The Best Fiction Writing:
A Treasure Hunt

What makes the best fiction writing the best?

It's kind of like a treasure hunt. Plenty of "gems" and "gold" out there, if you hunt long enough.

What exactly are you hunting for?

The jewels of great characters and a taut plot, placed in the perfect gold setting (jewels have to be set just right, don't they?), and all in a design that sets those gems off perfectly (details that make you see, feel, taste, smell and hear every page come alive).

Depending on your preferences, some elements will be top of the list, and some at the bottom. So what comes first?


The Jewels

For me, and for most of my friends and family, if there isn't a character you can sympathize with - a character you can become - the book just won't hold my interest.

Say you have a hero (or a heroine - don't want to offend either gender) who fixes elevators for a living. He wants more out of life, but just isn't sure what. (No, I'm not going to say "he or she" through the whole explanation. You'll get tired of it as quickly as I will!)

So he muddles along, running into various other lackluster characters, having minor difficulties that you could not care less about. All because he can't make up his mind what he really wants (and you, the author aren't sure what to do about it).

I'm done now. Your chance is up. Book goes back to the library.

Now, now, if you're a plot fanatic, don't shoot me yet!

Plot matters in the best fiction writing, too. I can't stand a sloppy plot, or one where I can see every twist and turn long before it happens. Bore me with same old same old, and I'll give up on the book just as fast.

Conflict is usually the heart of all plotting. If someone isn't in conflict in some way, or with someone else, no one is much going to want to read your book. It doesn't have to be violent conflict! Plenty of readers (and writers) enjoy a tamer mix of personal angst as the conflict.

But I want action (even if it's all in someone's head), drama (but watch out for drama queens or kings - yes, I've met a drama king in real life) and suspense to keep me flipping those pages as fast as I can devour them. Again, there are different levels of action, drama and suspense, but if you don't use them at all, your book will make a great paperweight. Or doorstop (if it's thick enough).

So be sure your plot sizzles and makes sense. Without being obvious. Without a great plot, you'll never create the best fiction writing.

A little trickery never hurts, either. Subtle trickery...

But wait! What's that you just did? You killed the villain with a gun? When it was a sword that you mentioned on page 100? I didn't see a gun anywhere in the book! How did the heroine happen to have one now?

That's a crime! (And it wasn't even crime fiction!)

Okay. So you have your jewels in place. In order to create the best fiction writing, you now have to set them.


The Gold

If you've created a make-believe world for fantasy, horror, science fiction and the like, you sort of have free rein (or is that free reign!). But you still have to make me believe your world could be real (suspend my disbelief, in other words). So make sure your "world facts" all connect to make a seamless whole, or again, the book's life in my hands is over.

A little research here never hurts, at least into plausibility with that car that drives itself. (Yeah, there are versions of those coming along in our world.)

If instead you're working in the "real" world, be sure you check all your "facts" against the place you choose to set it. If you're using New York City as your backdrop, you darn well better be able to describe Central Park correctly when your heroine blithely walks through it at midnight, daring trouble to find her.


Details in the Design

Don't forget the "design" of your novel. The details can make all the difference between a complete snooze and a bestseller. So try this for the best fiction writing: instead of saying "...he walked into the bar and ordered a drink..."

Say...

"...With a last slick of hand over his gel-spiked red hair, he sauntered into the blast of summer-hot humidity inside Pearl's Place, eardrums cringing at the painful bass beat under the grunge rock song. Squinting at the silhouettes under rainbow mood lights at the bar, he spotted her, draped over a stool and leaning much too close to the stick-figure fool beside her.

He swallowed the sour taste in his mouth, took a deep breath and coughed as acrid smoke billowed in his face. With a warning glare at the culprit with the cigarette, he swaggered through the press of gyrating bodies on the dance floor toward his goal..."

Which description gives you a setting and mood you can live? Right. Number two is the winner. Just don't forget your "design" needs to match your "gem". If it's a pared-down, stark story, your details better be spare and spread out, too.

So, now you've completed your hunt for the essentials of the best fiction writing. Character, plot, setting and detail. There's lots more to it, so I welcome you back (or onward now), to discover more hidden treasure inside the cover of your next novel.