Fiction

We've all faced it at one time or another. We sit down to write, hell bent on churning out pages of vivid, moving prose. Then instead of being set on fire, we feel like a dried up speck of dust....

Writing a historical novel requires a lot of time, patience, and a boatload of research. However, there are many steps you can follow to make this creative process a more worthwhile and enjoyable...

The Internet offers many opportunities. For writers who enjoy writing and sharing their work, there are many ways to use the Internet to write, share and print stories with others. Sharing your...

Writing an emotionally compelling, intelligent, fun-to-read story can be a very difficult, but highly rewarding task. It requires practice and learning from trial and error, writing every day and...

A silent comedy is a comedy that relies on funny actions to get a laugh. This type of story was made popular by Charlie Chaplin in many of his early films. Silent comedies in film are easier to...

Percy Jackson & the Olympians is an incredibly popular series of books and is soon to be a motion picture. The series has over two years and counting on the New York Times Bestseller list....

The Gods were actually described as having essentially human, but having ideal bodies. Zeus was their chief god. The gods and goddesses were said to live on Mount Olympia. Each god of goddess...

"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, published in 1966, has the distinction of being number 47 on the list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 2000, according to the...

A continuous story, also known as a serial story, is a story that has no end. In theory, a serial story can go on forever. Realistically, it ends when the writer determines it's time to stop...

Hatshepsut was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh; she was crowned regent of Egypt because her half-brother, Tuthmose III, was too young to rule. To assert her power, Hatshepsut often dressed as...

Fiction writing is the act of creating something that doesn't exist--making up a story. Ideas for made-up stories can come from anywhere. Real life stories can spark ideas for fictional accounts...

You've heard that the release of the second movie in the Twilight series New Moon has everyone choosing between Team Edward and Team Jacob. You may have asked yourself, "how will I...

Writing fiction for teens and tweens is more than just a creative outlet for keeping a youthful mindset and revisiting your own high-school ghosts; it's a way to connect with the younger...

Sometimes words just come to us. They flow lyrically onto our page in beatific glory. Those are good times. That’s what makes it so hard when we find our fingers floating over the keys while our...

People have been talking about Ayn Rand’s books longer than most of us have been alive, and you’d like to see what they’re about. But is it worth tackling over 800 pages of narrative to digest...

The classic whodunit or puzzle mystery continues to delight its readers as it has since the golden age of the mystery in the thirties and forties. Whether you prefer a gentile British style cozy...

The market for romantic novels is almost insatiable, with lines like Harlequin or Kensington publishing hundreds of titles every year. You can write a story of your own to submit to such a...

Do you love books? Want to collect tons on the cheap? Read on!

Literature is categorized into various "genres" -- classes and forms of material that share certain general characteristics. For students, it is necessary to be able to discuss literature in terms...

Some of the most powerful stories in literature and cinema have a surprising common element: The death of a main character. At first glance, this would seem to be an instant turnoff. Why hang with...

A valuable way to read romantic comedies and love stories is by pinpointing the desire in the story. Whatever a character wants, that is what you want too as a reader and thinker. If the author...

Because sometimes horror can be the spice your fantasy novel needs.

There is nothing worse for a writer than to feel like you have nothing to write about. But that simply isn’t true – there is always something to write about! Unless you’re alone in the Arctic...

Ok, so you published a novel. Now what? You can't sit on the sidelines. Authors need to market the book or the book will likely not sell well.

"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold is a fictional story of the brutal rape and murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon. Susie narrates her story from a personalized version of heaven as she watches her...

The unofficial definition of a Twilight Fan is a person who enjoys the Twilight books and movies. A Twilight Freak is someone who has gone well beyond the realm of the normal Twilight Fan....

So you’ve read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn… You’ve even read the partial manuscript of Midnight Sun. Despite owning the Twilight DVD, you’ve watched the movie 47 times and are...

Manga is a term for Japanese comics, many of which are adapted in popular anime series like Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. Reading manga can be very entertaining and a welcomed break from dreary...

Every November, a group of people commit themselves to writing a novel. They call it National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Writing is a lonely activity, or, at least, one that usually requires...

We're going to try to learn how to write a novel, something like the ones written by Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland, and Victoria Holmes, also known as Erin Hunter. So let's get started!

The story-writing process is one that varies greatly from writer to writer, not only in the way the writing process is approached but in the content of the story itself. No one can tell you what...

You need to get out of Hogwarts and do some investigating in the Shrieking Shack one night, but Professor Snape, as usual, is skulking around just looking to catch you doing something against the...

So you've decided to take on take on one of the greatest literary achievements known to man: Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace". Are you prepared to tackle a work so monumental that it covers...

Good characters are the building blocks of any story. What would "War and Piece", a literary monument of genius, be without its 125+ characters? A thousand or more pages of setting and...

In Masashi Kishimoto's manga series, Naruto, the story's hero of the same name faces a menacing group of adversaries, the Akatsuki. The organization becomes central antagonists in the second half...

Writing is like many other skills: it takes practice, practice, and more practice to become a really good writer. One of the best ways to practice your writing is to keep a writer’s journal or...

If you've ever taken a writing class or workshop, it's likely that you've seen the words "SHOW, DON'T TELL!" printed somewhere on your manuscript. "Show, don't tell" is one of...

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), author of A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Oliver Twist, is one of the most well-known writers in English literature, and one remarkably successful in his...

“Everybody wants to have published a book. Hardly anyone wants to take the time and effort to write one.” I don’t know who said that, but it seems so true. How many of us have revealed to...

"Naruto," the incredibly popular anime and manga series, has a vast array of websites dedicated to uploading manga chapters. Most of these are fan translated, and may be different from the...

Learning how to write a kissing scene in a romance novel can be difficult at first, but with practice, kissing scenes and other romantic scenes will become easier and easier to write.

Are you hooked on Law & Order, C.S.I., Criminal Minds or Numb3rs? Have you always figured out whodunit moments before the detectives cracked the case? Eager for even more great sleuthing? Then...

More people finish their books when they've been planned out already. Although writing "seat-of-the-pants" is fun and equally viable, there are many benefits to be had by planning,...

Naruto, the incredibly popular manga and anime series, has earned a loyal following from its humble beginnings in Shonen Jump. Fans have kept up the demand for more Naruto manga, and since...

Comic books have long been collected by millions worldwide. In recent years, the comic book industry has seen a tremendous boom due to movie deals and growing fans. If you are new to comic...

For a fiction book to be great, it must be believable and draw readers in. One of the most important ways for a book to accomplish this is for the characters to be real and believable. You must...

Horror movies and ghost stories are a perennial part of our popular culture, and you may wish to try your hand at writing or filming one yourself. Before you do so, you need to devise some...

Few literary or cinematic figures have captured public fascination like gangsters. Their stories embody the dark side of the American dream, where ruthless entrepreneurs gain wealth and fame...

Are you planning a midnight campfire on Halloween? Do you want to tell your friends a spooky story? Learn the basics of telling ghosts stories.

"Boys Over Flowers" is the English translation of the popular Japanese manga "Hana Yori Dango" by Kamio Youko. It is the story of a poor girl, Makino Tsukushi, and her struggles within a school of...