Writing Genre Fiction: A Guide to the CraftSeveral years ago, after many years of writing nonfiction, I decided to write a novel-a medical thriller in the mold of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, and Michael Palmer. The problem was that, although I knew how to write and had received a number of awards for nonfiction works, I didn't know the how to write fiction. So, before putting fingers to keyboard I did a thorough search of the literature, which included reading numerous books and hundreds of website articles. What I discovered was that there simply wasn't one good source from which to learn the craft of writing genre fiction. "Writing Genre Fiction: A Guide to the Craft" is the book I was looking for when I set out on my quest to learn how to write fiction. It is an attempt to share what I learned from my research. It covers the six key elements of genre fiction; the various genres and subgenres; a large number of genre-fiction writing techniques; plot, subplots, and parallel plots; structure; scene and sequel; characterization; dialogue; emotions; and body language. It also covers additional information about copyrighting and plagiarism, where to get ideas, manuscript formatting and revision, and query letters and synopses. In addition, an appendix covers a large number of grammar tips. |
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
14 | |
20 | |
Thriller | 36 |
Backstory to Description | 43 |
Clichés | 52 |
Figurative Language to Introspection Insight | 63 |
Epilogue | 188 |
Scene | 194 |
Scene Length | 200 |
Sequel Ways | 210 |
Character Description | 223 |
Names | 231 |
How to Bring in a Character | 238 |
Dialogue | 245 |
Foreshadowing and Flash Forward | 66 |
Introspection Insight and Perception | 72 |
Modifiers | 78 |
Sentences | 87 |
Simultaneity | 99 |
Style and Tone to Verb Strength | 111 |
Verb Strength | 119 |
Parallel Plots and Subplots | 125 |
Coincidence | 134 |
Plot Summary | 146 |
Title | 152 |
Middle | 174 |
End | 181 |
Dialogue Techniques | 253 |
Dialogue Tags | 260 |
Emotions | 269 |
Examples of Emotions | 276 |
Body Language | 283 |
Table of Body Language | 289 |
Additional Information | 297 |
Query Letter and Synopsis | 309 |
Appendix Grammar Tips | 319 |
Double Negatives | 329 |
SubjectVerb Agreement | 336 |
Common terms and phrases
action scenes adjective adverb antagonist backstory Bart battle beginning Bill Strickland body language Caduceus Awry Chapter character's Cincinnati cliché climax conflict create Da Vinci Code death dialogue emotions example eyes fear feel Fifth Profession figurative language flash forward flashback Foreshadowing genre fiction give goal going hair hand happen idea important instance Interactive Fiction involves Jack Literary look love scene main character major characters manuscript means Michael Crichton middle Milhorn move movie murder mystery narrative narrator noun Novel Writing ophidiophobia pace paragraph parallel plots participle past person phrase point of view present problem prologue protagonist reader romance romance novel Schnelbach science fiction sentence situation Slang someone subplots suspense Swain synopsis tags tell tense Thief Lord things thought thriller usually verb versus woman words Writer's Digest Books Writing for Teens York