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What are the Best Fiction Writing Tips? Top 41 Tips From a Fiction Editor
Updated: Jul 31, 2023
What are the Best Fiction Writing Tips?
The ones I'm about to give you in this post, of course! Silly of you to ask.
Okay. Writing fiction can be daunting, but that's fine. It's that way for everyone. In this post, I'll guide you through the treacherous waters of fiction writing by giving you the best tips I've gleaned over the years as a fiction editor.
Today you get to pick my brain about character, plotting, and story structure, choosing your POV, writing dialogue, developing settings, and more.
What are the best writing tips? Navigate to what you want to know:
41 Best Fiction Writing Tips
You can write an incredible novel; I don't doubt that. But it will require meticulous planning, captivating characters, balanced pacing, compelling dialogue, immersive settings, and dynamic, dramatic action.
You will have to craft a solid outline as your road map. Give your characters depth. Maintain a steady rhythm. And learn how to self-edit, stay motivated, and develop effective brainstorming skills.
That's quite the list, huh? Writing a novel takes dedication, but if you give it that, the result can be a masterpiece that you can be proud of.
Best Character Writing Tips
#1 - Make Your Characters Contradictory
Add depth and complexity to your own writing by developing characters who possess contradictions. These contradictions can manifest in their beliefs, motivations, or behavior.
They contradict themselves, or they can contradict supporting characters, and they most definitely will contradict their antagonist. These oppositional aspects of your story will naturally lead to internal and external conflict, generating tension and driving the plot forward.
You want your characters to be complex and feel like real people and not like manikins. Real people are contradictory.
#2 - Character Dynamics
Just as you carefully develop your protagonist, pay equal attention to the interactions between your characters.
Each relationship is unique, with its own conflicts and power dynamics. These interpersonal interactions shape the whole narrative and contribute to your main character arc. Interactions between characters must be rich with subtext, emotional depth, and conflict.
Often it is the dynamics between the characters, not the characters themselves, that leave a lasting impact on readers.
#3 - Characterization Markers
A great way to easily characterize is to give your characters markers that make them distinct and memorable. These can be physical traits, mannerisms, speech patterns, or unique quirks that set them apart.
These details help readers visualize the characters but also add depth. A great thing about markers is that they effectively describe your character without telling us. For instance, one of the cliched (so I don't suggest using it) character markers shows your character with calloused hands, which signifies to the reader that they work as a laborer.
#4 - Tailor Every Element to Challenge the Protagonist
Every plot point, obstacle, and supporting character must serve a purpose in your protagonist's journey.
Each element must be creatively crafted to challenge or assist the protagonist in their arc. Ensure that everything you write has a point. Every conversation, every interaction. You are writing about a human being; humans are what make your story relatable.
Humans are what make your reader care.
The story is about the character, so everything must somehow serve that character.
#5 - Tap into Honest and Raw Emotion
Authenticity is key when it comes to portraying emotions in your characters. Do not manufacture emotions or resort to cliched expressions. Focus on tapping into genuine, honest, and raw emotion. Deep dive into the emotional core of your characters, explore their fears, desires, and everything else.
But don't disrespect your reader's intelligence by presenting them with fake sentimentality. They can tell the difference between you trying to force an emotional connection with them rather than taking the time to legitimately and authentically express that emotion.
That is why I tell authors nine times out of 10 to not show their readers crying. It takes a lot of work to truly express that much sorrow and develop the catalyst of that response. If you don't do that groundwork, your crying character will come off as mentally unstable.
Best Plotting and Story Structure Tips
#1 - Subvert Genre Expectations
Just because a certain convention is how something is usually done doesn't mean that's the best way or the best fit for your story. Try to take conventions from other genres and experiment by incorporating them into your own writing.
Take risks. Bend the norms of your genre and push boundaries.
#2 - Outline!
Goodness, gracious people, outline your stories!
It's hard, so people pretend they don't have to do it, but it makes for better-structured novels.
Outlining allows you to organize your plot points, character arcs, and your story's thematic elements so that they have purpose and clarity. It's the barrier that keeps your story on the road and prevents it from running off into the bush. So come on, just outline; investing time and effort into crafting a solid foundation for your story will lead you to success.
