

1. Use correct grammar, mechanics, and structure.
2. Revise as you go (don’t search for errors but be aware and fix any you see).
3. Be sure information/story is presented interestingly, keep reader reading.
4. In fiction, “Show, don’t tell,” rather “show much more than tell.”
5. In nonfiction, be sure to keep on topic.


Fiction Components

1. Plot (longer works also have more sub-plots, can also apply to creative/narrative nonfiction)
2. Character(s)
3. Theme
4. Setting
5. Conflict
6. Crisis / Climax
7. Resolution
8. Conclusion (also for nonfiction)
9. Point of View

Nonfiction Components

1. Introduction ending with thesis sentence
2. At least one or more paragraphs to support each point of the thesis
3. A strong conclusion


Fiction and Nonfiction Combination

1. Narrative Nonfiction or Creative Nonfiction
2. Combination by “fictionally” providing material, such as dialogue, that can’t be proven to happen as written, but which is restricted by facts.
3. Author creatively creates literature that is based mainly on fact, reported, but shapes the material so that it reads like fiction.

8 Cs of Good Writing

1. Clarity
2. Conciseness
3. Concreteness
4. Correctness – includes research
5. Coherency
6. Completeness
7. Courtesy
8. Character (fiction)
http://lessonsbyzabel.blogspot.com/p/fiction-vs-nonfiction.html


      I hope the two parts of this article will be helpful as you begin or develop your writing career. Part 1 can be found here.

 

4RV New Release Sells in Italy

        Pahutchae's Pouch written by vehoe, cover art by Aidana WillowRaven, has reached the Italian market, making vehoe our first international author with Aidana our first international artist. This is the first fiction work by vehoae.

        Pahutchae's Pouch is a compelling fictional history of people and events from 1783 to 2017. The story relates the interaction and intertwining of descendants from Pahutchae, an Ioway Indian, and Johann Sordenauer from Hamburg, Germany.

        Oil, murder, love, a concealed treaty with American Indians, and international and national political intrigue make Pahutchae's
Pouch the quintessential page-turner.


        The book and vehoae's first book, a nonfiction work titled Conscience: Breaching Social Amnesia, can be found on the 4RV Bookstore, as well as through brick and mortar stores and other online sources. 

 

Fiction vs Nonfiction -- Part 1

         I have heard writers say or write, "I can write fiction but not nonfiction," or "I can write nonfiction but not fiction." We all can write both if we can write, but we may do better at one than the other. Often components of one type writing are the same as for the other. But, let's compare the two and not be afraid to try either or both.

Fiction vs Nonfiction Part 1

         I will present my thoughts in an outline format to help readers follow, remember, and keep.

Ideas

Where to get ideas for fiction or nonfiction (keep a notebook with ideas):

1.  Newspaper articles, media stories, overheard comments
2.  Assignments, interesting topics, world events, historical locations and people
3.  People watching, research, ideas from others
4.  Family stories, personal experiences, experiences of others, personal interests
Our imaginations are our biggest assets to use when searching for ideas.

Research/Gather Info.

Fiction (I use index cards, one for each character or detail):
1.  Have general idea of story line.
2.  Need names and characteristics (physical, emotional, mental), hobbies, likes, dislikes. Use more information than will be included in writing/work. Include relationships to other characters.
3.  Need details for locations, events, etc.
4.  IF using any facts, be sure they are correct – research. Yes, research is necessary for fiction.

Nonfiction (I also use index cards, one for each individual point):
1. Have thesis. This is the topic and points you’ll cover.
2. Research each and every point.
3. Have at least 3-4 support points for each main point, even if all aren’t used.
4. Conclusion should tie everything together or refer/tie to the beginning

Organization

Fiction: Writers organize their material in one of several ways. Some use more than one.
1. Outlining (I agree with Tony Hillerman that outlining doesn’t work for everyone)
2. Mental “movie” of story before writing
3. Story boards
4. Plot/time lines
I use a combination of “movie” and plot/time lines. I also organize my index cards to help with time line.

Nonfiction:
1. Organize note cards in order of thesis.
2. Create outline, how detailed = writer’s preference (I use detailed outline)

Beginning
a bad beginning means a book/story/article not read

Fiction: “grab” reader’s attention immediately.
1. Begin in the right place, with an inciting incident – something happens that indicates a story-worthy problem. The rest of the story contains the struggle to resolve problem(s).
2. Have the hook within the first sentences or paragraphs. Don’t bore the reader first.
3. Intrigue the reader and cause him to want to continue reading.

Nonfiction: Need an introduction that captures the attention of the reader and leads to the thesis.
1. A story/example
2. Statistics presented in an interesting/amazing way or give surprising fact(s)
3. Provide details leading to the thesis

         I will continue this discussion of fiction vs nonfiction my next newsletter. 

