Writing Tips

[tehodis]

Feel free to post your works here, if it is over 2 pages long, please post a link to somewhere else we can read it (i.e; a different topic) and you will receive a review/help with your piece. We will also help you edit your work.

 

-Looking for workers, who will be able to write constructive reviews, or help with other user's pieces. Also looking for people who can edit/proof-read well. Pay will be given, amount is negotiable. Please PM me if you are interested-

 

I was inspired by Yorobot's thread.

 

Fictional Novel/Novella/Story Genres

 

Action/Action-Adventure

This writing style appeals, generally, more to male readers. It features more fighting and violence. It has more action, and less dialouge. Movements should be described more extensively that in other pieces, in order to give the reader a feeling of "being there". Muscular males, and busty females are common in action genre stories. The conflict typically involves commandos, mercenaries, terrorists, smugglers, pirates, and the like.

 

Crime

Crime fiction centers on a criminal enterprise and is told from the point of view of the criminals. They range in tone from lighthearted "caper" stories to darker plots involving organized crime or incarcerated convicts.

 

Detective

This genre has become pretty much become synonymous with Mystery fiction. These stories relate the solving of a crime, most commonly one or more murders, by a protagonist who may or may not be a professional investigator. This large, popular genre has many subgenres, reflecting differences in tone, character, and setting.

 

Fantasy

Stories with fantastical elements. Whether it be magic, mythical creatures or new races and worlds. The stories detail epic adventures, or quests of the protagonist, normally against some evil regime/overlord. The enormous popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novel and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels demonstrates the wide appeal of this genre.

 

Horror

This genre is set evoke some sort of mix of fear, revulsion and fascination in readers. This genre, like others, continues to evolve, recently moving away from stories with a religious or supernatural basis to ones making use of medical or psychological ideas.

 

Mystery

This type of fiction is the classic "whodunnit" tale. Technically involving stories in which characters try to discover a vital piece of information which is kept hidden until the climax, is now considered by many people almost a synonym for detective fiction

 

Realistic Fiction

Fictional stories detailing events that could happen in everyday life. The characters are true-to-life and the events are set in modern times.

 

Romance

The best selling genre in North America, Romance has produced a wide-array of sub-genres,the majority of which feature the mutual attraction and love of a man and a woman as the main plot, and have a happy ending.

 

Science-Fiction

Sci-fi is defined more by setting than by other story elements. With a few exceptions, stories set out of Earth or in the future qualify as science fiction. Within these settings, the conventions of almost any other genre may be used. A sub-genre of science fiction is alternate history where, for some specific reason, the history of the novel deviates from the history of our world.

 

Thriller

A thriller is a story intended to evoke strong feelings of suspense and danger, usually involving a high-stakes hunt, chase, or a race against time. Thrillers often involve espionage, crime, medicine, or technology. Sub-genres of thriller fiction often overlap with detective and action-adventure fiction.

 

Western

Western fiction is defined primarily by being set in the American West in the second half of the 19th century, and secondarily by featuring heroes who are rugged, individualistic horsemen (cowboys). Other genres, such as romance, have subgenres that make use of the Western setting.

 

Fan-Fiction

A fictional story using characters from an existing series, and often the author's original character(s). Most fan-fiction isn't very well written, because they make the characters from the series ("Canon Characters") act unlike they do in their series, or they make their own original characters perfect, or forcibly imperfect, or their ideal vision of a character ("Mary-Sues", "Gary-Stus")

 

Non-Fiction

 

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing, usually from an author's personal point of view. Essays are non-fictional but often subjective; while expository, they can also include narrative. Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author.

 

Biography

Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphein meaning "write") is a genre of literature and other forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference to non-fiction. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops a complex analysis of personality, highlighting different aspects of it and including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of impersonal facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

 

Auto-Biography

An autobiography, from the Greek autos, 'self', bios, 'life' and graphein, 'write', is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled "as told to" or "with").

 

Poetry Types

 

Sonnets

Among the most common form of poetry through the ages is the sonnet, which, by the thirteenth century, was a poem of fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have changed during its history, and so there are several different sonnet forms. Sonnets are particularly associated with love poetry, and often use a poetic diction heavily based on vivid imagery.

 

Sestina

The sestina has six stanzas, each comprising six unrhymed lines, in which the words at the end of the first stanza’s lines reappear in a rolling pattern in the other stanzas. The poem then ends with a three-line stanza in which the words again appear, two on each line.

 

Tanka

The Tanka is a form of Japanese poetry, generally not possessing rhyme, with five lines structured in a 5-7-5 7-7 patterns. The 5-7-5 phrase (the "upper phrase") and the 7-7 phrase (the "lower phrase") generally show a shift in tone and subject matter.

 

Acrostic

A poem in which the first letters of the lines, when read downward, form a word, phrase, or sentence.

 

Cinquain

A poem that has five lines with two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively.

 

Concrete

A poem that uses typeface, word arrangement, spacing, special characters, and color to dramatize the words’ meaning by the way they look.

 

Free Verse

Poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence or the recurrence, with variations, of phrases, images, and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of meter.

 

Poetry Genres

 

Narrative

A genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more direct appeal than the epic to human interest.

 

Epic

A genre of poetry, and a major form of narrative literature. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons.

 

Dramatic

Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be spoken or sung, and appears in varying and sometimes related forms in many cultures

 

Satirical

Poetry can be a powerful vehicle for satire. The punch of an insult delivered in verse can be many times more powerful and memorable than the same when spoken or written in prose. The Greeks and Romans had a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written for political purposes.

 

Lyrical

Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic poetry and dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal nature. Rather than depicting characters and actions, it portrays the poet's own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions. This type of poetry is meant to be sung.

 

Prose

Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that demonstrates attributes of both prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from the short story. Most critics argue that it qualifies as poetry because of its conciseness, use of metaphor, and special attention to language.

[Yorobot]

WOW Thanks on becoming an assistant! I couldn`t think of love stories. They`re mostly like real-life...

[tehodis]

Um, assistant?

[Yorobot]

"Um, assistant?"

 

Manner of speech. I meant Teammate. Sorry, I mistook word.