Klappentext Discover the tricks of the trade for writing compelling and concise fiction. Whether you've never written fiction before or are looking to brush up your skills and learn new techniques for crafting your words, this book gives you savvy advice on navigating the writing process. Zusammenfassung A complete guide to writing and selling your novel So you want to write a novel? Great! That's a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don't settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher.

Autorentext

Randy Ingermanson is the award-winning author of six novels. He is known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy," thanks to his Web site article on the Snowflake method, which has been viewed more than a million times. Before venturing into fiction, Randy earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California at Berkeley. Randy has taught fiction at numerous writing conferences and sits on the advisory board of American Christian Fiction Writers. He also publishes the world's largest e-zine on how to write fiction, The Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. Randy's first two novels won Christy awards, and his second novel Oxygen, coauthored with John B. Olson, earned a spot on the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age list. Visit Randy's personal Web site at www.ingermanson.com and his Web site for fiction writers at www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com. Peter Economy of La Jolla, California, is a bestselling author with 11 For Dummies titles under his belt, including two second editions and one third edition. Peter is coauthor of Writing Children's Books For Dummies, Home-Based Business For Dummies, Consulting For Dummies, Why Aren't You Your Own Boss?, The Management Bible, and many more books. Peter also serves as Associate Editor of Leader to Leader, the Apex Award-winning journal of the Leader to Leader Institute. Check out Peter's Web site at www.petereconomy.com.

Klappentext

A complete guide to writing and selling your novel So you want to write a novel? Great! That's a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don't settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher. Writing Fiction for Dummies is a complete guide designed to coach you every step along the path from beginning writer to royalty-earning author. Here are some things you'll learn in Writing Fiction for Dummies:

• Strategic Planning: Pinpoint where you are on the roadmap to publication; discover what every reader desperately wants from a story; home in on a marketable category; choose from among the four most common creative styles; and learn the self-management methods of professional writers.
• Writing Powerful Fiction: Construct a story world that rings true; create believable, unpredictable characters; build a strong plot with all six layers of complexity of a modern novel; and infuse it all with a strong theme.
• Self-Editing Your Novel: Psychoanalyze your characters to bring them fully to life; edit your story structure from the top down; fix broken scenes; and polish your action and dialogue.

• Finding An Agent and Getting Published: Write a query letter, a synopsis, and a proposal; pitch your work to agents and editors without fear.
  Writing Fiction For Dummies takes you from being a writer to being an author. It can happen-if you have the talent and persistence to do what you need to do.

  Zusammenfassung
  A complete guide to writing and selling your novel So you want to write a novel? Great! That's a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don't settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher.

  Inhalt

  Introduction 1

  About This Book 1

  Conventions Used In This Book 2

  What You're Not to Read 2

  Foolish Assumptions 3

  How This Book is Organized 3

  Part I: Getting Ready to Write Fiction 4

  Part II: Creating Compelling Fiction 4

  Part III: Editing and Polishing Your Story and Characters 4

  Part IV: Getting Published 4

  Part V: The Part of Tens 5

  Icons Used in This Book 5

  Where to Go from Here 5

  Part I: Getting Ready to Write Fiction 7

  Chapter 1: Fiction Writing Basics 9

  Setting Your Ultimate Goal as a Writer 11

  Pinpointing Where You are as a Writer 13

  Freshmen: Concentrating on craft 13

  Sophomores: Tackling the proposal 14

  Juniors: Perfecting their pitches 15

  Seniors: Preparing to become authors 16

  Getting Yourself Organized 17

  Mastering Characterization, Plotting, and Other Skills 18

  Editing Your Fiction 18

  Chapter 2: What Makes a Great Story? 21

  Choosing What to Give Your Readers 22

  Creating a powerful emotional experience: What your readers desperately want 22

  Educating your reader 23

  Practicing the gentle art of persuasion 24

  Making Life Hard on Your Characters: Conflict Plus Change Equals Story 25

  The Five Pillars of Fiction 26

  Setting the stage: Your story world 27

  Creating characters 28

  Constructing the plot 28

  Formulating a theme 30

  Expressing your style 31

  Seven Ways to Deliver the Goods 31

  The here and now: Action 32

  Giving your characters a voice: Dialogue 33

  Revealing thoughts: Interior monologue 33

  Feeling with your character: Interior emotion 34

  Seeing what your character sees: Description 34

  Taking a trip to the past: Flashback 35

  Supplying narrative summary 35

  Chapter 3: Finding Your Audience and Category 37

  Identifying Your Ideal Novel 38

  Looking at what you love to read 38

  Thinking about what you love to write 39

  Defining Your Ideal Reader 40

  Considering worldview and interests 41

  Looking at gender 42

  Writing for readers of a certain age 43

  Defining your niche 43

  Understanding Your Category 43

  Genres: Surveying categories based on content 45

  Understanding audience-based categories 50

  Picking your category and subcategory 52

  Finding Your Category's Requirements 53

  Targeting your word count 54

  Accounting for major characters 54

  Determining levels of action, romance, and all that 55

  Identifying your story's emotional driver 58

  Chapter 4: Four Ways to Write a Great Novel 59

  Giving Yourself Permission to Write Badly 59

  Creative Paradigms: Investigating Various Writing Methods 61

  Writing without planning or editing 61

  Editing as you go 62

  Planning a little, writing a little 63

  Outlining before you write 64

  Finding a Creative Paradigm that Works for You 65

  Understanding why method matters 66

  Developing your creative paradigm 67

  Using Your Creative Paradigm to Find Your Story Structure 69

  Chapter 5: Managing Your Time and Yourself 71

  Finding Time to Write 71

  Establishing and sticking to a writing goal - for this week and this year 72

  Organizing your time 74

  Setting Up Your Ideal Writing Space 75

  Securing the best writing surface 76

  Finding the right chair 76

  Choosing a computer (if you want to use one) 77

  Putting everything in place 78

  Dealing with Distractions 79

  Looking at Money Matters 80

  Budgeting money for writing 81

  Making your living as a writer: Don't expect this to be your day job (yet) 82

  Part II: Creating Compelling Fiction 85

  Chapter 6: Building Your Story World: The Setting for Your Story 87

  Identifying the Parts of a Story World 88

  Creating a Sense of Place 89

  Making description do double duty 90

  Fitting description in the story 91

  Weaving emotive force into your descriptions 92

  Deciding What Drives Your Cultural Groups 93

  Revealing cultural drivers with immediate scene 93

  Exposition: Explaining cultural drivers through narrative summary 94

  Combining various elements to show cultural drivers 95

  Choosing the Backdrop for Conflict 95

  Defining your backdrop 95

  Defining your story question 98

  Story World Examples from Four Well-Known Novel…