Writing fiction is personal. Oh, we may take lessons, get involved in workshops, read books and articles on character development, plotting, and such. But we write using our own cache of skills, tools, and methods. And if those methods take us successfully from blank screen to finished product, we must be doing something right.
Many writers struggle, especially at first, with some aspect of the writing process. For most, it’s a matter of getting to work—butt in chair, fingers on keys. From there, it means finding your comfort zone. What approach makes sense to you? Do you produce your finest work when you just start writing or do you need to outline first? Can you flesh out your characters as you tell the story or are you more inclined to start with a circle like an artist might on canvas, filling in the details later?
Do you have the ability to visualize your characters and the scenes? This is a valuable asset and not every writer has it. Those who don’t must rely on pure logic. I believe that those who lack the ability to visualize are more apt to use index cards, mind-mapping or some other method of keeping track of their story, the characters, and the details of each scene. There are even aps for that now.
Probably the most successful stories come from writers who can feel the story—who become a part of it as they write—who know their characters and can make them identifiable just through their vocabulary and actions, for example. A successful story touches the reader in some way. Emotion is a connecting factor in fiction, whether that emotion is fear, anger, hate or joy and delight. A writer’s job is to make the readers care.
As you know, I’m a forty-year veteran in the writing field, but new to fiction. Like many of you, I’m easing my way through the process of fiction-writing and learning along the way. Currently, I’ve published 9 Klepto Cat Mysteries for Kindle—Mansion of Meows is the 9th and was published last month. Book 10 just came back from the proofreader/editor and I’m doing my last edit. I’ve written 30,000 words of book 11 and we’re preparing book 6 for print. Over the last few years, my nonfiction writing business has become all about fiction and I’m having a ball.