Fiction, however, is a different beast.  While accurate, up-to-date information can be of value, it’s not the central component of the finished product.   Sure, do your research to be able to write believably about the subject, but don’t obsess over it like it’s an indispensable element of your story.

Lusting for factual accuracy is not bad.  But if you don’t watch out, it can easily get in the way of any book or short story you’re writing.   Not only does intense research eat time you could be devoting to fleshing out your characters or creating more elaborate conflicts, it distracts you from the actual job at hand.  Often, writers who enjoy the research too much end up letting the factual details clutter their minds, than using that brain matter to sort out their plots and story progressions.

Should you aim for factual accuracy when you write fiction?  Sure, to a certain extent.  The goal should be to have enough details to make the action and the story believable.  Beyond that, it’s just fodder.  You’re not writing a technical manual or a history book — readers will be willing to overlook holes in your research if the story you present is engaging and memorable.

1. Launching into a lengthy background.  Engaging in too much background exposition makes stories drag, often slowing it to a crawl.  As much as possible, avoid detailing backgrounds in the first chapter to start the book off at a good pace.  When introducing background anywhere else,  do it in a direct and straightforward way to get it over with quickly.
2. Interrupting dialogue.  Some writers fall in love with cutting off their characters’ dialogue mid-sentence, ending it with ellipses, instead of completing what they’re saying.  While the interrupted dialogue can make the pace feel faster, it dirties up the narrative.  It’s a nice technique to use once in a while, but prose works best when characters finish speaking as much as they can.
3. Opening the book by describing the weather.  Some writers use descriptions of weather and environment to set an atmosphere for the book.  Problem is, no one wants to read about the weather.  More often than not, readers will skip the description and look for the first instance of a character appearing.
4. Getting creative with verbs and adverbs to introduce dialogue.  There’s no need to use any word other than “said” when attributing dialogue to a character.   While using “growled,” “screamed,” “cautioned” and similar terms may seem creative, it’s unnecessary.  In fact, it can lead to confusion with some readers.
5. Take too much space describing places and things.  Describing scenes and objects bring the action into a standstill.  Unless you’re exceptionally good at it, keep it to a minimum.

1. Read mystery books.  If you want to be a mystery writer, read mystery novels.  Read them once for pleasure and a second time for study.  Look for the elements that the writer uses to create intrigue and interest.  Write them down — you’ll probably want to use something similar in your own books.
2. Just start.  Forget about planning and plotting and whatever procrastination excuse you can find.  This is your first novel — get started and get it over with.  Sit down with your writing software and start working.
3. Outline your plot.  Begin with an outline of your plot.  A novel covers quite a huge amount of events and an outline (even a skeleton one) can help you crystallize any story ideas you have floating in your head.
4. Define your main characters.  Don’t begin writing without having a clear picture of who your main characters are.  A good plot can only take you so far.  Characters that appeal to readers are what will keep them glued to the page.
5. Write good dialogue.  Contrary to what many novices think, good dialogue sounds nothing like real conversations. That’s because real conversations are often boring and awkward — the kind of interactions that make for sleepy and confusing dialogue.  Make your dialogue must-eavesdrop conversations.
6. Write everyday.  The more frequently you work on that novel, the better you’re able to maintain your momentum.   Your work yesterday will help put fire in your work today just as today’s accomplishments will help feed your fire for tomorrow.

Body Language

The way your characters act while delivering the dialogue can add a lot of emotion into the words they say.   A man saying something while frantically smoking a cigarette conveys a whole different emotion than a man who does so while sitting leisurely in a cot.

Word Choice

The words your characters use can effective convey emotion all on their own.  Word choice does have a lot to do with how people feel, after all.  Look at these different ways of saying the same thing, for instance:

“What, in God’s name, are you doing here, you traitor?”

“Umm… what are you doing here?

“Oh, wow, what you doing here?”

“Good evening, sir.  If you don’t mind, may I ask what you’re doing here?”

As you can see, each of those lines say the same thing, all while conveying an entirely different emotion each time.   One’s angry, the other’s hesitant, another seems glad and the last sounds like a guy who couldn’t personally care less.  There doesn’t need to be that big of a variance to convey a different emotion either — a couple of words and a different punctuation can change things significantly.

When writing visually, you can’t just lay down the facts.   Saying “The man with the Orioles cap looks shady” is clear enough, but it doesn’t create the kind of imagery that can reel a reader’s senses in.   Try, instead, to give an impression of what you’re describing, letting the reader use their imagination to fill in the conclusion:  “There’s this guy in a dirty Orioles cap hunched in the corner, his foot tapping uncontrollably and his eyes shifting almost endlessly.”

The above example gives a partial visual of the guy, then proceeds to describe how he’s acting.  Is he shady?  Yes, but you’re letting the reader fill that detail in from your cues, instead of saying it outright.

Of course, there’s a time and place for this type of writing.  They’re likely to be very appropriate for features and creative nonfiction, but when I’m reading a press release about a product, I want the detailed specs laid out  directly.

