How to: Start Fiction? Like...how???

So, I thought this question was pretty interesting considering, well, I had never thought about it really. Fiction writing has just been my natural style of things. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fiction, perhaps that influenced the kind of writing I eventually plunged myself into. I also loved playing make-believe when I was little so maybe that came into play, as well.

I asked on Whisper, of all places, what questions they (other writers) had about writing fiction.

One was, how to start fiction.

Nothing else. Just, how to start fiction.

Well, I would have to imagine myself in their shoes for a moment. Perhaps, say, some of you have NEVER really read a good fiction story. All you have read are non-fiction stories, magazine articles, or some very heavy philosophical, political, or religious books. Maybe when you read books for class they were just FOR CLASS and you were never interested in the sequel. Maybe you have never even read any of the famous books. Nothing's wrong with that. Of course not :)

But then one day you are intrigued by fiction and want to start writing it. You have been writing memoirs, non-fiction stories, articles...but never true fiction. You never made up a whole entire story.

What do you do?


Well, you read.

Get accustomed to that world. I think many fiction writers will agree with me on this one.

Read, read, read. Read the famous books. Read the great books. Read the classics. Read books that don't turn out to be one-hundred percent good. Read, read, read, read, I cannot stress enough.

This is not me. Just thought I'd let you know :)

I read. I'm writing fiction, I know the world, but still I read. It keeps you in the zone and gives you inspiration.

Don't worry that you don't know where to start. The more you read, the more you will get used to thinking about many different things and trying to tie them together, or you will see something and feel like, "Huh, that might make a great story."




Another thing you might like to do is to look up "Types of Fiction" and see what's out there. Nowadays there are subgenres in genres and so many different types of fiction. The beautiful thing about fiction is that, as long as it makes sense in the world that your story is set in, you don't have to worry about the crazy.

Such as, if it is natural for your story to have all kinds of monsters popping out of portals from other dimensions, you are allowed to have a scene with a dragon flying overhead.

But, if your story is situated in our world and the only out-of-this-world thing you stuffed in it was a robot that set out to destroy us, you cannot suddenly have a dragon flying overhead. It will not make sense.

Imagine a movie like that. Hm, like, the Transformers movie. You, as the audience would probably be utterly confused if a dragon flew around overhead and disappeared. Like, "What da heck was that?!"

And this, is a dragonfly, not a dragon flying. How did this pic get here?
I didn't even take it. Let's be consistent here.

So, yes, you will need to be consistent within the boundaries of your story. Okay? Good :)




The last thing, but most important thing of all is...experiment with yourself.

You thought I was going to say, "Write until you drop" right? No. Experiment.

Don't go for the long haul unless you are sure with it. Don't intimidate yourself. If you write non-fiction, you might be able to do a bit better than those without the experience. But really, stressing yourself out about writing a story will make you feel discouraged.

It's supposed to be fun. Don't do that to yourself.

So what do you do? You write a short story. One to three pages. If you can write more, if you're on a roll, go for it! :D But other than that, don't force yourself to write a novella in one go.

Then, you write, write, write. If you can't think of a "next" for your current story just leave it. Leave it and write another story. Writersblockitis? No matter. Leave it and move on.

I love experimenting with different genres and finding what kinds I feel most comfortable to write or ones that I feel I CAN write. I have TONS of unfinished stories it can become a book all on its own. Yeah, so, don't worry about unfinished stories :)




SUMMARY

How to start fiction?

READ READ READ.
Look up "Types of Fiction". Wikipedia is fine. Oh, and be consistent within the boundaries of your story.
WRITE WRITE WRITE. And experiment :)

Happy Writing! :D