[x]

Every genre has core elements that make that genre that genre. In order to Cross Genres properly, you need to know each of your genre's distinctive elements and make them Equally Important in the story.

Simple, no? However...

One of the most common mistakes I've seen in every genre of fiction: IGNORANCE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Most of the common mistakes come with any writing that isn't so good—bad characters, bad plots, bad writing. The ones which are peculiar to alternate histories (fantasy and sci-fi) are bad research and bad extrapolation."
-- An Interview with Harry Turtledove --> http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue298/interview.html

The LAYERS of Fiction

------Original Message------
"If you have Action and Dialogue, do you really NEED Description too?
What is the difference?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Layers of Fiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dialogue Only
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Himawari-chan, I have your lunch!"

"Ah, Watanuki-kun!"

"Here you go Himawari-chan!"

"Thank you, Watanuki-kun!"

"You are very welcome, Himawari-chan."

"I see. Of course. Thank you, Yuuko-san. Do I need to tell you what she said?"

"No! No, you don't, and I don't want to hear it! I don't need a freaking baby-sitter!"

"Yuuko thinks you do."

"That's her! Not me!"

"Are you a fortune-teller?"

"No! Of course not!"

"I'll

Pesky Point of View

DISCLAIMER: Before anyone starts screaming about this article not emphasizing the Creative aspect of writing, please understand that this information was hammered into my head by my editors. This is what I had to learn to see my work published.

That doesn't mean you have to follow it! As with all advice, feel free to take what you can use and throw out the rest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pesky Point of View
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is Point of View (POV)?
-- It's the view of the person telling the story.

First Person: I am telling the story.

Second Person. I am telling the story to YOU. (Diaries and letters are commonly written this way.)

Third

Character Development Question

Individual Character Sheet
(c) Helsinki-Harlot.deviantart.com

Name: (Full name, and nicknames).
Age/Birth Date: (x-) / (mm/dd/yyyy)
Race/Origin:Race (Country ; (father/mother) + Race ( Country; father/mother)
Birth Place: City, Country.
Zodiac Sign: (Depending on the culture they identify with, or what you're familiar with)
Class In Society Now/ Growing Up: (Lower/Middle/Upper; City/Country)
Sex: (F/M/etc.)
Gender: (What do they identify as? Ex. Female, Male, Trans, Gender queer, etc.)
Orientation: (Preference in partner(s). )
Main/Major/Minor/Side (Circle or Highlight)
? relationship to main character:
Character Transition: (How do they cha

When the Hero is NOT a Hero

Protagonist & Antagonist ~ A Different Definition
There are Three Essential Characters in Every Story. There may be any number of side characters, but in traditional Adventures, and Romances of every stripe the main conflict is usually, if not always, a triangle of complimentary opposites.

Translation: You could tell the WHOLE story with ONLY these Three Characters; perhaps not with any real detail, but you could still do the entire basic plotline. (Yes I know, I've said some of this before. Bear with me.)

THREE Characters?
Yep. I'm sure you're familiar with: Hero – Villain – Heroine (or Sidekick) already. Those are pretty darn

HOW do you make THE END?

"When will you make an end?"
- The Pope on the painting of the Sistine Chapel

"When I'm finished."
- Michelangelo.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so you got this GREAT Idea for a story!

- This Great Idea...that births chapter after chaper...
- This Great Idea... that you can't seem to finish. (WTF?)

Crap.

So what do you do now?

HOW do you make an End?

Fairytales and Myths were my foundational reading, so they became my base model for how a story should finish -- by ending where you began with a solution.

This doesn't mean ending a story in the location it started, or that full irrevocable transformations don't happen, bu

Advanced Plotting-The PREMISE

Advanced Plotting ~ the PREMISE

-----Original Message-----
Could you tell me more on plotting story points? I can get the big story idea well enough, but I run into a snag deciding the whole causality thing -- A leads to B, leads to C, …etc."
-- Mad about Plotting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, so you wanna know how to put all the theories together to make a story, do you? (Gee, you couldn't pick the easy stuff could you?) Okay...

A story's Causes & Effects, the triggers that lead from one event to the next, comes from your Premise.

Just for the record...
A Premise is NOT a Concept!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Premise is the theoretical / e

10Q Writers' Tutorial: SettingTen Easy Questions to Fix Your Fantasy Setting
(may also work for sci-fi)

A fantasy story has to take place somewhere. And what better surroundings for your epic/tragic/blood-thirsty tale of war/love/orc-beauty-pageants than your mystical land of Neverheardofit?

Imagine it! The ragged mountains clad in purple fog. The bubbling streams sparkling with fairy magic. The sleepy-eyed dragons emerging from their noble lairs, their flickering tongues tasting the sweetness of battle in the air.

(Or just some spaceships and laser guns. This is a sci-fi tutorial too.)

You can certainly feel the magic (or techno-awesome) but, for some reason, your r

Writing Serial Fiction

Writing Serial & Series Fiction
Not just another Novel idea

Please note, this is how the Professionals do it. Those of you who are Not professional are free to write (and post) as you please.

To view the Main Plot vs Subplot graphic at Full Size, GO HERE --> http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp347/OokamiKasumi/MainplotSubplot.jpg

A Serial Story is Not a chopped-up Novel!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I hear it time and time again: "If the story is too big, why don't you just cut it up into a Series or Serial?"

