AcolyteDoes anyone have an opinion on what their favorite fiction is that they use as a practice tool? This could be genre or length. ie. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror. Or Microfiction, Short Story, Novella, etc. I'm looking to continue honing my craft, and since I'm still building my audience I feel the need to be posting/publishing stories regularly. Microfiction has worked well for me, but doesn't necessarily assist in any long-form writing that I'm working on at the same time. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts!
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Most Effective Fiction to Write?
- Thread starter Strider53
- Start date
CupofJoe
Myth Weaver
I try to write Noire [crime] fiction when I'm in a funk.
It's terse style helps me think about what I want to happen about getting bogged down in world building.
It also means that [if I'm lucky] I can get something written and ended in about 5k words.
It's terse style helps me think about what I want to happen about getting bogged down in world building.
It also means that [if I'm lucky] I can get something written and ended in about 5k words.
- Thread starter
- #3
I like to fall back on writing prompts when I need to lubricate the hamster wheel in my brain. Usually, everything turns into some flavor of Speculative Fiction, because that's my comfort zone, and I can't write for kids. It's just all bad. 
I find that writing and putting out shorts can help build an audience, as long as you post regularly. I don't, but I make up for it in being accessible, helpful, and kind. Reputation is everything in this industry, coming in just under execution and skill. I would recommend getting a webpage and starting a blog based on your page and your work. Then put those stories out there!
This is my favorite writing prompt book. It's cheap, it's good, and it's on KU. Have fun and good luck!
1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts - Kindle edition by Kinder, Ryan Andrew. Reference Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
I find that writing and putting out shorts can help build an audience, as long as you post regularly. I don't, but I make up for it in being accessible, helpful, and kind. Reputation is everything in this industry, coming in just under execution and skill. I would recommend getting a webpage and starting a blog based on your page and your work. Then put those stories out there!This is my favorite writing prompt book. It's cheap, it's good, and it's on KU. Have fun and good luck!
1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts - Kindle edition by Kinder, Ryan Andrew. Reference Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Ned Marcus
Maester
Definitely short stories (or flash fiction) because it's faster to finish, and you can try lots of styles in short time.
CupofJoe
Myth Weaver
There is that but I also I like writing first person. I can get deep inside someone's mind and wonder/wander about a bit.
My mysteries are more like Colombo. I know whodunit and so will the reader. Hopefully it is the character bumbling around that can get there too.
Finchbearer
Istar
So far I have enjoyed writing retellings so I have a base to work from eg. a retelling of the legend of Robin Hood or any of the Shakespeare plays. It takes away half the job because I already have the main plot, some characters and a setting to work with. The same goes for fanfiction although I’m not sure you could call what I do fanfiction.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
Some years ago, I took to the short story route to get faster access to feedback. But I feel I am a novel writer at heart. Writing Shorts just did not fit the length of my ideas. I also entered several contests, which were based on writing prompts.
Now that I am back to novel writing, I dont think I will do shorts for a while. Maybe as marketing and fan building....but I still have the big story to write.
If you want the most honest truth, most of my writing education, and growth came not from writing, but from reviewing and providing feedback on everyone else's work (specially a lot of beginner writers). The fastest path to learning the craft, IMO, is to review the crap out of others.
Now that I am back to novel writing, I dont think I will do shorts for a while. Maybe as marketing and fan building....but I still have the big story to write.
If you want the most honest truth, most of my writing education, and growth came not from writing, but from reviewing and providing feedback on everyone else's work (specially a lot of beginner writers). The fastest path to learning the craft, IMO, is to review the crap out of others.
The Dark One
Auror
I have a blog where I post only occasionally but get quite a lot of responses. I write something only when I feel compelled, but can rattle off an article in an hour - usually about a thousand words. I sometimes use the blog to help market upcoming releases such as my first sci-fi book coming out in July.
adriandeans.wordpress.com
adriandeans.wordpress.com
I also write for a professional football website. It's completely different writing although friends often comment they can hear my voice just as equally in my football pieces as in my novels.
It's all good and it all helps to hone your craft.
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I also write for a professional football website. It's completely different writing although friends often comment they can hear my voice just as equally in my football pieces as in my novels.
It's all good and it all helps to hone your craft.
Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
Big long book after big long book... Although I must say, screenwriting was useful for dialogue training and such, but not so much good for anything else.
The Dark One
Auror
For me, screen writing was good for dialogue but also brilliant for telling a story through dialogue.
Pretty important in my view, but I daresay DMD meant this also.
Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
It's also useful for compacting a story and cutting out the waste. Learning to finish. Structure.
There's just no telling what is going to be useful *for you*. What was a revelation for that person was ho-hum for another. I think in back of the common advice of read, read, read is a presumption of reading widely. Because you just cannot predict what's going to ring a bell.
It's ridiculously inefficient, absurdly scatterbrained, and entirely human. But no one has come up with a better plan, so far as I know.
The one really important thing is to pay attention. You don't learn if you aren't paying attention. Lots of people read and read widely, but that doesn't turn them into writers. They're reading for pleasure, for distraction, to pass the time (a silly phrase--time passes just fine without our help).
