Writing Fiction

Robin Hardy Online

A Very Short Course in Writing Fiction

Robin has gotten a lot of requests to help aspiring writers with their manuscripts, which she enjoys doing because she knows how much fun it is to work on a story you really love. Since she can't consult with writers one-on-one much anymore, she wanted to share the basic tenets that have guided her through 21 years and 23 manuscripts.

"First," Robin says, "write what is on your heart. Write just for you. Write down that story that has taken possession of you. Outline if you like, but don't make your story conform to an outline if something unexpected crops up. Get your story down on paper (or disk) before you analyze it much. After you get it down, you can edit, but you can't edit something that you haven't written yet.

"Once you have the basic plot--the framework--down from start to finish, then the real work begins. In the Preface to The Story of the Other Wise Man, Henry van Dyke says, 'An idea arrives without effort; a form can only be wrought out by patient labor. If your story is worth telling, you ought to love it enough to be willing to work over it until it is true--true not only to the ideal, but true also to the real.' Now is the time to sweat over things like internal consistency, character motivation, pacing, tone, and descriptions.

"It helps to have someone sympathetic read your story and tell you honestly what problems they see--if you are willing to take criticism! If you are hurt or offended by solicited advice, you have no business trying to write. Weigh every objection before you reject it. Get a second opinion if you want, but that's all. At some point, you have to trust your gut.*

"After you have done everything you know to do to your manuscript, put it aside for a few months so that you can come back to it with fresh eyes. To help pinpoint common problems, following is a checklist to use in evaluating your completed manuscript:

1. Is the plot unpredictable, or can readers too easily guess what is going to happen? Have I laid the groundwork in the beginning to justify what happens later? Does the plot build on events? Does it incorporate cause and effect? Does it plod, or do things happen unbelievably fast? Do I have a satisfying conclusion that ties up loose ends?

2. Does the setting encourage readers to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in the story? Are descriptions concise and evocative? Have I included significant details? Have I let anachronisms slip in, or have I made it too trendy? Have I done enough research? Or do facts overwhelm the story?

3. Are the characters believable? Can readers identify with my protagonists? Have I given each good and bad traits, or made them all black and white? Have I subtly given reasons for their actions? Have I made them unique individuals? Do they grow and change through the story? Does their dialogue sound real? Or do they use so much slang that international readers will find conversations hard to follow?

4. Does my narrative flow easily? Do the sentences make sense? Have I used the right words to convey what I'm trying to say? Have I overused certain words or expressions? When read aloud, do my paragraphs have a pleasing rhythm, with a good mix of short and complex sentences? Do they set the proper tone for each scene? Have I mistakenly used slang in the narrative? Is my manuscript free of technical errors?

5. What message have I conveyed with this story? Have I preached instead of letting the characters' actions make my point? What is the overall impression it leaves with readers? When they finish it, are they warmly encouraged? Wanting to read more? Glad to be done with it? Depressed? Confused? What impression have I given of God? Would I want to live in my story?

"Finally, the most important question is: What do I need to change to make it right?"

*John Bunyan spent over 12 years in prison for the crime of preaching the Bible. While there, he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, and had it published when he was sprung (1678 and 1684). He was severely criticized for using (1) fiction (2) dialogue (3) fantasy and (4) allegory to explore the Christian life in this unprecedented work. He replied to these objections in "The Author's Apology for His Book" (a theme which every writer is familiar with). Here are just a few excerpts:

I only thought to make
I knew not what; nor did I undertake
Thereby to please my neighbour; no, not I;
I did it mine own self to gratify. . . .

Well, when I had thus put my ends together,
I show'd them others, that I might see whether
They would condemn them, or them justify;
And some said, Let them live; some, Let them die;
Some said, John print it; others said, Not so:
Some said, it might do good; others said, No.

Now was I in a strait, and did not see
Which was the best thing to be done by me:
At last I thought, Since you are thus divided,
I print it will, and so the case decided. . . .

I further thought, if now I did deny
Those that would have it thus to gratify,
I did not know but hinder them I might
Of that which would to them be great delight;
For those which were not for its coming forth,
I said to them, Offend you I am loath;
Yet since your brethren pleased with it be,
Forbear to judge till you do further see.

If that thou wilt not read, let it alone;
Some love the meat, some love to pick the bone. . . .

May I not write in such a style as this?
In such a method too and yet not miss
My end--thy good? . . .

"Well, yet I am not fully satisfy'd
That this your book will stand when soundly tried."

Why, what's the matter? "It is dark!" What though?
"But it is feigned." What of that? I trow
Some men by feigned words, as dark as mine,
Make truth to spangle, and its rays to shine!
"But they want solidness." Speak, man, thy mind!
"They drown the weak; metaphors make us blind."

My dark and cloudy words, they do but hold
The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold.

To read an excerpt from Pilgrim's Progress, see here.

Random quotations:

What good is fiction?

"The only two questions to ask about a poem [elsewhere defined as "imaginative literature whether in prose or verse"] in the long run, are, firstly, whether it is interesting, enjoyable, attractive, and secondly, whether this enjoyment wears well and helps or hinders you towards all the other things you would like to enjoy, or do, or be."

C.S. Lewis
The Personal Heresy, pp. 107, 119-120
1965 (first published 1939)

Stories that endure (and those that don't)

"This is also why the new novels die so quickly, and why the old fairy tales endure for ever. The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel the hero is abnormal; the centre is not central. Hence the fiercest adventures fail to affect him adequately, and the book is monotonous. You can make a story out of a hero among dragons; but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world. The sober realistic novel of to-day discusses what an essential lunatic will do in a dull world."

G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy (1908)

After having insisted that she cannot look at any manuscripts, Robin invites you to e-mail your questions to her.

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