A complete guide to writing and selling your novel

So you want to write a novel? Great! That's a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don't settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher. Writing Fiction for Dummies is a complete guide designed to coach you every step along the path from beginning writer to royalty-earning author. Here are some things you'll learn in Writing Fiction for Dummies:

• Strategic Planning: Pinpoint where you are on the roadmap to publication; discover what every reader desperately wants from a story; home in on a marketable category; choose from among the four most common creative styles; and learn the self-management methods of professional writers.
• Writing Powerful Fiction: Construct a story world that rings true; create believable, unpredictable characters; build a strong plot with all six layers of complexity of a modern novel; and infuse it all with a strong theme.
• Self-Editing Your Novel: Psychoanalyze your characters to bring them fully to life; edit your story structure from the top down; fix broken scenes; and polish your action and dialogue.
• Finding An Agent and Getting Published: Write a query letter, a synopsis, and a proposal; pitch your work to agents and editors without fear.

Writing Fiction For Dummies takes you from being a writer to being an author. It can happen-if you have the talent and persistence to do what you need to do.

Randy Ingermanson is the award-winning author of six novels. He is known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy," thanks to his Web site article on the Snowflake method, which has been viewed more than a million times. Before venturing into fiction, Randy earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of California at Berkeley. Randy has taught fiction at numerous writing conferences and sits on the advisory board of American Christian Fiction Writers. He also publishes the world's largest e-zine on how to write fiction, The Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. Randy's first two novels won Christy awards, and his second novel Oxygen, coauthored with John B. Olson, earned a spot on the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age list. Visit Randy's personal Web site at www.ingermanson.com and his Web site for fiction writers at www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Peter Economy of La Jolla, California, is a bestselling author with 11 For Dummies titles under his belt, including two second editions and one third edition. Peter is coauthor of Writing Children's Books For Dummies, Home-Based Business For Dummies, Consulting For Dummies, Why Aren't You Your Own Boss?, The Management Bible, and many more books. Peter also serves as Associate Editor of Leader to Leader, the Apex Award-winning journal of the Leader to Leader Institute. Check out Peter's Web site at www.petereconomy.com.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used In This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book is Organized 3

Part I: Getting Ready to Write Fiction 4

Part II: Creating Compelling Fiction 4

Part III: Editing and Polishing Your Story and Characters 4

Part IV: Getting Published 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Part I: Getting Ready to Write Fiction 7

Chapter 1: Fiction Writing Basics 9

Setting Your Ultimate Goal as a Writer 11

Pinpointing Where You are as a Writer 13

Freshmen: Concentrating on craft 13

Sophomores: Tackling the proposal 14

Juniors: Perfecting their pitches 15

Seniors: Preparing to become authors 16

Getting Yourself Organized 17

Mastering Characterization, Plotting, and Other Skills 18

Editing Your Fiction 18

Chapter 2: What Makes a Great Story? 21

Choosing What to Give Your Readers 22

Creating a powerful emotional experience: What your readers desperately want 22

Educating your reader 23

Practicing the gentle art of persuasion 24

Making Life Hard on Your Characters: Conflict Plus Change Equals Story 25

The Five Pillars of Fiction 26

Setting the stage: Your story world 27

Creating characters 28

Constructing the plot 28

Formulating a theme 30

Expressing your style 31

Seven Ways to Deliver the Goods 31

The here and now: Action 32

Giving your characters a voice: Dialogue 33

Revealing thoughts: Interior monologue 33

Feeling with your character: Interior emotion 34

Seeing what your character sees: Description 34

Taking a trip to the past: Flashback 35

Supplying narrative summary 35

Chapter 3: Finding Your Audience and Category 37

Identifying Your Ideal Novel 38

Looking at what you love to read 38

Thinking about what you love to write 39

Defining Your Ideal Reader 40

Considering worldview and interests 41

Looking at gender 42

Writing for readers of a certain age 43

Defining your niche 43

Understanding Your Category 43

Genres: Surveying categories based on content 45

Understanding audience-based categories 50

Picking your category and subcategory 52

Finding Your Category's Requirements 53

Targeting your word count 54

Accounting for major characters 54

Determining levels of action, romance, and all that 55

Identifying your story's emotional driver 58

Chapter 4: Four Ways to Write a Great Novel 59

Giving Yourself Permission to Write Badly 59

Creative Paradigms: Investigating Various Writing Methods 61

Writing without planning or editing 61

Editing as you go 62

Planning a little, writing a little 63

Outlining before you write 64

Finding a Creative Paradigm that Works for You 65

Understanding why method matters 66

Developing your creative paradigm 67

Using Your Creative Paradigm to Find Your Story Structure 69

Chapter 5: Managing Your Time and Yourself 71

Finding Time to Write 71

Establishing and sticking to a writing goal - for this week and this year 72

Organizing your time 74

Setting Up Your Ideal Writing Space 75

Securing the best writing surface 76

Finding the right chair 76

Choosing a computer (if you want to use one) 77

Putting everything in place 78

Dealing with Distractions 79

Looking at Money Matters 80

Budgeting money for writing 81

Making your living as a writer: Don't expect this to be your day job (yet) 82

Part II: Creating Compelling Fiction 85

Chapter 6: Building Your Story World: The Setting for Your Story 87

Identifying the Parts of a Story World 88

Creating a Sense of Place 89

Making description do double duty 90

Fitting description in the story 91

Weaving emotive force into your descriptions 92

Deciding What Drives Your Cultural Groups 93

Revealing cultural drivers with immediate scene 93

Exposition: Explaining cultural drivers through narrative summary 94

Combining various elements to show cultural drivers 95

Choosing the Backdrop for Conflict 95

Defining your backdrop 95

Defining your story question 98

Story World Examples from Four Well-Known Novels 98

Pride and Prejudice 98

The Pillars of the Earth 99

Patriot Games 100

Ender's Game101

Researching Your Sto…