Comments on: Clean Up Your Narration: Four Tips For Fiction Writers

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:43:29 +0000

Thank you Fekket! This encourages me a lot, since I was afraid because despite I think my story is good, I felt my narrative was bad, but now I understand some misteakes, and if I use some of your precious advice, maybe it could improve! Very magnanimous to share this wit.

By: Quick Links for bloggers and writers | Byzantine Roads

Quick Links for bloggers and writers | Byzantine Roads — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:37:14 +0000

[...] 4 Tips to Improve Naration- A nice primer on re-writing and cleaning up your fiction [...]

By: Sunday Link Love | Writer's Resource Center

Sunday Link Love | Writer's Resource Center — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:19:34 +0000

[...] Clean Up Your Narration: Four Tips For Fiction Writers [...]

By: JanW

JanW — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:39:40 +0000

Thanks for the link to your site, Mary J. I’m looking for models that use dialog and story-telling in non-fiction. I have a book in mind and have the intention of using stories to spice it up and make it more accessible. Glad to see others are trying the same thing.

Thanks for the article, Leo. I love writing dialog and thinking like the character, complete with speech patterns. But you’re right. Narrative and description is critical, too. In my first writing group, everyone wanted to write narrative! I had to convince them to start writing dialog. I can’t imagine a book of all any one thing.

Cheers

By: Mary Jaksch l GoodlifeZen

Mary Jaksch l GoodlifeZen — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:38:57 +0000

Although this post is billed for fiction writers, I think it also holds treasures for non-fiction.

I’ve been using more and more dialogs in my non-fiction pieces. I try and illustrate (show and tell) ideas with personal stories. And within these stories I use dialog. I think it works.

Here is a example from my blog:
http://goodlifezen.com/2008/01/19/what-would-you-do-with-your-life-if-you-could-do-anything-2/

By: The Writing / Editing Job Roll » 03/01/2008 Writing Jobs and Links

The Writing / Editing Job Roll » 03/01/2008 Writing Jobs and Links — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:50:24 +0000

[...] Clean Up Your Narration: Four Tips For Fiction Writers [...]

By: Surf Four To Know More: Science , Software « Sam Ideas

Surf Four To Know More: Science , Software « Sam Ideas — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 08:36:09 +0000

[...] Four Tip For Fiction Writers: Guest FekketCantenel at writetodone.com claims that the narration is critical for establishing many elements, including scenary etc. To be a top fiction writer he gives four tips based on his own writing experience. [...]

By: Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER

Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:24:47 +0000

Lots of useful ideas here, particularly #2. I have heard of this before, but I haven’t actually tried it. I think I’m too scared of what I may find. Lol!

I think Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN ALSO RISES is a perfect example of really simple narration which does an exemplary job of showing not telling. At the end of that book I was mulling over my feelings about the main female character and when I looked back through the book I realised Hemingway had never used the protagonist to voice judgments about this woman. He just very subtly led you there. Magic.

Kelly

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:39:31 +0000

@Victor: A great place to start is with Janet Burroway’s “Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft.” It’s THE classic book for beginning fiction writers. Each chapter talks about a different aspect of the craft, and it’s chock full of helpful examples and exercises.

By: metroknow - AlmostFit.com

metroknow - AlmostFit.com — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:04:15 +0000

Excellent stuff.

I really liked the idea in #2 on trimming excess words using the first word elimination concept. It reminded me of a scene in a movie I saw (can’t remember which movie) where a father is teaching his sons to write, and every time they bring it back to him he essentially says to cut it in half. It is such a hard thing to do, but unless you’re Tolstoy resurrected, no publisher or agent is going to slog through thousands of excess words. More tips like this would really be welcome.

This cracks me up however, because my day job is writing software manuals – the most boring books you’ve ever attempted to read, partly because we have to insert “stupid text” so that the book meets the corporate standard. No wonder no one reads them. ;)

@Victor: You might consider checking into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – their site has thousands of writers in the same position, all helping each other with everything from plot resolution to manuscript marketing. I did it this year and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Thanks Leo for coordinating such strong material.