Summary
Are you an aspiring literary fiction writer? If the answer is yes, you can immensely benefit from the tips below that will help you come up with a brilliant literary fiction book.
1. Read Poetry
If you want to write literary fiction, the first step is to read poetry every day. When you read literary fiction, you might have already noticed that the actual thing that makes it literary is the writing style. So, even if you are not a poet yourself – you still would want to read poetry every day.
This way, you will understand the style and get the style infused in your mind and soul in a way that you are walking and thinking poetry. The more poetry you read, the more it will help with writing literary fiction. The underlying reason is that the more you read, the more poetic your writings will become.
2. Discipline Yourself
If you truly want to accomplish the goal of writing literary fiction, you must learn how to discipline yourself.
The only way you will actually complete what you have started to write is if you are much more disciplined. The underlying trick to becoming disciplined at writing is to become disciplined in other areas of your life. This way, you can work on becoming a more disciplined person in general.
So, you might try changing your diet; you might as well try to change your exercise patterns. You might as well try practicing good sleep hygiene and being more disciplined in drinking and smoking. You get the point – you should work on yourself to become a more disciplined person.
By doing so, you will translate discipline into your writing habits.
3. Read Essay
The next suggestion to help you improve your literary fiction writing is reading essays. Although you are writing fiction, you are writing narrative, which is why reading the prose – especially the creative non-fiction of other authors is crucial.
So – you might want to get into the classics, such as the writings of George Orwell. By reading classics, you will come across some of the greatest essayists of the English language.
4. Eavesdrop on Conversations
Now, if you haven’t heard about someone advising you to eavesdrop before, then this might come as a shock to you. Nonetheless, a lot of successful writers recommend eavesdropping as it is the most important step and a crucial tactic in terms of realistic dialogue.
So – the easiest way to learn this technique is to ditch your car and take public transportation. Depending on where you live and where you are going – you will hear so much that you will get exciting content to write or practice writing dialogue.
By eavesdropping on people’s conversations on public transportation, you will hear loads of things that different types of people say in their natural state of talking. You already know that conversation and dialogue are extremely crucial when it comes to writing literary fiction.
Ideally, as an aspiring writer, you should have a notebook on you everywhere. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big notebook; you can also jot down notes and details in a smaller notebook. You can also use a recorder of some type.
But, the best method of keeping tabs on people’s conversations would be by jotting things down in your notebook. You might want to keep one in your purse or in your drawer at work; you can even keep a notebook in your bathroom.
You get the point – keep a notebook on you all the time because you don’t want to get in a situation where you hear something brilliant – only to forget it the very next moment.
5. Find a Favorite Novelist
This suggestion is absolutely crucial for a modern literary fiction writer. All you need to do is find a favorite novelist in different world regions.
It is not good enough to read only one author. You might want to read many different authors hailing from all sorts of backgrounds – each one of them has a unique writing style. We have progressed as a global village – so if you want to write good literary fiction, you wouldn’t want to stick to reading one writer/ novelist only.
You will want to read everyone who is a great writer – and also those writers whom you consider not so great but who are writing in English. This way, you will be aware of the literary world.
6. Study Film & Books
Another way to get better at literary fiction is to read what is in print and watch how the print has been turned into a film. While you are in it, you might want to pay attention to crucial things, such as character development.
By doing so, you will start noticing things, such as tactics in terms of character development – when it is on the big screen that you might have missed when it was on the page. So by watching a singular narrative in two different forms, you will learn many things that are absolutely crucial for writing literary fiction.
So, make a list of your favorite books that are available in movie formats. Read the book and then watch the movie – study both – especially in terms of character development.
Some other Writing Tips
Once you have followed all the writing tips mentioned above, you are in the best position to start your writing journey. And while you are at it, you might want to experiment – for instance, you might want to experiment with writing with an outline and without an outline.
You don’t necessarily have to plot every detail in those outlines – even if you were to jot down a single line at the start of each chapter, you would already know what you will write in that chapter.
So, do whatever works for you – if you can bring the character, plot, and conflict to life without a detailed outline, then you might as well just do that. But, you will still need some type of outline so you have a direction to follow, as, without it, your narrative won’t make much sense.
I am Zahid Hussain and I am the Founder of The Different Languages blog. Expert in digital marketing and have a big hammer in strong research.