Fiction Basics
What is fiction?
A simple definition of fiction is character, or characters, moving across a landscape.
Where does fiction begin?
Where fiction starts is usually autobiography, but it doesn't end there. You can start the project writing about people you know and about your own life, but it's important to change those characters, because the imagination becomes engaged. Then you're not a slave to what is true and what is historical.
What is the most important element of fiction?
The singular most important element in fiction is character. If you get your characters right, other things come out with that, such as story. For instance, if you create a character with problems or issues, the plot would probably emerge from those issues or problems.
What is setting' in fiction?
Setting and landscape in fiction are very important because they reveal character. The landscape or the setting are always subjective; you don't send postcards home in fiction, you describe a landscape in such a way as to reveal something about the characters in it.
What is voice' in fiction?
There are two types of voice in fiction. One is the authorial voice which tends to pass from one book into the other book by a certain author. And the other kind of voice in fiction is the voice of a protagonist that is invented by the author but is not the author's voice. It is also the signature, nonetheless, of the author, and it's the thing you often remember most about a book. It is the selling point, the hardest thing to achieve, perhaps.
What is territory' in fiction?
Fictional territory is what you will write about, perhaps over the course of many books. It may be the country you come from; it may be the conflict of the country you come from. It could be mothers and children. It could be a sport. Fictional territory will be something that preoccupies you for long periods of time. How you approach the territory is an issue of point of view.
What is point of view' in fiction?
Point of view in a novel is normally the angle you take on the material, and point of view is a very important decision. It's not just first person or third person; it's the character you choose through which to tell the story. The point of view can sometimes be unreliable. Fiction can be written from the point of view of the antihero, or villain; it doesn't have to be the point of view of the hero. But the reader will identify with that point of view, so you have to be careful. If you want to write an unsympathetic character, the chances are that your reader might give up on you. On the other hand, some of the greatest fiction has approached the moral subject from the immoral point of view. It's about how you organize your material, how you angle it, and it gives you a narrow aperture upon which to view the world of your fiction.
What is theme' in fiction?
Theme in fiction is something you tend to have been thinking about for some time. You may even be born into theme, such as a country, or a country conflict. That's not to be confused with story. Story is something you have to plan and think about in terms of your character and often, the stories are about small happenings. The theme is the background; the theme is the place, the setting, the time and the historical epoch, which could be contemporary or could be past.
Where does fiction begin?
You can start the fiction project writing about people you know and about your own life, but it's important to change those characters because the imagination becomes engaged and then you're not a slave to what is true and what is historical.