The evolution of a novel

Candlewood Lake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many years ago, a friend lost his wife and all four of his children in a house fire. The fire started at night. My friend and one of his sons made it out alive, but the boy died a few days later. This tragic event haunted me for years. One weekend, I sat down and wrote a 5000 word story. In the story a nine-year-old boy loses his mother in a house fire.

I had never written a book before this, and knew little about writing fiction. After passing the book by my writing partner, I became convinced it needed a major rewrite. I put it aside while I thought about just what I wanted to do with the book.

In the year or so after I finished the story, I enrolled in and completed the Institute of Children's Literature course, signed up for an online writing group, and studied the craft of fiction.  Then I rewrote the novel. I completed the first draft and signed up for a course on editing.  After reading the first assignment, I decided to use chapter three rather than either of the first two. Why? Because it was more interesting.

Yup, the first two chapters were back story. After consulting with both my fellow students and the instructor, I removed them. They dealt with the fire itself and its immediate aftermath, and 'd done a fair amount of research for those chapters, to say nothing of the time I'd spent writing them. I saved them saved them in a folder on my computer before  I could bring myself to cut them out.

The story is set in a semi-rural community outside a small town in Connecticut where my main character's grandmother lives. The house, the community, and the town, are modeled on the house my father owned in Birch Groves. Birch Groves, on Candlewood  Lake, is a few miles outside New Milford.  The grandmother was inspired by my own sons' grandmother. My mental picture of the house that burned down is taken from her home in New Jersey.

I need to be able to picture something to write about it, so I needed to be able to see the layout of the homes, where the furniture was placed, what the trees around the house were, the roads, the lake. As I wrote the story, I pictured my characters moving around in my father's house, wandering up the same roads I had walked down so often as a child, and riding the bus to school.

My friend endured a tragic loss, one from which, in some ways, he never recovered. None of us can rewrite the past, but by writing my story, I was able to move on in my own life.

Synopsis: What it is and Isn't

You’ve pitched to an agent or editor at a conference, or you’ve queried an editor or agent about your book, and they request a full submission.

That can mean many things, but most often for fiction books, a submission requires some of your actually-written-edited-best-it-can-be chapters. Their request can also ask for the dreaded synopsis.

“Yikes,” you say, “what’s a synopsis?”

When I began writing, I wrote a synopsis as the final task and worried myself silly over it. I admit I still don't like them.

Multi-published author, Karen Kelley, http://authorkarenkelley.com/

set me straight. “Write your synopsis first when you have the idea in your head. This avoids deciding what’s important and what’s not. In the beginning, we only know the important part. 

Her words of wisdom proved correct. When the book was completed with all the problems I threw at my protagonist, my synopsis was too long. Every plot twist seemed important. I couldn’t delete anything. When I wrote the synopsis first, I hit only the main plot themes.

 

Now, let's look at what a synopsis really is and what's it's not.

What a synopsis is not:

    It’s not a summary.

    It’s not a chapter by chapter outline.

    It’s not a query.

    It’s not a back-cover blurb.

 

What a synopsis does:

     It gives the reader the essence of the story.

     It tells who and what with a light touch on when, where, and

             how.

     It answers the questions:

         What’s so different about this story?
         Why should I care about this person or their problems?
         What does the protagonist want? Why? Why can’t he get it?

     Instead of saying what happened next, it should tell the reader

           what impact it has on the characters.

 Important reminders when we write a synopsis:

     Those who read it judge our writing.

     Find out what the agent or editor that’s the target of your submission wants in a synopsis. Requirements run from one page to ten pages, and formatting desires may differ.

     A synopsis is IMPORTANT.

Good websites on writing synopsis:

http://www.margaretdaley.com/2011/04/synopsis-writing/

http://cjdarlington.com/writing-articles/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis.htm

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2010/06/synopsis-writing-made-easy.html#.UaYwN6wo7cs

http://www.lindaneedham.com/synopsistips.htm

Good examples of synopsis: 

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/open-ready-synopsis-example-the-ides-of-march-political-thriller

http://www.storysense.com/synopsis.htm

Dealing with Tragedy

Boston Marathon Finish Line.1910. Author: Unknown. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a resident of Boston, MA, and have been since just after the blizzard of 1976. The recent, tragic, bombing at the Boston Marathon this past Monday reminds us all of the fragility of life.

It takes some time to process an incident like this, and I am still sorting things out.  I'll probably end up writing about it, since that's one of the ways I deal with grief.

Many years ago, a friend lost his wife and all four of his children in a house fire. He had been working on some renovations. Something caught fire during the night, and he alone survived.

I fell into fiction writing around 2005. Before that I'd only written poetry. The first few stories I wrote were for children, in part because I could make them shorter. Length intimidated me, especially as I tend to be terse. In any case, a few months after I started writing fiction, I sat down and wrote a 5000 word story about a boy who loses his mother in a house fire. Several years, many revisions, online classes, a writing partner, and the ICL course in writing for children, I had a publishable manuscript, The Angry Little Boy, which will be published by 4RV later this year.

