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Tips and Tricks for Writing Popular Fiction Novels

So you have a great idea for a fiction novel. Now, where do you start?

As for me, I started out by taking a few creative writing classes and throughout the years I continued to hone my skills through various workshops and attending writers conferences. I have also spent so reading a wide variety of books some within my genre (romantic suspense) and others outside my genre (non-fiction, etc.).

Anyway, I recently read the following John Grisham's suggestions for writing popular fiction and wanted to share them with aspiring writers. Also, this is a great reminder for me to see how I measured up against these suggestions.

1. Do write a page every day - Failed, but I'm working on that.

2. Don't write the first scene until you know the last - Semi-failed. I have a tendency to write and figure things out as I go along. But, I'm working on at least having a road map of where I want my stories to go.

3. Do write your one page at the same place and time - When I do write it's usually at the same place, but at different times.

4. Don't write a prologue - Passed with flying colors as I typically like to dive into writing my story. Also, I think prologues can be somewhat distracting.

5. Do use quotation marks with dialogue - Passed with flying colors as this is basic.

6. Don't keep a thesaurus within reaching distance - Sigh, it's right behind me on my book shelve, but I rarely use it. If necessary, I tend to jump online to http://www.dictionary.com

7. Do read each sentence at least 3 times in search of words to cut - Aaah, the proverbial killing your darlings. Over the years, I have done a better job of getting rid of words that slow down the pacing of my stories.

8. Don't introduce 20 characters in the first chapter - Passed with flying colors because as a writer I run the risk of not only confusing my readers but myself. So, I tend to limit the first chapter to no more than 2 or 3 of the main characters.



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