Fiction Writing Tips
To Jumpstart Your Writing

Ever have one of those non-productive I-lost-my-notes days? Before I found these fiction writing tips, I had those days regularly. Now I've put an end to feeling lost and directionless.

With the right novel writing tips you can set your mind to brewing new ideas all the time, keep track of those ideas and keep all your novel's details organized and in proper order.

Let's get started!


Idea Generators

First, you need ideas to write a novel. So if you feel empty of inspiration, try one of these fiction writing tips to get you revving.

Maybe you feel like you have writers block . Brainstorming is a great way to come up with multiple ideas and banish that blocked feeling. If you have anyone to bounce ideas off of, wonderful. If not, you can do this on your own, just as well (or better, if you tend to wander off topic with a friend around).

To start, take whatever thoughts are in your head right now, and jot them down. Then let your mind roam to any other thoughts that connect to those first ones, and so on. You're doing something called "free writing", and just letting yourself relax and note down whatever comes into your head. Do this for maybe ten minutes without judging anything coming out of your pen!

Next, you can scan what you've scribbled down (scribbling is definitely what I do, when I use this technique) for words or ideas that catch your attention. Spend ten more minutes letting your brain spew out anything related to those words or ideas. Remember, this is one step in learning
how to write novels . Finding ideas.

Once you're done with step two, you can make a "map" of these ideas, drawing lines between those that connect, or could connect with a little literary license, to make more sense of what you've come up with. I don't often do that, because just brainstorming tends to create explosions of ideas I then want to write more about.

Do whatever helps you figure out how to write fiction most.

If you don't feel like you have anything worthwhile to start your brainstorming session, pull out a dictionary, flip it open to any page, pick a word (with your eyes closed if you wish), make sure you understand it, then take off writing anything that comes to mind in relation to it.

Or find some fiction writing prompts and start from there. Or a journal entry you've made. (You are keeping some sort of journal, right?)

If all else fails, go for a walk and take notes about what you see, then brainstorm using those notes as a starting place.

(If you're just putting it off because you're afraid... read my page about overcoming procrastination .)


Organizing Those Ideas

When using the above fiction writing tips, you may find you have so many ideas, you don't know where to begin. What a happy dilemma!

But, before you tear your hair out (or wad any pages of scribbles), take a little time to organize what you've come up with. Otherwise, all the fiction writing tips in the world aren't going to help.

To begin, sort your ideas into types: plot ideas, character ideas, setting ideas, dialogue ideas, etc. If you have a few that defy categorization, make a miscellaneous ideas file, too.

If you have a novel in progress, make one or more folders for it, too. (I use one novel folder for each novel and create separate files for any related characters, plotting and such that need to go with each novel.) You'll need it to keep track of those details.

All of these can be physical file folders that you label and put neatly into a file drawer, or, if you're more like me and don't want to lose notes (I never lose my laptop), you can create files on your computer with those same labels, putting them all in the "drawer" (main file) labeled "Ideas" (of course).

Next, I sort mine according to priority. How do I prioritize?

I choose the ideas that fire my imagination the most and put them at the top of my "figure out how to write a story from this" pile. Those are the ones I'll play with first.

Or maybe some of your ideas tie into the novel you're currently working on. If you know your characters very well, you may find them giving you ideas. Write them down! Immediately! You'll forget them otherwise. Then be sure you file them in the appropriate folder, so you can find them again easily.

If you use these fiction writing tips faithfully, you'll improve your writing and free yourself from the agony of "what do I write now?" quickly. Just remember to keep it organized, while you're at it.