The book was my way of coping with my friend's loss. While the boy in my book loses his mother, he and his father come through. We all pray the victims of Monday's bombing will do the same.

Related articles

• Please Help Children Injured in the Boston Marathon Tragedy! (originalninjacat.typepad.com)
• Talking to Your Kids About Tragedy (chicagochildrensmuseum.wordpress.com)

A Few Tips for Writers

by Vivian Zabel

     I'm a fan of writing magazines: The Writer, Writer's Digest, and a few others. I find suggestions that help me as a writer, and some times, I find things to ignore. The recent issue of Writer's Digest had many tips, good ones worth sharing. I'll give a brief, partial list of tips all writers many find helpful.

• Unique shouldn't be modified with very, more, rather, or so. Unique stands alone.
  
  
• A message I repeat over and over: Avoid multiple exclamation points, and I add, "Use only in dialogue and then seldom."
  
• Know the difference between their, there, and they're. Their means belonging to them. There is a place, as is here. They're means they are.
  
• Writers should have professional quality as their goal, not perfection.
  
• Don't write about anything you don't care about.
  
• Fiction will be smoother if the simple replaces the complicated.
  
• Give your writing time to rest between revisions.
  
• Use very and rather seldom, if at all. Don't be lazy, find a precise word.
  

     Hope those few suggestions help you be a better writer. To discover more tips try reading writing magazines in print or online.

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A Character by Any Other Name

by Laurie Boris

Along with their physical descriptions, speech patterns, and those quirky gestures however irritating or endearing, your characters' names can speak volumes about their personalities.

Consider Cruella de Vil from A Thousand And One Dalmatians. Would she inspire the same fear if she were named Becky Jones? Would Hannibal Lecter be as menacing if he were Sheldon Greenblatt? What about “Call me Fred.”? Doesn't have quite the same je ne sais quoi, does it?

But how do you come up with just the right name for your character? Here are a few things to think about:

1. Choose something age-appropriate. If I'm writing an American, middle-class character about my age, I think back to high school. Kathy, Lisa, Donna, Mary, and Karen were very popular names for girls, and there were a lot of guys named David, Steven, and Mike. Not that you wouldn't find something more unusual floating about, but in fiction, readers are more likely to go with the probable than the possible. If my character is in her thirties, he or she may have a spunkier name like Jason, Jennifer, Stephanie, or Stacy. (My thirty-something protagonist of The Joke's on Me is named Frankie.) A teenager may have been named after his or her mother's favorite pop culture star. Hence the number of Ashleys, Olivias, Justins, and Britneys floating around.

2. Choose something regionally, ethnically, or culturally appropriate. This is a dicier area, because you don't want to offend your readers by using a cultural or ethnic stereotype. If you have a character in your story who comes from an ethnic or cultural group different from your own, do some research. In some countries, babies are given very specific names based on their meanings. In some cultures or religions, it's considered bad luck to name a child after a dead relative, while in others, this is done frequently and almost expected. What has helped me is a directory of worldwide baby names with their meanings. And my good friend, Google.

3. Consider your character's role in the story. An unlikely hero (or heroine) may have an unassuming name, like David Copperfield or The Grapes of Wrath's Tom Joad. Or, a timid character saddled with a heroic name (or a larger-than-life relative's name) may struggle to fill those big shoes.

4. Avoid making a name into a reading bump if possible. I loved the name Lisbeth for one of my characters, but my writing group's feedback convinced me to change it to something simpler because they kept getting stuck on it and feeling distracted from the story. She's now Liz. No harm, no foul, no reading bumps.

5. Unless you're writing comedy or a funny children's book, avoid any name that rhymes with said. I never thought about this until I wrote a contemporary novel in which I'd named the husband Ted. Imagine page after page of “Ted said” and all those readers laughing to themselves because of the unintentional rhyme. I actually considered putting the whole thing in present tense so I wouldn't have to deal with that particular issue! It was much easier, and better for the story, to change the husband's name.

6. If your character cries out for an unusual name (think Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye or Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces), he or she will most likely pay the consequences, just as in real life. But this is rich material for character development. These consequences (teasing, bullying, even scorn for being named after an infamous figure) may end up shaping the character.

7. Still stumped? Open the phone book, peruse baby-naming books, or scan popular culture for an interesting, appropriate name.

How do you name your characters? What are some of your favorite character names from the books you've read? Any that you felt didn't fit the character? Or fit him or her exceptionally well? Any name you're really tired of hearing? Let's talk about it!

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Laurie Boris is the author of The Joke's on Me, due out from 4RV Publishing this summer. She also blogs about writing, books, and the language of popular culture at http://laurieboris.com.