WritersWeekly University - WRITING AS HEALING: THE POWER OF ::
We’ll talk about "the basics" (craft elements) of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction in order to get comfortable with developing works on your own.
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In fiction writing, events occur in strict chronological order. If you would like to know what this means, please read on!
In previous articles Ive used my fictional tongue-in-cheek character Detective Jake Bullett to help me along. Jakes tough and gets into a lot of scrapes where things happen quickly. Lets see what a sample could be like:
Jake lashed out and the gunman fell over, taking Jake with him. At the same time Sally screamed Look out, Jake! and Jake saw another man pulling a gun as he scrambled free.
Jakes in trouble, and so is this snippet. Yes, its how things happen in real life - it all happens at once - but this is not real life; its fiction. In any fictional piece, be it short story or epic novel - things happen one at a time. Its a convention in writing and it sure makes life a lot easier for the writer!
Amazon.co.uk: Characters and Viewpoint (The Elements of Fiction ::
Beginnings, Middles and Ends (The Elements of Fiction Writing) by Nancy Kress THE CHARACTERS IN YOUR FICTION are people. Read the first page
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CRITICAL READING: A GUIDE::
The relationship of events in order to create significance is known as the plot. . Your purpose in writing an analytical essay is to convey your sense of
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The above snippet would be written something more like this:
Jake lashed out. The gunman fell over on top of Jake. Jake scrambled free from beneath the gunman. Sally screamed Look out, Jake! Jake saw another man pull a gun out.
Yes, its wooden, but its just an illustration of chronological writing. One thing happens, THEN another, THEN another, until the sequence of events are over. If you are writing in an active mode - i.e., things are occurring at the moment, this is how its done.
In this type of writing, words such as while, as, and phrases such as at the same time that are not to be used. Beginners, in their efforts at total realism, use these words a lot: She screamed as the shark bit her leg. Wrong. The shark bit her leg. She screamed. is correct because she woudnt scream BEFORE the shark bit her! Similarly, you wouldnt write He laughed as the man fell over. It would be The man fell over. He laughed. Its cause and effect.
Ohio Writer Interview::
MT: Where do you get your ideas, for example, the idea for "Ripples in the Dirac Sea"? . In ten years, will you still be writing hard science fiction?
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Lets look at that shark again. Could the sentence She screamed as the shark bit her leg also have been written She screamed AND the shark bit her leg.? (Okay, maybe the shark bit her because she screamed but for this example it didnt happen that way. No startled sharks on my watch!). Of course it doesnt sound right at all, does it?
This is because the two events did NOT happen at the same time. As I said, until the shark bit her, she had no reason to scream. So - bite=action, scream=reaction. That is how it works and, if you can remember this simple rule action then reaction you will find your active writing sequences read a whole lot better.
So dont think that trying to describe events as they occur in the real world works in fiction. It doesnt. Remember that a thing has to happen before it is reacted to. If things really do have to happen at the same time, and its important to show this fact, use -ing: Keeping his hand steady, Jake squeezed the trigger. is a correct example, NOT Jake kept his handy steady as he squeezed the trigger. The difference is subtle but important.
Another point to remember when youre in the thick of an active sequence is: dont summarise. Dont say things like Jake told Sally what had happened. Show it happening, as it happens, one thing after another - or leave it out altogether.
There are no tricks to writing in this style - and its a great way of writing really explosive action pieces as well as tense, nail-biting scenes. Master the simple art of chronological writing and you will see your work improve immensely.
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Fiction Writing: Getting Your Events In Order