Galactic Writer » Character http://galacticwriter.com A blog about creative writing Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:14:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 © thom.allen@gmail.com () thom.allen@gmail.com() My journey through writing thom.allen@gmail.com No no http://galacticwriter.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg Galactic Writer http://galacticwriter.com 144 144 Writing Fiction Versus Non-Fiction http://galacticwriter.com/writing-fiction-versus-non-fiction/ http://galacticwriter.com/writing-fiction-versus-non-fiction/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:00:08 +0000 thom http://galacticwriter.com/writing-fiction-versus-non-fiction/

My focus for a long time has been writing fiction. I’ve never really thought about writing a non-fiction piece. But several months ago I was brain storming with a friend on a story I’ve wanted to tell for 20 years. Yeah I know, we all have a story that takes us 20 years to tell. But mine really did happen 20 years ago.

I have been hesitant to write this story only because I wasn’t comfortable with the writing style. And I wasn’t sure of all the facts 20 years later. However, my friend gave me a great idea. Take the elements of the story and write a fictional piece. And that was the answer. Right in front me this whole time.

I started putting the layout together:

  1. Characters
  2. Place
  3. Time
  4. Problem
  5. Action
  6. Results

I think over the next several days I’ll talk about these aspects of my story. Maybe you can help me along the way. Let’s tackle Characters first.

There are over twenty five people in the original story. Obviously thats too many for me to manage in this story. What I’m going to do instead is create one character who is the focal point, the protagonist. In reality it’s me, I’m the main character. But I’ll put my character in a situation I was never in. That will be the twist to the story, and allow me to write a fictional piece.

The next is my antagonist. In the real life story this character doesn’t exist. But I’m going to create one. Actually, it’s a group of characters with a very psychotic leader.

Next are the supporting characters. One is a very close friend of mine. Someone I work with, and trust. There are three or four more characters like my close friend only they aren’t in the story as much. My boss, who at times I think is playing both sides of the fence, but we’ll see. I thought about throwing in a love interest, but I’m not sure it would work in this story.

Some time ago I read that if you are not sure of the middle, but you have the beginning and the end already figured out, write those, then figure out the plumbing. That’s how this story will be written. I know the beginning, and I know the end. It’s the middle part that is made up and I still need to map out. Chris Brogan is a mind mapping Ninja. Learn more about it. It will make a huge difference in how you write.

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