You can't just cut a novel-type Story in half to make a series, or use the chapters to serialize it. A true serial "episode" is its own Comple

Propaganda - Enemy of Fiction

The Enemy of Good Fiction
~ PROPAGANDA! ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many people have asked me, "Why don't you watch TV anymore?"

I do, sort of. I play movies that I buy and rent on my TV regularly. However, I Don't watch cable TV or local TV, and I NEVER watch sitcoms or Reality TV of any kind. If I want the news, I go to the internet.

Why Not? Because there's too much Programming going on in those programs, and not one drop of Reality in Reality TV -- especially the Law & Order ones.

TV = The Tool of Propaganda
By Phil Cunningham
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Posted WITH Permission.)

Propaganda and Advertising, affects us all. The two operate using the

Basic PLOTTING

Basic Plotting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plot is the pattern a story follows, the most common being:

-- Beginning
-- Middle
-- End

All successful (read: popular) stories have patterns. Sometimes it's simple, sometimes it's complex, but all of the stories read or told often enough to remain in the popular mind of any culture have a pattern, a plot.

Here are some examples of simple plot patterns…

Traditional:
• He came.
• He saw.
• He conquered.

American Dream Version:
• He came.
• He conquered.
• He became very rich.

The Heroic version:
• He conquered.
• He became the leader of

RESEARCH is your Best Friend

RESEARCH is your Best Friend.

-----Original Message-----
"...for bigger fictions (maybe 10-20 chapters, or more) for a big fan fiction or OC fiction, how much do you plan out?" -- Wanna Rite Reel Gud
~~~~~~~~~~~~

How much do I plan out for one of my novels...?
-- I detail everything. Seriously. I believe in a Total Immersion style of writing. In other words, I want to know the world so well, I can simply step into the mind and skin of my main character and LIVE the story.

How do I do that...?

I start with a basic plot formula and extrapolate on certain points as needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Romance needs extra doses of lover's angst,

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How to Get a Literary Agentby *mree

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Edit: Whoa. I *definitely* did not expect to see THIS in the daily favorites. O__O Thank you so much, everyone!

Part II!

Thanks for all of your wonderful replies to Part I [link] . It's always encouraging to know that there are so many aspiring writers out there.

Sorry this image is so..........long......... O_O But really, this was the minimum amount of info I could put in about finding a literary agent. There are alot of books out there on this topic as well, so if you want to know more details, look for them online or at a bookstore. I hope this helps you out, if you are an aspiring novelist!

Note: For poets, nonfiction, and short story writers, this tutorial is unfortunately not applicable..... The process of submission for those forms are vastly different!

Thanks again.

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~AnnabethCosplayerRX1 Aug 22, 2010

most helpful

~GuardianKitsune Jul 3, 2008

omg thank you for these awesome tutorials and advice! It will be super helpful because I am going to be a writer and I'm in college now. >.> (hopefully, I do have hope, but one never noes...)

~totalmaster May 13, 2008 Hobbyist Writer

May I tell you this? I followed this tutorial through and through (possibly laughing in some places

) and I absolutely love it. I'm currently writing a book (which is, at this moment, about 50 pages; I have a lot of work to do

) and I knew, beforehand, that I had to go through a lot of things, but I never expected it to be this complicated. Impressively and nicely, you go through every detail of what and what not to do, which is why this and the other got a DD on it. I salute to you.

~Souls-Of-KH May 12, 2008

thank you so much this will really help me on my way to beening a writer/manga artist! Both of your tutorials were very helpful! I'll let you know if I get published! With your help I know I will some day!

~vassiton Mar 4, 2008

Oh, my, that was excellent advice. Thank you. I hope to have my book finished by the end of summer. I have the first three chapters posted here. I was wondering if that was a good idea, bad idea or irrelevant to the publishers. I'm on chapter 5 now, but won't post any more on the internet.

Again, thanks for the advice.

~hazika Feb 19, 2008

...................................................... I love you.

Seriously, this is the best source of information on how to get a literary agent that I have ever come across. I've read books and magazines and God knows what else, but this is very good: succinct, written in vernacular so it's more sociable, and even PRETTY. XD

I've actually got like four or five novels going on right now, lol... One of them I've been working on for going on five years now, and the others are much more recent. I'm seriously considering publishing them when I'm done... I've poured my heart and soul into them! Thank you for writing this so I know what to do when I finish!

~justmeandmygoldfish Oct 28, 2007

Wow, thank you SO MUCH for this!
I've been trying to find a way to get a literary agent myself, and this is perfect!
Thank you so much!

~Glass-on-a-Piano Aug 12, 2007 Photographer

Thanks a lot for making this! I'm finally going to get off my butt and send out some queries to Agents!

Once again, thanks!

~RebelFire Jul 24, 2007 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading through these! A friend and I love reading and we both try our skills at writing every now and then so this will be wonderfully helpful if we ever pump out stories we're really proud of!
I have a quick question though; Are there any good agents that would support a multi-author novel or book of short stories? My friend and I feel somewhat proud of a few of our shorter stories but none would be good enough to fill just one book. If you can get back to me that would be great but don't feel rushed.

I'm sure you get so many comment and

's that you can barely handle them.

~dreamer531 Jun 2, 2007

*shifty eyes* if i were you, i would be running.... *suddenly chases mree around the room before hugging madly* THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! *blinks* ... why are you turning blue? ... OH! crap! *lets go so that mree can breath* hahaha, sorry.

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