Adventures of a Writer

Welcome to Week P of Authors Tips' A to Z of Writing.  If this is the first time you are visiting this Series, here's a quick recap. Authors share their tips on writing fiction and each week we talk about various aspects of writing. This week, it's time to take a closer look at Pacing. It's often easy to mistake 'pacing' with the genre of your story or its characters. One would assume that a thriller where the protagonist is racing against time to save the world needs to be fast-paced whereas a story that deals with the easy going life of a gentle old lady who lives a quiet life in the hills would obviously be more slower paced. Fact is, that the ebb and flow of a story has little to do with the genre or characters and more to do with the pace of the narrative or its momentum. Sure, a thriller will need to have a more 'hurried' pace than one in which an old lady is reminiscing about her life. But even in a thriller you need to give the r...

Welcome to Week 'C' in the Authors Tips: A to Z of Writing series. And my post is about  How to Improve Your Craft.   Fiction writing, like many other creative pursuits, is an artistic enterprise that involves a combination of art and craft. Talent alone can help you come up with a great concept or idea for a story. But to translate a brilliant premise into a compelling story, a writer needs to understand the mechanics of storytelling. Or, in other words, become a master of the craft. In fiction parlance, craft generally refers to the use of techniques that aid storytelling -- plot points, subtext, a great hook, raising of stakes, building tension, exposition. Many of these can be learnt by reading extensively in the genre that you want to write. This will help you to identify the conventions of the genre and understand how different authors play around with the essential elements of telling a story. However no amount of reading can help you improve your craft....