by Lou Belcher

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: March 08, 2012

To write fiction, you must be willing to tell lies. After all, fiction is storytelling. There are many ways to learn to write fiction. Here are some of the ways to get to work on learning to write fiction, Combine as many as you want and your skills will improve exponentially.

1. Write. To learn to write fiction, you must write. This is true of improving all types of writing. The more you write, the more your writing will improve. The best way to get started with practice at writing fiction is to write a short, short story each day. To do this, write a leading sentence (such as "She heard the scratching at the door, and then..." or "He looked around the corner and saw..."). Then write a short, short story about it. This will give your writing a little practice session while giving a boost to your imagination as well.

2. Read and study. Do you have a type of fiction in mind that you want to write? If not, read a wide variety of novels and decide what type of fiction best suits you. Once you know the genre of fiction you want to write, read as many books from that genre as possible. Study them for how the books are put together.

3. Obtain guidelines. Send for writer's guidelines from publishing houses that publish books in your favorite genre. Study them to learn as much as you can about what they are looking for and what they will and won't accept from writers in that genre.

4. Get involved. Join writer's groups, attend conferences on fiction writing, and read books on writing fiction. Establish a network with other writers so that you can learn from them and support and be supported by them.

5. Critique. After you've started to write, join a critique group or form one of your own. A critique group can provide valuable feedback about your writing. It gives you an outside view of what you've done and you'll gain some valuable suggestions from it.

6. Evaluation. Develop a self-evaluation tool to check your writing before giving it to others to read. Through it, assess the plot for beginning, middle and end; dialogue; point of view; character development, etc. Be brutally honest with yourself.

7. Obtain a freelance editor. Run your fiction by a freelance editor before you send it out to a publisher. Writers rarely catch all their own errors, so it's always a good idea to have a fresh look at it to ensure it's in the best shape possible when you send it out for consideration.

Above all else, keep writing. Writers write and that's the best way to learn to write fiction.

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