Writing better popular fiction

[John Ling]

Heya folks. Here's a little no-nonsense guide that I wrote for my weblog, and I would like to share it with you here:



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Fantasy, science fiction, thriller, adventure, crime, horror, western.

Elitists typically scoff at popular fiction as being juvenile and less than literary. They disapprove of the formulaic plots, characters, themes and settings.

But formulaic or not, a great deal of energy, craft and thought often goes into the creation of fictional worlds that engage and entertain readers. Good popular fiction is always about paying attention to small details like pacing, editing and atmosphere.

If you are reading this, chances are, you are already a writer exploring the adventures of wizards and elves, or even the intrigue of spies and assassins.

How can you make your work faster and sharper? How can you make it more entertaining and appealing?


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The primary ingredient is editing. Writers tend to embellish and over-describe, fearing that readers will not understand what they are trying to say. But this fear is unfounded. Adding more words only dilutes the impact of a message. It is like gripping a fistful of sand. The more you squeeze, the more sand slips from your fingers.

The mark of a masterful writer is precise control. Editing is your best friend, and the ability to push your point across with only a few strategic words is a powerful skill.

Closely related to good editing is good pacing. When constructing a scene, a useful technique is to arrive late and exit early. You want to show your characters already engaging in an interesting activity, but you also want to cut away before this interesting activity becomes tedious.

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Let’s not forget the sense of urgency and desperation. Popular fiction dwells on conflict, and the best conflict comes about when you give your characters the short end of the stick. Cut them off from their resources, take them out of their familiar surroundings and force them to improvise. Brutalize and traumatize them, even, if you have the stomach for it. Create a pressing emotional plight for your readers to follow.

Last but not least are the action sequences that plunge your characters into real danger. Immersive action is notoriously difficult to pull off. Most writers rely too much on sight, and as a result, their action scenes become flat. Practice strict editing, but more importantly, practice the technique of triangulation. Orient your readers on what lies to the left and to the right, but keep the details brief and snappy. Triangulation is about relying less on sight, and focusing on other senses like speed, hearing and smell.

[Mistook]

Elitists typically scoff at popular fiction as being juvenile and less than literary. They disapprove of the formulaic plots, characters, themes and settings.

That's true, but there are also pop-genre elitists who get pretty testy when somebody tries to screw with their cultish dogma. The fantastical sword cuts both ways.


Good popular fiction is always about paying attention to small details like pacing, editing and atmosphere.


Pacing and atmosphere are good for any kind of fiction. Editing is not a visible detail. It is something everybody should do, even in non-fiction, even in term papers.


If you are reading this, chances are, you are already a writer exploring the adventures of wizards and elves, or even the intrigue of spies and assassins.


Yes, that's true. And by the way... you have really kick arse pics in your post. I'm kind of more interested in finding out where the pics came from than the actual text.



The primary ingredient is editing. Writers tend to embellish and over-describe, fearing that readers will not understand what they are trying to say. But this fear is unfounded. Adding more words only dilutes the impact of a message. It is like gripping a fistful of sand. The more you squeeze, the more sand slips from your fingers.



Okay... editing by definition cannot be a "primary ingredient". You can't edit what doesn't exist, and no amount of editing can save material that has no merit. Over-description, etc is a flaw of some newbie writers, but I wouldn't say it's an epidemic that affects all pop-fiction writers. Of course it's a good idea to stay away from overwrought metaphores... like, for example, that old chestnut about sand slipping through fingers.





The mark of a masterful writer is precise control. Editing is your best friend, and the ability to push your point across with only a few strategic words is a powerful skill.


Why is this starting to sound like an info-mercial? Are you heading up some super-cool pop-fiction editing service or something?





When constructing a scene, a useful technique is to arrive late and exit early. You want to show your characters already engaging in an interesting activity, but you also want to cut away before this interesting activity becomes tedious.


Sometimes, but not always, and not necessarily. It's just as easy to whip through an action scene too quickly. It's often the case that the most intense moments of an action or fight scene require a fairly in-depth treatment before they really play. And it's also true that arriving early can help to build suspense for the action to come - whereas arriving late can seem like a cheep end-run. Sometimes a scene needs to be developed before a reader will care.


Let’s not forget the sense of urgency and desperation. Popular fiction dwells on conflict, and the best conflict comes about when you give your characters the short end of the stick. Cut them off from their resources, take them out of their familiar surroundings and force them to improvise. Brutalize and traumatize them, even, if you have the stomach for it. Create a pressing emotional plight for your readers to follow.


Well, you really ought to have the stomoch to include some kind of emotional dimension to the story, or what's the point? As for torturing the characters, that's all well and good to a point, but everything becomes a cliche if it's overused. An overly tragic character in an overly dark melodrama is as annoying as a Mary Sue breezing through the plot without any conflict.


Last but not least are the action sequences that plunge your characters into real danger. Immersive action is notoriously difficult to pull off. Most writers rely too much on sight, and as a result, their action scenes become flat. Practice strict editing, but more importantly, practice the technique of triangulation. Orient your readers on what lies to the left and to the right, but keep the details brief and snappy. Triangulation is about relying less on sight, and focusing on other senses like speed, hearing and smell.

Speed is not a sense. I suppose a left-right orientation is a good thing to keep in mind, but can be easily overdone. You don't want the scene to read like a dance manual... "left foot back and spin... and spin..." It's good to incorporate as many senses as are relevant, but editing won't do a lick of good unless you have a real sense of the fight that can be put into clear terms.

[triceretops]

"When constructing a scene, a useful technique is to arrive late and exit early."

I like this sentence--it reminds me how to structure my chapters with multiple scenes, as well. Start them off with a bang.

[zornhau]

Nice as far as it goes.

However.... the prime ingredient for popular fiction is nested CONFLICT!!!!and lots of it.:Lecture:

I like your idea of triangulation.