Fiction Writing Top Ten

Top Ten fictionwriting Articles

Here are the top ten articles for the Fiction Writing Site! These rankings are live and get reset at the beginning of each month, so check back often to see what your fellow visitors are most interested in!

1. Beware the Mary Sue Character

The Mary Sue character reads like a too-perfect version of the author. With no faults, she has no depth or complexity, and therefore no story worth caring about. She drags down the strongest plot, but if you know her characteristics, you can transform her into someone real on the rewrite.

2. House of Sleds Writing Prompt

It isn't just people photos that can suggest a story. Often a landscape can suggest a mood or tug at a writer's childhood memories. Look at this house of sleds and see what you think.

3. Word Count and Fiction Lengths

Why worry about word count? After you finish writing your fiction project to whatever length it needs to be, you must know its approximate length category to market it.

4. Man Lost in Thought Photo Prompt

Here is another photo writing prompt for you, which illustrates the power of an ambiguous expression. What is this young man thinking? What emotion is he feeling? You could interpret his story a million different ways to fit several different genres.

5. Describe a Character Struggling Back from Defeat

Here is a text writing prompt for you. Describe a character struggling back from defeat. You never know who has the right stuff to overcome adversity.

6. What is a New Western

A New Western shares the same setting and themes as a Classic Western, but is likely to be more introspective, downbeat, anti-heroic, and morally ambiguous.

7. What is a Modern Western

To understand what a Modern Western is, you must first realize what it is not. It is not historical. Gone is the setting that forms such a powerful foundation for both the Classic Western and the New Western novels.

8. Man with Phone Writing Prompt

The man in this photo writing prompt looks a bit like a fish out of water. He should spark some creative ideas as to how he, dressed as he is, got to where he is. Talk about a mismatch between snappy attire and bucolic surroundings!

9. The Near-Death Experience of the Classic Western

There are three types of story in the western fiction genre. They are Classic, New, and Modern. Here is the near-death experience of the Classic Western at the hands of the Big Five Publishers of New York City, and its miraculous recovery.

10. What is a Classic Western

There are three types of story in the western fiction genre – what I call Classic, New, and Modern. "Classic" means a Wild West story with heroism.