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Creating Fiction Part 2

Creating Fiction Part 2

          Creating something that really comes alive can be difficult. Once you've finished the first five steps, you should move on to these in better detail.

Step 6: Plot: The plot as we all know is how exactly the story goes. What struggles are going to take place, when and how they are resolved, and the overall lesson of the story. Remember that all of this centers around your protagonist as well as antagonist so develop them well. This draws a lot on the 4th step of creating characters, so make sure you choose who is going to be what early on. You could have countless 'bad' guys and many supporting characters, but the plot has to be driven by someone or something. This also ties in to choosing whether you write in 1st or 3rd person.
Step 7: Start Writing: Not all authors begin writing immediately, but once you have the general ideas down you will be anxious to get started so why not give it a go. Just know that no matter how great you think you're doing, never marry your first draft. Go ahead and write a chapter or two if you can. The story may actually write itself, and if it does then continue on for as long as you can. Don't worry so much about all of the writing mechanics just yet, because this is only a first draft.
Step 8: Editing: After you've written all you want to, go back through and re-read it a few times. Try as best as you can do put yourself in the readers shoes. This is one of the most difficult steps because it is the least fun. You already know what you're talking about and where you are going but your reader may not, so try to tweak a few things here and there to make things flow a little better. I know I went back through my first chapter dozens of times trying to fix mistakes.
Step 9: Get Help. Now I don't mean psychiatric help, although that may come later if you obsess over your book too much. I mean get a fresh set of eyes to look at what you've written so far. You may have already bragged to all your friends about being the next J. K. Rowling. Well, show them what you've got, and be ready for heavy criticism. If you feel uncomfortable showing your friends, the online community can be a great place to help instead. I highly suggest Reddit.com as a good source as long as you follow all of the guidelines and rules.
Step 10: Edit Again: This may seem a bit repetitive, and it is. After you've got enough feedback, you can continue editing once more. For me personally, I balance both so that I don't get too bored doing either. I continue writing my first draft of my novel, and alternate chapters. Once I finish doing a hard re-write of a chapter based on what my critiques noticed, I then reward myself by writing another 1st draft chapter of my book. This way by the time you finish your first draft, you may already have the first half of your novel into its second draft.

END

This concludes my first ten steps on how to write fiction. I hope some of it helped and gave you an insight into how some author's brains work. There are several other steps one can take and in any sort of order, but that is for you to decide. If you have any suggestions for me, or any other aspiring authors on how you write, please feel free to comment below.

~ C. J. Strong
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