Amateur To Published: The Fiction Writer's Guide To Publishing

7 - Pre-Writing Activities

So, you've created some characters, chosen yoursetting and outlined your book. The next step should be to start writing,right? Sort of. To make your writing process easier there are a few things youneed to do. It should only take you an hour, two at most, to complete thesepre-writing tasks.

STEP 1: PICK A TENSE

Past Tense is the most commonly used tense forstory-telling because it gives the effect of someone recounting things thatcould have already happened. It is the most preferred tense by readers andreads something like: She walked to the house. He ate the chicken. We fought. I drank from the well.

Present Tense gives the impression that the action ishappening right then and there and has a poetic feel to it. Note that manyreaders tend to veer away from such fiction but if you feel that this is a moreappropriate tense for your story then sure go for it. It reads something like: She walks to the house. He eats the chicken. I drink from the well.

Never mix the two tenses unless you're using one fordream sequences and/or flashbacks and the other for the normal action in thestory. For safety however just stick with one through your whole story.

STEP 2: DECIDE ON THE NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW (POV)

There are three main Narrative POVs:

- First Person POV is where your story uses 'I' and 'we'. First Personis excellent if you want your readers to really feel your character's emotionsand get close to them. It is best used if you have only one lead who will be guidingthe whole story. Ex. I got out of the car and strode to his doorstep.

- Second Person POV uses 'you'. Ex. You got out of the car and strode to his doorstep. Most fiction writers choose to avoid this onebecause it often comes off as clunky and insincere.However, if you're writing imagines or experimental fiction, it could work.

- Third Person POV uses 'he', 'she' and 'they' and is best used if you have more than one character whose thoughts you'd like to show. It allows you to play with multiple POVs, havemore vivid descriptions of the setting and allows you to share with the readersplot twists that the main character is not aware of.

Choose one of the about Narrative POVs and stick to it through the whole book.

STEP 3: CHOOSE THE POINT OF VIEW CHARACTER(S)

Who will be telling this story? Will we read scenes as seen through the eyes ofone character or will it be through several characters? Will you have scenes where we are in the head of your villain or will we be sticking with your lead the whole way through the story

Ex. in hisbook series, a Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin tells the story fromthe point of view of several characters. We are in a different character's head in every scene. Meanwhile, in Sophie Kinsella's book, Confessions of Shopaholic, we are only in the head of one character. We see everything from her point of view.

STEP 4: FORMAT THE DOCUMENT

Once you publish your book, you'll soon realize the importance of a well-formatteddocument especially if you want to publish a book that is easy for readers toconsume and if you want to get past most online-sellers evaluation systemswithout problems. Format your document beforeyou start writing to save yourself the hassle of doing it page by page whenyou're ready to publish.

The best resource that taught me how to format my own books was the 'Smashwords Style Sheet Guide' (just google it). Though Smashwords is a vendor, their way of formattingbooks seems to agree with the systems of other vendors. Once you download the guide for free from Smashwords.com, you'll find step by step instructions to help you format your document.

But just to summarize, if  you're using MS Word, the basic rules of formatting yourdocument are;

- Create Style Sheets for each font style that you'll be using. Note that the less font styles you use, theeasier time you'll have. As far as I can see you only need Style Sheets for thebody of the novel (also known as normal) and for the Chapter Headings. At mostyou can add a Style Sheet for the Copyright Section (you can use the same StyleSheet for the Scene Breaks and Back Matter. Remember stick to your style sheetswhen writing. You can bold or italicize words but make sure it's within thestyle sheet.

- Start New Pages with Page Breaks not with a hard enter(Ctrl + E). Page breaks make it easier for your book to be accepted by mostretailers.

- You don't need to have page numbers because they'lldisappear anyway once you format your document into HTML for publishing.

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