Fiction

Fiction

In Conclusion

Here are Four Piece of Writing Advice You Should Always Ignore

- "Never use the word 'very' because it's lazy."

"Very" is not lazy unless you use it more than two times in a row.

- "Use lots of adverbs (words that describe verbs)"

Saying someone "ran swiftly" is too wordy. If someone is running, you can assume they're going as swiftly as they can.

- "Use dialogue tags other than 'said.'"

Use dialogue tags as little as possible. They get annoying.

- "Use a thesaurus while writing creatively"

If you didn't know what the word meant five minutes ago, you probably shouldn't be using it in your writing.

Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Basic Rules of Creative Writing

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel that the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it's only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things: reveal character or advance action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your characters, make awful things happen to them in order that the readers may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person.

8. Give the reader as much information as possible as soon as possible.

Who is Kurt Vonnegut and Why Should We Care?

It Only Seems Real.

5 Basic Questions We're Going to Try to Answer in this Class.

- The guy in the picture above is Kurt Vonnegut.

- He was a famous American author who wrote timeless literature and was on the New York Times bestseller list many times.

- He knew what he was talking about when it came to writing.

1. Who are your characters and what do they want?

2. What is the inciting event of the story (In other words, how do things in the characters' lives go from normal to very very not normal?)

3. What are the characters going to do to get what they want?

4. What is going to get between the characters and what they want?

5. How are the characters going to get rid of the thing in between what they want and where they are now?

That was a Lot of Information

Elements of Fiction

Enjoy this picture of a puppy in a dinosaur costume as a way to rest your brain before continuing this presentation.

Character:

There generally has to be at least two characters in any story to make it work (or end in a satisfying way). These two characters are usually the protagonist and the antagonist. Minor characters are added to move the story along.

Setting:

Where the story takes place in both space and time.

Plot:

The action in a story. A basic plot structure includes:

- exposition (explaining the what the world is like and who the characters are)

- rising action (the characters keep getting into trouble)

- climax (the characters are in the most trouble they've ever been in!)

- falling action (things are starting to get better)

- denouement (a fancy word to say that all the lose ends are tied up)

This is not the only plot structure, but it is the one that most authors use.

Theme:

A big idea that the story talks about multiple times and how the author feels about that idea. Most literary fiction has a clear theme.

Style:

The nuts and bolts of the story. Grammar, punctuation, word usage, sentence and paragraph length, etc. It affects how the story flows and how the reader feels while reading it. It is sometimes called "author voice."

Narrator/Point of View:

Who is telling the story and which character(s) do the readers follow very closely?

Tone:

The author's feeling about the subject matter, the characters, and the audience.

Cheat Sheet of Types of Fiction Literature

A Brief History

Genre Fiction - Fits into a specific genre like science fiction, romance, horror, mystery, or fantasy in order to be sold to fans of that genre. Features "tropes" or details repeated in works within a genre to clue the reader in to what type of genre they are reading (Like laser swords in science fiction). Genre fiction is usually very commercial (Sells very well and is praised by the general public). Sometimes called "popular fiction."

Literary Fiction - Holds "literary merit" and offers a unique perspective on social or political issues. While some literary fiction fits into a specific genre and can be very successful commercially, most pieces of literary fiction do not rely on tropes and most literary fiction does not sell as well as works of genre fiction do.

Historical Fiction - Mixes true events with fictional ones in order to offer a different perspective and allow the reader to experience the event through the main characters. Historical fiction is usually classified as a type of genre fiction, but it can be either literary or genre fiction.

"I am Arthur, King of the Britons."

Some Facts About King Arthur Stories

- People have always told embellished stories.

- Up until the 12th century, people assumed that if someone took time to write something down it was probably true. Most books up until this time were religious texts.

- Fiction writing began when people started to change details of true events to make them more interesting.

- First straightforward work of printed fiction (that we know of)? King Arthur stories

- Fast forward to the late 18th century (1700's): Benjamin Franklin comments in his autobiography that he enjoys reading books where the authors mix dialogue and plot together.

- In the 19th century (1800's), fiction and non-fiction were first categorized as separate types of literature.

- First written in 1170 by a guy named Chretien de Troyes

- Written in French which threw everybody off because books had always been written in Greek or Latin before that.

- Hugely popular with the French aristocracy.