Fiction: The Facts
This 66-page e-book by Harriet Smart is a friendly
introduction to the essential techniques of storytelling,
whether you're writing novels, screenplays or short stories.
Fiction: The Facts is bundled with Writer's Café,
but if you don't need the software you can buy the standalone e-book for only $10 (£5).
Encapsulating 20 years of writing experience, Fiction: The Facts will inspire you to get writing, and teach you the tricks you need
to make your readers completely believe in the worlds you create.
 Fiction: The Facts also comes with a free e-book, Writing Recipes - 37 valuable nuggets of wisdom from Harriet,
including Becoming a Writer, How to make memorable and convincing characters, How to plan a murder, How to deal with block,
How to make readers cry, How not to panic, and more.
Both e-books are bundled in all of the following formats:
- PDF - for computers and some portable readers
- RTF - for computers and readers such as the Sony Reader
- MobiPocket - for computers and many portable readers, phones and PDAs. For more information about this format and programs to read it, see www.MobiPocket.com.
- Microsoft Reader - for computers, phones and PDAs running Windows or Windows Mobile. For more information about this format and programs to read it, see the Microsoft site.
Fiction: The Facts costs $10.00 U.S. / £5.00 / €7.00 incl. VAT.
The files are encryption-free for maximum flexibility and ease of use. Click the 'Buy Now' button to buy via Plimus.
After payment, you will recieve an email giving you instructions for downloading your e-book.
When you buy Fiction: The Facts, you will be sent a voucher for 20% off the price of Writer's Café in case you
decide to buy the software later.
'FICTION: THE FACTS' CONTENTS
- Introduction
-
This is how it happens for me: I see something - a picture in a museum, or a photograph. Or I hear
something - a snatch of angry conversation or a piece of juicy gossip. Or perhaps I just feel
something - a rush of sudden and breathtakingly powerful emotion. These are the things that get me
going, give me the urge to make a fictional world and people it with characters. It's an urge I've had
for as long as I can remember and it's no accident that it keeps happening again and again, that act
of seeing and then reflecting, because it is a habit: one I was lucky enough to fall into by accident.
I can remember the very moment when I became aware of it. I was eighteen, sitting on a swing in a
dilapidated but very picturesque garden of a country hotel in Cheshire. It was high summer and the red
walls of the garden were groaning with monster roses. So like every eighteen-year-old should, I
enjoyed the delights of the moment - a warm day, a swing, being on holiday, my exams behind me,
university and life in front of me. But I also realised that the place and the moment was useful to me
as a potential writer - it was a setting I could one day use in a story, and the person who sat on the
swing could be anyone I liked. So I took a special mental note of it all, photographing the place with
my mind. I realised then that life was more than just for living. Life was a material to be
reprocessed and reformed into art by writers and painters and - well, yes, apparently by me. That was
what I had to do.
Nearly twenty years and half a dozen novels later I still feel that. It's a constant challenge in the
back of my mind to be struggled with. It can't be ignored. The craft doesn't come easy, and the
necessary concentration and energy - and sometimes the will - can just fail, like an engine dying. But
the desire to do it never leaves me. And I think this is something all writers share. That impulse to
transform life as they experience it into a world of their own making; something that might, with a
bit of luck, delight, enchant, or move another person.
- Chapter 1: BEGINNINGS
-
How to think like a writer and fill up that empty page.
- Chapter 2: WHAT IF
- How to research and identify the situations and themes
that you want to develop into your story. Including information
on possible sources of stories and how to creatively develop the
idea. Click here to read it online.
- Chapter 3: CHARACTERISATION
- Techniques and suggestions to help to build and flesh out memorable characters.
How to make sure your characters work for your story and behave like professionals.
- Chapter 4: GENRE
- Stories come in all shapes and sizes, but popular story forms can give
vital inspiration for your story direction.
- Chapter 5: POINT OF VIEW
- Learn the ins and outs of one of the most powerful tools available to the writer.
- Chapter 6: SETTING
- Finding and using the right setting for maximum
dramatic effect.
- Chapter 7: CONFLICT
- Identifying the tensions in the story and how to
build on them. How characterisation combines with conflict to
make the backbone of a story.
- Chapter 8: SHAPE AND STRUCTURE
- Inciting incident, complications, crisis and
resolution - explaining the four pillars of a well-built story
and how to bring them into your story design.
- Chapter 9: TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR STORY
- Casting a critical eye over your story and how to work with a flexible blueprint.
- Chapter 10: GETTING PUBLISHED
- Some insider tips about the world of publishing. How to create a pitch and sell yourself along with your story.
- Chapter 11: FINAL THOUGHTS
- Getting past block, staying the course and why writing is the most fun you can have on your own.
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© 2008 Harriet Smart
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