A Short Guide to Writing and Selling Fiction
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About this ebook
How to write –
a novel,
a short story,
great opening lines,
characters, conflict, plot,
titles, theme, point of view, person,
setting, dialogue, show – don’t tell,
structural devices, outlines, critiquing,
and the professionals of selling stories and novels.
O'Neil De Noux
O’Neil De Noux writes in many genres, primarily realistic crime fiction, strong on setting, mostly New Orleans, featuring the accurate dialogue of the streets. He also writes scintillating erotica. His publishing credits include 20 novels, nine short story collections and over 300 short stories. From contemporary to historical, De Noux uses several recurring characters in his New Orleans stories and novels: NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau (21st Century); NOPD Homicide Detective LaStanza (20th Century); Private-eye Lucien Caye (1940s) and NOPD Detective Jacques Dugas (1890s). A primary theme in De Noux’s fiction is the effect of violence on victims and their families as well as the sometimes debilitating effect of violence on law enforcement officers, private-eyes and their loved ones. As a former private-eye and currently a police investigator, De Noux knows his subject well. De Noux’s stories span from mystery to mainstream, literary, suspense, thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, erotica, humor, westerns, children’s fiction as well as cross-genre stories – erotic-detective, science-fiction mysteries and the like. O’Neil De Noux’s “The Heart Has Reasons” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2006) won the Private Eye Writers of America’s prestigious SHAMUS AWARD for BEST SHORT STORY 2007. The SHAMUS is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. In 2009, the Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded the Derringer Award for Best Novelette to another Lucien Caye story, “Too Wise” by O’Neil De Noux (which appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s November 2008 Issue). The Derringer Award is given annually to recognize excellence in the mystery short form. In June 2012, De Noux’s novel JOHN RAVEN BEAU was named 2011 POLICE BOOK OF THE YEAR by Police-Writers.com, a group that boasts of 1153 state and local law enforcement officials from 485 state and local law enforcement agencies who have written 2504 police books. A hyper-realistic crime story, JOHN RAVEN BEAU provides an intimate look into the beleaguered NOPD Homicide Division, a story that begins in the French Quarter and ends in a swamp, all within the city limits of America’s eternal city, a city that cannot be destroyed – New Orleans. A second Beau novel was released in 2013 – CITY OF SECRETS. Books by O’Neil De Noux (all available as eBooks and trade paperbacks). Go to www.oneildenoux.net for links.
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A Short Guide to Writing and Selling Fiction - O'Neil De Noux
Cover Copyright 2010 O’Neil De Noux
A Short Guide to
Writing and Selling Fiction
a how to book by
O’Neil De Noux
Copyright 2010 O’Neil De Noux
Smashwords Edition
No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder.
For more information about the author go to http://www.oneildenoux.net
Twitter: ONeilDeNoux
for my friend
George Alec Effinger
who taught me more than he realized
Introduction
From 1993 through 2006, I taught creative writing classes at a number of Louisiana Universities – Tulane, University of New Orleans, McNeese State and Delgado Community College. I taught fiction writing, novel writing, short story writing, mystery writing and science-fiction writing. A number of my former students have become professional writers, one winning a national writing award. They deserve the credit – they did the work. However, I’m happy to have helped.
For the last seventeen years, former students, their friends and a number of wanna-be writers have beseeched me to send them copies of my notes and lesson plans. Frankly, I got tired of Xeroxing the stuff so I put together a short, yet comprehensive guide to writing and selling fiction. Since then, I have given away more of these than I care to count.
It occurred to me that I might want to distribute this guide to a wider audience and make a buck doing so. So here it is, lessons put in simple terms.
Hope it helps.
A Short Guide to Writing & Selling Fiction
Literature was not born the day a boy crying,
Wolf! Wolf! came running out of the Neanderthal Valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born the day when a boy came crying,
Wolf! Wolf! and there was no wolf behind him.
– Vladimir Nabakov.
Before we start our discussion of how to write fiction, I’d like to ask what you think is the aim of writing fiction. What should a writer aim for? To make money? Sure. To get published? Certainly. But that should not be your aim when you write your fiction. So what is the aim?
The aim is to elicit emotion in the reader.
If you get the reader to feel something, then you’ve achieved an important goal and the story will probably be bought and published. I’m talking any emotional response, from tear-jerker stories, to stories that frighten, inspire, allow the reader to escape, make the reader angry (hopefully not at you), make the reader contemplate. Make the reader remember your story.
Although there are no rules on how to write, I have devised three guidelines that I follow:
1. A writer writes.
Write every day. Steal time to write. The production of writing is the most important thing you’ll do as a writer. Seems trite, but it’s true.
2. Get it written, then get it right.
Get it on paper, or as most writers do today, get it on the computer, then revise it. Get the story written as quickly as you can, then get it right.
3. Show a story, don’t tell a story.
Write your story in scenes. You’ll have plenty of room, in scenes, to put in the internalization and descriptions as well as dialogue.
Another caveat before we begin our lessons – I AM NOT THE BURNING BUSH!
Just about everything I’m about to teach you has an exception. Writing is a uniquely individualistic endeavor. Do it your way. This is the way I’ve been taught and the way I and many professional writers do it.
The proper format for a novel
If you want to submit your novel to editors or agents, here is the accepted, professional format.
Typewritten on white bond paper (20 pound copy paper 8 1/2 X 11
preferred). If you use more fancy paper you prove you’re not a professional. It’s an unwritten rule, an indicator. Most writers cut corners with expenses whenever possible.
Font = Use Times New Roman, Times, Courier or Palatino (no exotic font).
Double Spaced.
1 inch margin on all sides (do not right justify).
TITLE PAGE
Title is centered in the middle of the page (usually in upper case)
by (centered under title)
Name as you want it to appear in print (also centered)
Lower Left Corner: Single Spaced
Word Count: 70,000