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. 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.

3. 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!

4. 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.

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6. Know the Unwritten Rules of Your Genre

In order to write successfully in a certain genre, you must know the unwritten rules – in short, what the readers in that genre want to see. This is overlooked by countless writers who either jump eagerly into a specific genre without researching it first, or knowingly try to break the rules.

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8. Memory Versus Flashback

In fiction, what is the difference between a memory and a flashback? A memory summarizes the past, but a flashback shows an actual scene from the past which is integrated into the present-day story.

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