The author of this article has never had a “best seller.” However, at one time he was book review editor for a Chicago newspaper, and after intensively studying writing and publishing for over 60 years, believes he has learned something about it. There is a saying, “those that can’t do, teach.”
Fiction writing is story telling with written, not spoken words. A good story like a good read entertains, and a great story like a great book entertains, and also improves by educating.
The spoken story has a number of advantages over the written story. The spoken word’s emphasis and the sentence word flow are immediately evident in the storyteller’s voice. The written word uses punctuation and rules of grammar to convey in writing what the storyteller does by speaking. That is why correct punctuation, spelling and grammar are important.
Words tell the story, and it is how the words are selected and strung together, that makes or breaks the story. Every word has its meaning, and also its accompanying emotion, or feeling. As the story is read its words create thoughts and feelings in the reader’s mind. The measure of a story’s success lies in this one thing; its ability to transport the reader to its place, time and action. When the reader is made to feel as if he or she is actually there, is in the story and part of it, the story is successful. How is this accomplished? Continue reading “Successful Fiction Writing by Phillip Duke Ph.D.”