#3 - Elastic bands
Imagine your story as an elastic band that you gradually stretch, increasing the tension as the narrative progresses.
Structure your plot points to incorporate extended periods of tension and short releases of that tension. You pull that elastic band tighter as the story builds, creating more tension and releasing less. Continue increasing the pressure and decreasing the releases, building anticipation until it reaches a snapping point at the climactic moment, finally finding resolution in the ultimate release.
You should think of these things in the outlining process because it's crucial to get the timing right.
# 4 - Tying Thread Ends
Every plot point, no matter how small, represents a thread in the fabric of your story. In the first half of your book, you introduce all the numerous threads, but it's your responsibility to ensure that these threads are neatly tied together in the second half.
Readers love it when seemingly insignificant details or events from earlier in the story become integral to the plot's resolution later on. It's like a reward for your reader's attention, and an upside is it makes it seem like you knew what you were doing all along.
Which you do because you outlined, right?
#5 - There are Many Ways to Structure a Story
While 3 or 5 act structures are used widely, you don't have to limit yourself to these two ways of doing things. There are lots of different structures out there. For instance, I prefer to use a 4 act structure, but there are also circular and spiral structures, or you can even try inventing your unique approach.
Do your research, and experiment with unconventional storytelling styles. But also appreciate the traditional way of doing things and why it works so you can incorporate those aspects into your story.
Best Dialogue Writing Tips For Fiction Writers
#1 - Oblique Dialogue
Don't have characters directly reply to anything any other character has said or done. Keep the story moving forward by having your characters speak diagonally from the previous dialogue beat.
For instance:
Paul says, "I can't believe how hard that bird smashed into the window."
And instead of Luke also speaking about the bird smacking the window, he talks about something else that also happened that day; he says, "Did Angie ever text you back?"
It's a little hard to explain in just a few paragraphs; I have a much more thorough explanation at the end of this post, "Not All Writing Tips are Created Equal." Use the contents to jump to the bonus section, "the solution to (almost) everything."
#2 - Minimize Tags
Get rid of as many, if not all, dialogue tags. If you're worried the reader won't know who is talking, your narrative is unclear. Make sure that your writing provides sufficient cues and context to allow readers to follow conversations without tags.
#3 - Dialogue is not Speech
With dialogue in fiction, you are giving the impression of real speech, not copying real speech. Dialogue should serve a purpose; it must do more than one thing simultaneously. It has to be advancing the plot, revealing character traits and/or building tension.
Real speech is bogged down with echoes, ums and aws, and digressions. What you are doing is creating something better than realism in your fiction writing. It's like super realism.
Trim all unnecessary filler words or tangents, and maintain a natural flow while keeping everything focused and engaging. It's harder than it looks.
#4 - Make your Characters Better Actors
What your characters don't say is just as important as what your characters do say. Silence can be powerful as our nonverbal cues for conveying meaning and subtext. Express not only the emotions and words that your characters say and show visibly but also what they do not say, what they hold back, and the emotions they deliberately try to hide.
#5 - Add Conflicting Conversation Goals
Within a conversation, each character needs a different goal as to what they want to get out of that conversation. Make each character's agenda in the scene oppositional in some way to create interest and conflict within the subtext.
For instance, perhaps your male character wants to land a new client to become a partner in his law firm. The woman he is conversing with is devastated by her divorce and wants only to get back together with her husband.
In this conversation, the lawyer would push the woman to divorce her wealthy husband, and she would push back against it, maybe even to the point of emotional breakdown.
Thinking of dialogue this way is a great way to add interest to every page of your story.
Best Novel Writing Tips for Immersive Settings
#1 - Everything Means Something
Your settings should never be mere lifeless backdrops. It needs to serve a purpose and contribute to your story. There isn't a lot of space in fiction. Everything needs to be working double or triple duty, including your settings.
Think about how you're setting can symbolize themes, act as a catalyst for events, reflect the emotional states of your characters, and whatever else you can think of for it to do. Your settings should be dynamic and intentional; they must exist for a reason and significantly impact the narrative.