The next time you’re writing anything, consider if the reader can appreciate a more visual approach.  It could make the difference between content that’s memorable and one that a reader will just as soon forget.

Getting the reader emotionally invested early on will have a lot to do with how you set up your story.  And these content elements are what will ensure that you lay down the proper foundation:

1. Acquaint the reader to your main characters.  Good novels rely on interesting characters.  Introduce your reader to the main players in your opening, especially the lead protagonist and the antagonist opposite the hero.
2. Hint at how it ends.  You don’t need to give away the milk without having the reader go through the motions.  But teasing them with a brief foreshadowing is perfectly acceptable — even if you’re leading them down the wrong road to a surprise.
3. Show your main character under stress.  Depict your protagonist under some form of minor crisis as a precursor to the bigger challenge that awaits further on in the story.
4. Give the reader an idea of what’s at stake.  What does the hero stand to gain or lose during the course of the story?
5. Establish the scene of the conflict.  Use the opening chapter to establish the setting of the story and the scene of conflict, setting the tone for what comes later.

Here are some ways you can insert more suspense into your short stories:

1. Take sudden, unexpected turns.  Surprising readers, provided they fit within the context of earlier elements, always works for hooking readers in.  People will almost always guess where a story is going, so taking somewhere they never expected is bound to inspire an emotional response.
2. Reveal something that the lead character doesn’t know yet.  When the readers know something the main character doesn’t, they feel some amount of anxiety for his actions — especially when the actions are something the lead wouldn’t have if only he/she had the right information.
3. Create characters with unclear motivations.  You can use characters with an air of unpredictability to hold the readers in suspense.  It’s tricky, though, so make sure you craft the right personality for the job.
4. Build up to you revelations.  Don’t just make your characters reveal details during regular conversation.  Give them reasons for doing so — the more emotional the scene where a key element is uttered, the more effective it is going to be.

1. If you’re struggling, just let it flow.  By that, we mean just imagine your characters in your head and write whatever pops into your mind.  While this isn’t the way to pristine prose, it makes for a workable first draft.
2. Get up and act it out.  Pretend you’re the character in your story and begin speaking out loud.   We suggest recording the stuff that comes out of your mouth, since good lines can slip out at any time.
3. Don’t be too clever.  There are moments in life when you have just the perfect line to drop when making a point.  Most of the time, that perfect line doesn’t come until the next day when you’re remembering the incident.  Nobody talks perfectly in real life, so don’t create characters who have the perfect answer every single time.
4. Vary your exchanges.  Know how writing teachers always tell you to vary the sentence lengths and types in your paragraphs?  The same preference for variety should hold true in your dialogue.  Only two robots are likely exchange in an ordered sequence of basic sentences, after all.
5. Embrace silence.  Normal conversations don’t always flow.  In fact, it usually comes with plenty of dead silence.  Remember that when you’re writing dialogue, as those moments of silence between exchanges can create powerful elements for setting the mood.

When people read works of creative fiction, they’re well aware that it’s a story borne from the writer’s imagination.  However, they also expect to be able to relate to what you’re talking about.  Without real facts, it becomes all that much harder to do.

Say, you’re reading a military novel about an encounter in the middle of the ocean and the troops do all sorts of things that aren’t protocol for naval officers without adequate explanation.  Oh yeah, they’re wearing police uniforms, too.  Chances are, the lack of believable facts will end up distracting you from the story and might even end up turning you off from reading.  Adding just the right amount of factual details can do a lot to keep readers both interested and focused.

If you find it difficult to include facts when you write, you can choose to insert them later during editing.   During first pass, just focus on your characters and your plot.  Once that’s done, you can begin adding factual elements at strategic points.  Just don’t forget that information is meant as a complement to the primary elements of the story, so use just enough to keep things on point.

Use contrived dialogue.  Dialogues are excellent tools for showing meaningful exchanges that reveal details about the characters and certain situations.  Go beyond that and use dialogue to advance the plot.  Sure, it makes for boring action, but that’s exactly what wins “bad writing” awards.

Use fashionable language.  Do you watch the Jersey Shore?  Make your characters speak like those “Guidos and Guidettes”  — it’s funny.  Problem is, there’s a good chance all that “GTL” and “DTF” will be unremarkably obscure in a couple of years.  If you’re hoping readers will still find your novel relevant then (which, we’re guessing, isn’t the goal of a “bad writing” contest), we suggest steering clear of such language.   Fashionable things are fun, but fashion fades and what’s funny today may just be impossible to understand for potential readers five years from now.

Don’t bother matching the dialogue with the character.  Make the businessman speak like Steve-O and the 15-year old student sound like a 60-year old divorcee.  Even better, exchange those two dialogues styles with each other during the middle of the story.  Suffice to say, your readers’ heads will go in circles trying to understand why the heck your characters talk like they have multiple identities.  It’s fun.

Make your dialogue stiff.  Write it such that your characters sound like they’re reading from a contract drafted by a law firm.   Your readers will be imagining that in monotone and that’s a beautiful thing.