Use Baby Steps to Learn
How To Write Fiction

If you find learning how to write fiction daunting, do what the professional goal-setters do: break it down into small steps.

By this I mean begin with writing short bits, even just snatches of conversation or bits of description. Then move into whole scenes. Eventually, you'll find yourself ready to tackle a whole novel.


Step One

Make yourself a promise right now. Promise yourself to write nearly every day.

Notice I didn't say every day. Even writers need a day off now and then. But if you want to learn how to write fiction, you need to practice. A lot.

So, pick a time each day that you can set aside for your writing. I find anything less than half hour doesn't get me much of anywhere. Although I have penned a few good scenes in ten minutes. But usually in the midst of my half-hour block of time, when the juices are flowing freely. (Oops, I think I drooled on the page!)

If you have a larger block of time, wonderful! Take advantage of it. And be selfish of it. Try not to let interrup...

...tions get in your way. Those kids again? Tell them you're off limits. Make a sign. Take a stand. Protect your right to write.

Okay, I'm better now. (Can you tell I'm a mom who's spent years being constantly interrupted when she works at home?)

What should you start writing? An idea file. Keep a journal of things you've done, seen, heard during the day, or creative ideas that occurred to you (while in the bath, of course). This idea file will be the fodder for plenty of novel ideas.

Anything goes. Bits of conversation overheard (or tossed into your head by characters you don't even know yet). The way that old lady clings to her husband's hand. Anything and everything that might inspire you. You can never have too many ideas.


Step Two - Or the Two Step

Find a source of inspiration for writing in short bursts each day. This could be writing prompts from a literary source (or online), a brief scene you see at work, shopping or play, the way the sun hits the autumn leaves late in the day - anything that will move you to write about it.

Then do so. Spend your half-hour (or more, if you have the time, certainly) writing a page or two of description of what you saw, the way the people looked, their tones of voice, how the forest seemed on fire with sunlight. Anything to get the details down. You're practicing your skills of observation, a big step in how to write fiction.

Be as detailed as possible. You never know when some of this will fit into something else you're writing. After all, that's the way we learn how to write fiction. By practicing the nitty gritty details of it.


One, Two, Three - Waltzing Forward

The next step is to take some of your descriptive pages and turn them into fiction. If it was two people arguing, change it and give it more conflict, more tension. Exaggerate it or twist it, until it's the stuff of novel-making. Describe the people, or change who they are. If it was a couple, make them two men or two women. Anything to shake up the thought processes.

If it was the sun on the leaves, think about what could be happening amidst that blaze of color and light. What's obscured by the way the sun's cutting through the branches. Is there a murder happening just beyond sight? Did you hear something? Should you run for help?

Let your imagination run wild. That's the whole point. If you can't exercise your imagination, you'll never learn how to write fiction well.

I can tell you from experience, my imagination gets pretty wild when I let it loose. So let yours loose. If it makes you blush, just don't let anyone read it, yet. (Don't worry. I won't tell anyone what you've written, either.)

So, those are your first steps. There's much more to learning how to write fiction, but starting small - remember, one word at a time - will eventually get you there.

So, what are you waiting for?