Otherwise, they feel like the cardboard set pieces behind a puppet show. And that's a real missed opportunity to strengthen your story.
#2 - Add Nuance to Your Settings
Include little details that make your settings interesting. Set them apart. Give it culture, give it personality, and distinctive characteristics.
Use your setting to create the mood when writing scenes, draw readers into the atmosphere and orientate them in the emotional core of the scene you're trying to convey. Pay attention to little details in everyday life that you can add to your settings that will bring them to life. You don't want to describe every little detail, only the things that make it unique and memorable.
#3 - Character-Centric Description
Describe your settings as your character sees them, not as they objectively are. Consider your character's emotions, personality, and biases. Is your character a grumpy old man? Then maybe he views the objectively brightly colored children's park at the height of spring as clamorous and painted with garish colors.
Ground the descriptions in your character's experience, keeping everything highly focused on their story, building a vivid picture with mood, tone, imagery, and emotion.
#4 Active Rather than Passive Descriptions
Describe your settings actively through the actions and interactions of your characters. Rather than describing the location passively through exposition, show us how your character moves through it and experiences it firsthand. Avoid static and lifeless descriptions that read like a laundry list of details.
And hey, if your character never interacts with it, why bother describing it at all. Those details can probably be cut.
#5 - Think of Setting Like a Filmmaker
Do yourself a favor and study the techniques of cinematography, such as lighting, color palettes, camera angles, and all the other stuff they teach you and film class.
Visualize your scenes vividly with as much detail as possible, and try to capture the mood and atmosphere you want to convey.
Filmmakers develop their cinematography to ensure the film has a cohesive look and that viewers come away with a single impression. By incorporating those same details, but adapted for fiction, when it comes time to describe your settings, you will give your reader the same satisfying experience.
Best Tips for Writing Dramatic Action (Characters Doing Things)
#1 - Character-driven Action
Make sure that every action in your story stems from a character's decision, or it's influenced by their choices. Characters should drive the plot forward through their actions. This will give your story a sense of agency and intentionality.
Also, don't let your characters do something for no reason. Put the prep work into everything.
#2 - Establish Stakes Early
Early on, establish what your character wants and cares about and make what it is they have to lose abundantly clear to the reader. In the outlining stage, carefully plan how and when to raise the stakes to maintain tension and keep the reader engaged.
Without these things, the reader can't be invested in your characters' actions or choices.
#3 Conflict is Interest
Conflict makes a story interesting, entertaining, engaging, or whatever word you'd like. So establish it from the get-go, and don't lose sight of it. Not once.
You must introduce conflict early on and maintain it throughout the story. This conflict will be seen through the actions of your character. So make sure that conflict is always the center of attention and drives behavior, whether from eternal struggles or external clashes.
#4 - Actions Have Consequences
Actions always have consequences. Your characters' choices and actions have positive or negative repercussions. Don't let anything your character does hang without effect for very long.
When you have a character act without a consequence, we editors call that a plot hole.
#5 - Don't Give Us a Play by Play
You may think you're showing rather than telling by describing to us through action everything that your character is doing. But please do not give us a play-by-play of your character's movements.
Describe only the important details but leave room for your reader's imagination. I have edited a lot of action in stories that end up feeling like "he went here, then he did this, this happened, then he did this..." It's just too much, and we don't need to know.
The reader will fill in many gaps for you. Don't take the power of their imaginations for granted.
POV Tips For Writing Fiction
#1 - Focus on narrators, not POVs
Try to shift your focus from the technical aspects of perspective to the narrators themselves. Who is telling the story? Why? How? What are their biases? How does their voice sound? Know this person intimately, even if they are an invisible hand in the narrative.
#2 - There are NO Rules about Viewpoint
Some of the best stories have been written disregarding conventional POV.
Experiment.
If something unconventional works, then cool. If not, no harm done; you can go back to the trusted third-person way of doing things. That means you can have as many POV characters as you see fit or create a new, weird way to tell a story. Have fun.
#3 Take POV Seriously
Besides the freedom to experiment, choosing the right POV is important and shouldn't be taken lightly. Your POV sets up your story's tone, pace, emotional impact, and overall direction.
