aliceedelweiss

I was thinking of this next story being just flat out realistic fiction...I haven't written much with this type, any one have any tips on characters or plot or anything? everything and anything would be helpful ^.^

Alice

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Vixen

Of course. Now, it depends how realistic you want to go. Try reading up on the realistic fiction classics, such as to kill a mocking bird, or hemmingway, if you want a realistic setting with a heavy dash of fantasy, try Charel's D'lint. If you like to kill a mockingbird, try The Secret Life of Bees..

River1034

Good stuff vixen! Anyway, back on topic.
Life is weird, and because it is your fiction can be weird, crazy, out there and still be realistic, a good example is Richard Laymon, Ever heard of him? eh probably not, i dont know alot of people that do. But he's a good writer.
Develop your characters well enough that they almost become real people, let them make realistic decisions and have realistic emotions ( i say let them because if you develop your character enough you wont be deciding what he does, you'll just be writing it down as he does. lol). THen you can put them in just about any situtaion you want and it will be realistic to a point, as long as its not like dinausars shooting lasers and vampires made of cotton or something like that.
good luck.

Rob

Observe the world around you. Observe the things you don't usually observe. Observe the usual things, and try to see them in a different way. Describe them. Make it entertaining. Look for boundaries to push. New paths to walk. Originality. Write it down. Make it entertaining. Take an ordinary event or situation. Try to look at it in different ways. Capture it on paper. Revise it. Play with it. Make it entertaining. Don't let reality constrain you.

Good luck.
Omni

tcaptain

I think I read that Hemingway said somewhere to give advice to a writer: "Write what you know"

Which is why for the longest time I had a real problem writing realistic female characters because, well, who can understand women? (I'm kidding...but I really had VERY little experience) Now I'm older, more experienced so I can draw on that to help my writing, I also ask my wife for help hehe.

This is not to say someone who's young (and I've noticed a few young writers on these boards) CAN'T write. They can, years don't always equate experience. You can be 50 (I'm 33) and have NO real life experience and you can be 12 and have lived a lifetime.

Learn about what you want to write and draw on personal experience to give meat to your story. I find those are the most fulfilling to read AND to write.

srhalfwaythere

Well if you were to write about wars or something, but in a real time - just fake characters and everything - then you'll have to know the settings and places. Maybe not people. Just don't actually make-up a company or something along those lines, then learn that there is really an army company by that name.

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Sean Riordan

"Being half way there is enough to last a lifetime, but far enough to keep you going." - Sean Riordan

brockDXD

Read some stories by graham masterton. His books are so far fetched but he makes you believe they could be real using a few techniques. I've noticed that he will link ideas in his books to real life events. These real life references to things like the sinking of the titanic are what makes you relate to them in a realistic manner. Also, the character personalities and relationships if real enough can make fiction seem also real.

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I look at the man in the mirror with clenched fists,
And wonder if he'd look better with slit wrists...

Wordsworth

Meditate on the smallest of details in life. The things we take for granted.

Such little things as your character interupting his/her dialogue just to sniffle when it's cold outside.

Listen to the nuance of how we actually speak.

"The other day, you know, I was thinking about us. What? No, you know. I mean... about us and the way we've, well, sort of go on about things lately. I don't know. It's just... I just want us to... If we could put certain things in -"

"In what? The past?"

"No. Perspective. Perspective. Look. I want you to know that, that I care a great deal for you. For us. And I think if we could, somehow, just... keep that... in perspective. I believe then we... I don't know. I Don't know. But I know we simply can't go on like this."

"Like what then?"

"This! This! Like how you never meet me half way. For instance. And- and, how, like, whenever I'm trying to express myself, in my way... when we come to these places, you just... I don't know."


It's an off the cuff example to illustrate that we tend to muddle through our intimate moments. Your characters shouldn't "sound" as if they've mastered public speaking. Live in the moment with your characters. Don't worry about word count. Don't worry about your outline (if you have one). That's what realistic fiction is. It unfolds before you the way life does. Life is the theme. What ever moral lessons are to be drawn, let your characters flush them out, not you.

Realistic fiction tends to be drawn out. Do not be afraid that you'll somehow alienate or bore your reader. Such attention to fine nuances tends to drawn them in. Though, you must be careful not to use overly descriptive passages. Reaistic fiction should focus on character nuance and realism than either plot or setting realism.

Hemingway, nevertheless hailed as a great author, goes overboard with some of his descriptions that one tends to lose the dramatic moments between his characters.

And don't be afraid to use one word sentences to convey an emotion or concept. Isolated as a paragraph, they can be quite powerful.

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If I pen but one more word, I will have wrote more than I ever thought I could.