The incredible power of observation
Once I counted the wrinkles on the sagging face of a bulldog. Don’t think me a weirdo, I’m exaggerating. But that is exactly what you need to do if you are planning to become a fiction writer.
The thing is I am actually awed by the power of observation of people. You can discover hundreds of [...]
Reinventing Borrowed Ideas
It’s not plagiarism if you add ‘reinventing’ to ‘borrowed ideas’. Think about it, aren’t more than 90 percent of our beliefs borrowed? The world is too large a teacher and we its willing pupils.
As far as novel writing is concerned, it is wise to borrow the best of the best ideas from great authors, and [...]
Convert a great idea into a great novel
Muse has descended. You’ve finally got a Great Idea that can be turned into a spectacular book. You want to begin writing now. But when you are ready with your hands on the keyboard and eyes glued to the computer screen, all that gets out of you are disjointed threads of your Great Idea. You [...]
Raw-material for your fiction
Thank God you don’t have to dig for miles to get your raw material. But you do need to dig into people. Poking your nose in other people’s affairs is a must-do for writers. And still we don’t get a bad name. Lucky.
Another civil way to do it is to get it through sight, smell, [...]
The Importance of Reading
Even if you are not an avid reader, you still must have read hundreds of books. Most read for entertainment, some for learning and very few for writing. You are one of those 0.001% of the world population.
At best, reading improves your writing. And reading great writers of your genre gives you examples of great [...]
Thinking like a novelist
Thinking like a novelist is like any other kind of conditioning. You were born into a religion, a country, a culture, a language; and your outlook shaped itself around it (though you escape from some of it by rationalizing). You are into a profession and you adopt its characteristics. More so than anything else, [...]
Creating The Blueprint
If you have permanently pasted the picture in your mind of a fiction writer sitting comfortably in his study, giving free reign to his thoughts, sipping coffee in between and filling the dustbin with crumpled papers, then; WAKE UP. Writing fiction is as far from it as I am from the aliens. What fiction writing [...]
How to plan your fiction
It is better to spend some minutes planning your fiction before you begin writing. Planning will make your structure solid, your characters round and your narration accurate. How do you make a plan? That is what needs to be sorted first.