So please take it seriously. Carefully consider the impact that you want to make on your reader because it all starts with your POV.
#4 - Consistency
Whatever POV you choose, be consistent. The reader has to be involved in whatever is going on. So, if you choose a non-traditional POV Style, stay consistent with it so the reader can get used to it.
Hopefully, by the end of novel or short story, they will understand your conventions.
#5 - Leverage your POV for Revealing Information
Another reason to put more thought into which POV you choose for your novel is to carefully regulate the trickling of information to the reader. Use it as a tool to create suspense and control the pacing of your story. Some POVs, for instance, are better for fast-paced stories, While others are better for slower-paced stories without much mystery.
Decide which one will best allow you to disclose crucial details. As for the number of POV characters, for example in a limited third-person fantasy, you should let the information reveals dictate how many you need.
Which character would be best able to disclose that information to the reader?
Quick-Fire Tips For the Writing Process
Best Practices for Generating Winning Story Ideas
The Number 1 method by far for generating amazing ideas is the "productive thinking" writing process I outline here. Use it!
Experiment with unique combinations of things, like Better Call Saul meets ancient Cambodia. Or historical romance meets Jaws.
Better yet, use the productive thinking method in number one to make lots of these and get twice as far. (I won't mention it again, but #1 is good for everything. So apply it to every aspect of your life. I do, and I've written 14,681 words of scheduled blog posts today, so there. And yes, I keep track.)
Top Strategies for Productivity and Staying Motivated
Realize that there will never be a perfect moment of motivation. Motivation to continue and do more is the reward for proving to yourself that you can do it in the first place. So just start writing, and I promise motivation will come. Keep writing regularly, even if it sucks for the first while.
Find your writer's meaningful purpose that drives you to value the process of fiction writing and forget about the outcomes of writing entirely. Plus, you'll be less susceptible to writer's block.
Get obsessed. We can feel weird sometimes, like there is something wrong with us when we obsess about our books, and loved ones are sick of hearing about it and giving us strange looks. But that is the way of the artist. Lean into the obsession, and don't let others talk you out of it. (Quick note, if you are being physically and emotionally harmed by your obsession, ignore this one.)
Tips for Researching Your Novel
Establish clear research goals and parameters of what you need to accomplish before starting. Sometimes we can get bored and throw in the towel when we get "good enough" research rather than gaining a deep and thorough understanding of a topic. This way, you're already an expert when you start writing.
Get out into the world for research. Your main subject of research should be the human animal. We have those outside. The internet doesn't have a whole lot of real people, just the personas they want you to see.
Stay organized, take copious notes, and remember where they are. Don't be like me with a hundred different notebooks and no clue as to what's in which one.
Top Self-Editing Tips From a Fiction Editor
Your first draft is garbage. Don't try to fix it. Figure out where it goes wrong, then rewrite your book from scratch but better this time. Do that as many times as you can stand until the book isn't garbage anymore. Editors get a lot of first-draft authors who think they are done.
Take it one scene at a time. In every scene (EVERY scene. I mean it), list the 3 strongest parts of the scene and the 3 weakest parts. Now, this is mandatory—cut the three weakest parts or rewrite them if they are integral to the plot.
Don't take "I don't wanna" for an answer. Good enough should not be part of your vocabulary. When you have done every single scene, start from the beginning and do it again!
Focus nearly all of your editing on perfecting the images you are trying to create in your reader's head. It's a lot to explain, so you should go through my series on how to REALLY show, don't tell. It will help you understand the emotional impact and how to create a vivid experience for your writer. You can start working on this during the first draft.
Final Words
There are a lot of things to think about when novel writing and many elements to keep track of. Putting words on paper is harder than it sounds. But by following these tips and strategies, you can elevate your fiction writing.
From creating great characters and subverting genre expectations to writing vivid, wonderful settings and mastering your POV )that you take very seriously), you will have done a hell of a lot of work. So pat yourself on the back but realize you're not done and then keep writing.
Want more great novel writing tips? Well, then, you're in the right place. Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list so you never miss out when I release one of my fantastic and helpful posts.
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