Writing about writing

I’m three thousand words into a new writing project about how to create short fiction, a book with the working title Writing the Entertaining Story. 

Here’s a raw snippet from the opening.

Your story has to take your reader somewhere else. Ultimately, with skill, your story can become a vacation from this world into a created world that you, as the author, make seem very real. This is done  using “telling details,”  grounding the reader in the story and by creating a secondary world. World-building is an especially important feature if you write science fiction or fantasy, but it’s a huge element in all entertaining stories.

Above all, your story has to make people blink and react in surprise and almost withdrawal when they return to the real world. To do this, you want to induce a near-trance state in the reader, where they are in your created world and make an emotional transition when they re-enter this world. Note: The shorter the story, the harder that is to do.

As was the case with Confessions of a Female Safety Engineer, this book is coming out fast. With any luck, I will have it ready in time for Ravencon.

One thought on “Writing about writing

  1. This is great Wendy. I know a long time no hear but still writing myself. In Assisted Living Center in Houston. Started Journaling Class. One person’s writing may be put into a short five-minute video presentation on Positive Aspects of Aging for Brookdale Assisted Living.
    More later,
    Blessings,
    Brad in Houston

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