It's ridiculously inefficient, absurdly scatterbrained, and entirely human. But no one has come up with a better plan, so far as I know.
The one really important thing is to pay attention. You don't learn if you aren't paying attention. Lots of people read and read widely, but that doesn't turn them into writers. They're reading for pleasure, for distraction, to pass the time (a silly phrase--time passes just fine without our help).
Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
I'd almost change the word "read" to analyze. In English Lit we learned to look deep at meaning and whatnot, but even that doesn't teach one to write. Screenwriting teaches us to analyze structure and introduces a person to the specifics of how to write for that audience, so it's a step in the right direction. There are a lot of different skills in writing and many approaches that will depend on which skills are innate and which a person needs to learn.
Heh heh, anal eyes, heh heh. Sorry, a Beavis and Butt-head moment and I didn't even like that show.
Heh heh, anal eyes, heh heh. Sorry, a Beavis and Butt-head moment and I didn't even like that show.
That's ok. I giggle every time a commentator asks someone for "your analysis". Some portions of my brain have never grown up.
Gurkhal
Auror
For me it has to be historical fiction. Even though I write fantasy, for various reasons, I use historical fiction as the model and primary inspiration.
Prince of Spires
Istar
It depends on what you want to write. Practice writing that. So if you want to write novels, then write novels. If you want to practice writing short stories, write those.
To give some more (possibly) useful advice, two forms that can make for great practice: Novella's and Fan Fiction.
A Novella is roughly between 20k and 50k words. Which puts it nicely between short stories and novels. Because of this length, they require everything a novel needs. You need a clear beginning, middle and end, you have enough words to build up to something, and you have multiple different scenes which all need to go together in a logical order. However, it's not as long or as daunting as a novel. if you write just 200 words per day, then a 20.000 word novella only takes 100 days, or just over 3 months. That's a manageable timeframe, and progress towards that looks swift enough. That's very different than setting out to write a 150.000 word epic that's part one of a 10 book series. In short, a novella teaches you most things you need when writing novels, in half the space or less.
As for fan fiction, it's relatively fast, easy and rewarding. You get handed a complete setting, a set of well-defined characters, and even parts of a plot. Now all you have to do is color in the pieces. It's a bit like painting by number. It doesn't teach you everything you need to know about writing (mainly the character and setting parts in this case), but it does get you started and teaches how to build a scene.
To give some more (possibly) useful advice, two forms that can make for great practice: Novella's and Fan Fiction.
A Novella is roughly between 20k and 50k words. Which puts it nicely between short stories and novels. Because of this length, they require everything a novel needs. You need a clear beginning, middle and end, you have enough words to build up to something, and you have multiple different scenes which all need to go together in a logical order. However, it's not as long or as daunting as a novel. if you write just 200 words per day, then a 20.000 word novella only takes 100 days, or just over 3 months. That's a manageable timeframe, and progress towards that looks swift enough. That's very different than setting out to write a 150.000 word epic that's part one of a 10 book series. In short, a novella teaches you most things you need when writing novels, in half the space or less.
As for fan fiction, it's relatively fast, easy and rewarding. You get handed a complete setting, a set of well-defined characters, and even parts of a plot. Now all you have to do is color in the pieces. It's a bit like painting by number. It doesn't teach you everything you need to know about writing (mainly the character and setting parts in this case), but it does get you started and teaches how to build a scene.
Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
I must admit, once considering it, that fan fiction is a mystery to me. The notion never once crossed my mind. Maybe because creating the world is half of what appealed to me. Maybe because playing god in someone else's world isn't appealing, heh heh.
The Dark One
Auror
Yeah I never got why any would-be writer would want to play in anyone else's sandpit but I gather fanfic is a pretty big deal for a lot of people. Different strokes etc...
The closest I came to it was generating an idea for a side story from TLOTR, which I would've loved Tolkien to write but he never bothered. I even planned to write it for possible publication in 2023 when Tolkien's copyright ran out, but then they changed the rules making my project untenable.
But while I would have been using Tolkien's world and some of his characters, my story would've been very different - kinda like a song cover that is so different from the original it sounds like a completely different song.
The closest I came to it was generating an idea for a side story from TLOTR, which I would've loved Tolkien to write but he never bothered. I even planned to write it for possible publication in 2023 when Tolkien's copyright ran out, but then they changed the rules making my project untenable.
But while I would have been using Tolkien's world and some of his characters, my story would've been very different - kinda like a song cover that is so different from the original it sounds like a completely different song.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
Well, I can understand it, but its not for me (writing FanFic).
OTOH, if someone was to like my story enough to want to write a fanfic, have at it (though, in a fun and not for profit kind of way....). I suspect I can guess at the shipping the would do.
I wrote a Star Wars story once, but others put me up to it. No hope of it ever seeing the light of day
OTOH, if someone was to like my story enough to want to write a fanfic, have at it (though, in a fun and not for profit kind of way....). I suspect I can guess at the shipping the would do.
I wrote a Star Wars story once, but others put me up to it. No hope of it ever seeing the light of day
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