Write Gripping Fiction: Practical Techniques for Engaging Story

By Raymond Long
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Published: Feb. 28, 2011
Words: 17889 (approximate)
Language: English

Short description

Want to write fiction? Want to get published? Author and editor Raymond Long argues you need to enthrall readers in one character's personal story. Keep your readers behind that character's eyes, experiencing a life as it unfolds. Immerse them in the fictional dream of being another person. This book sets out the techniques at every level from basic story setup to wording individual sentences.

Extended description

Want to write fiction? Want to get published? Author and editor Raymond Long argues you need to enthrall readers in the personal story of one character, the protagonist. Keep your readers behind that protagonist's eyes, experiencing a life as it unfolds. Immerse them in the fictional dream of being another person.

They key is engagement with the protagonist. The readers have to like and understand the protagonist. The plot should focus on the protagonist's personal struggles. The text should show all the important things the protagonist sees and thinks, no more and no less, in the order the protagonist sees and thinks them. Narrate events as the protagonist experiences them, in the protagonist's own words.

Don't remind your readers that this is a story they're being told. Don't use transparent authors' tricks or set the readers puzzles. The aim is to make the protagonist's story seem so immediate that they forget it's a story, and it becomes their reality.

This book sets out tech... (Read more) Want to write fiction? Want to get published? Author and editor Raymond Long argues you need to enthrall readers in the personal story of one character, the protagonist. Keep your readers behind that protagonist's eyes, experiencing a life as it unfolds. Immerse them in the fictional dream of being another person.

They key is engagement with the protagonist. The readers have to like and understand the protagonist. The plot should focus on the protagonist's personal struggles. The text should show all the important things the protagonist sees and thinks, no more and no less, in the order the protagonist sees and thinks them. Narrate events as the protagonist experiences them, in the protagonist's own words.

Don't remind your readers that this is a story they're being told. Don't use transparent authors' tricks or set the readers puzzles. The aim is to make the protagonist's story seem so immediate that they forget it's a story, and it becomes their reality.

This book sets out techniques at every level from basic story setup to the wording of individual sentences to put your readers inside a fictional dream so real that it feels like they're there. And it teaches techniques for writing vivid text that maximises emotional response, avoiding dullness and dragging.
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Tags

fiction, perspective, teach, dream, how, learn, single, write, gripping, character, view, spellbinding, pov, fictional, protagonist, point, grip, gripped, enthrall, enthralling, enthralled, spellbind, spellbound, immerse, immersing, immersed, immersion, immersive, fictive

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