Behind the Scenes with a Fiction Writer

As always, excellent advice. I have found that scenes are easy with those imaginations that are about to travel to any part of the world at a moment's notice. Luckily, there is no booking required.

Thanks for this, Bill. I always feel a twinge of guilt writing about places I've never been to but only read about on the Internet or books. I guess the imagination is what makes these places real to the reader.

I enjoyed this article, but I read it as a craft/recipe writer and could easily apply all 3 sections to that. Amazing how almost all types of writing are intertwined.

Voted all but funny. You've got my imagination running wild! I haven't traveled extensively like I wanted to but I have done some traveling and now I can see where it will all come in handy.

I'll never be King or Koontz but you know I'm going to go down trying. All those descriptions are what makes any story real.

Just brilliant! You forgot to say that not everybody could do this. (smile)

Masterfully crafted stuff! Keep on keeping on, Bro. A great help here to many Hubbers, you are. Peace.

I love to read these articles because you include excerpts of your writings which I so get caught up in.

Your suggestions and thoughts are well taken and pointedly given.

I am not a fiction writer but find this information both enlgihtening and engaging.

happy new year to you and yours...if I have not told you so a bunch of times already

Angels are headed your way this morning ps

Writers must have vivid imaginations, taking small details and embellishing them so that they weave stories worth reading. The stoning excerpt is excellent.

I remember many years ago writing a book about the black death, 1349, never got it published, still in the drawer, but spent many days in the library reading stories, true stuff and so on, add that to imagination and off i went! lol! I really must get that darn book out and rewrite it! great advice as usual Bill, thanks, nell

Thanks for the really helpful article, Bill! I, myself, write through feelings and sensations I've felt, and other times draw from what I've seen on other stories from sources like TV, books, movies, and comics that manage to move my hearts in several directions, both negative and positive. Stories have ways of teaching you about yourself, don't they?

Great advice from a great writer. Thank you again Bill.

This is very helpful Bill. You explained things clearly with excellent examples. You continue to help all of us with your knowledge, expertise and experience. Have a great Sunday.

Brilliantly written hub and as always you know best of how to inform all writers.

This is interesting and very useful, Bill. As usual, you've created a helpful and inspiring hub for writers

Working with all the senses isn't easy as I find one (visual) dominates the others, but learning to focus on them all really does help...some really great advice Bill..as usual:-))

Great, and thank you, along with all the other comments. You draw out exceptional comments, of course. I enjoyed that of Will Starr, and your response, especially. Use of the senses is critical. I try hard to remember to use them each, well, but still leave something for the reader's imagination to create, as well. These characters and scenes belong to the reader as much as to me, I believe. ;-)

Wow the more I read your prose the greater fan I become. Impressive doesn't even cover it. Your writing awakens the senses to a point of realism that is beyond adequate description. To reach such heights as a writer is a remarkable achievement. Thanks for another outstanding lesson,

You are such a wonderful teacher. Your lesson about using all five senses has helped me tremendously. Thank you.

Happy New Year Bill and thanks for another helpful hub for writers. I've always seen how well you bring the senses to life in your stories. It helped me tremendously how you gave us parts of your book and broke it down for us. Made it easier to understand by doing this. Just popped on your writing blog. I agree with you that it's always good when the holiday's are over. I love the holidays, but I'm always ready to say goodbye to all the hustle and bustle. Thanks for all the writing suggestions you give us. Hugs to you :)

Bill, this is awesome, most of what I write has some basis in fact. I have never been homeless except when my family ran out of money and we lived on the beach in Huntington Beach, California. That was more of an adventure than anything. I love how you describe things and hope to gain the knowledge to do that (not from experience first hand, but by imagining it). I enjoy everything you write. Voted up, UABI and shared.

Blessings and hugs to you dear friend and Happy New Year.

I have tried my hand at fiction. I have to admit you give me the urge to try it again. Up, useful, always interesting and completely awesome.

Another great lesson to digest and use . I certainly will be doing so and will draw on as many of our senses as I can. I guess this is why it is never a good idea to read a book before actually watching the film, because a good writer will actually give so much and much of this will obviously be missing from the film. I am at the moment on the fourth chapter of The Silence of The Knowing and I hope that you will be able to see that I have followed your advice when I publish it in a week or so. Great hub once again and here's to an awesome New year.

Eddy.

Your sensed sensations and sounds create a cinematic effect of an environment with fear and edginess bubbling just beneath the grimy exterior. You made it real.

Sound advice, expertly illustrated by example.

Excellent write Bill! Your prose bites at the imagination here--and I love how you linked up the prose to your examples of research!

Bill, you never let us down. I appreciate that you took the time to answer this question (and it's not even Monday). Thank you again for teaching and encouraging us.

I know what you mean about structure. It's great to interrupt routine for a while but reassuring when normal service resumes.

Looking forward to Monday's offerings!

Ann

The five senses aren't used enough. I know I often go back to make sure I've made the most of them in any description I write. In fact, if I can conjure up a memory, it's not that difficult, it's just a matter of not missing one single detail.

Great stuff yet again, bill.

Hope the new year is going well for you. Two granddaughters' birthday parties await me in the next week so I'm still busy on all counts.

Have a great Friday eve and a peaceful weekend, bill.

Ann

In one part of "Resurrecting Tobius" the scene is a restaurant in Boise, Id. As you know, I live in Boise. And I know that restaurant. Your references and description was so good I thought you must have visited. Something in discussions elsewhere I realized that you probably haven't been here. I was impressed all the more.

And your description of the stoning is what made my buy the book.

In all seriousness, that snippet is one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read. It will stick with me forever.

Another informative hub, thank you Billy.

With regards to researching subject matter, Mrs M. gets worried that the UK secret services will pay us a visit because of the information I look for on the internet.

Thanks for this great share. You're a very effective teacher; I'm learning very much from your valuable lessons.

There's a small ghost town called Columbia, about 50 miles north of Phoenix, accessible only by four wheel drive and situated in a narrow ravine next to a normally dry stream bed. The crumbing walls of two crudely constructed stone cabins still stand, and silently tell hundreds of stories if the listener is content to sit and open his mind.

There are still flakes of the same gold that created the town to be found in the gravels if someone has the patience and the time. Not enough to make a living, to be sure, but enough to create a dandy story of those lost times.

Excellent Hub, Billy, and my experience exactly!

Happy New Year! Being a fan of horror and dark fantasy, I often wonder where the author found inspiration for things--and then fervently hope they don't have any first-hand experience or knowledge. You are an extremely talented writer and I appreciate all that you share with us.

Very good encouraging words for anyone (who me?) afraid to write something because he/she hasn't lived it.

This is great Bill. You are a master writer. I think you could write any scene from your imagination. I especially liked the Vietnam scene, I could see it and feel the danger. Have a great day...

Okay, I'll throw out another airy-fairy possibility. Maybe you can research your past lives (if you believe in that stuff) to get ideas. Would that be imagination or memory? Not sure. :) But sometimes exploring the spiritual and hidden realms of our psyches can provide insight and inspiration. Happy Weekend!

I'm struggling with the closed captioning on the sidebar videos because the words don't make a lot of sense and there are no transcripts. There ought to be humans and not robots doing the CC on any video. lol

But I got the gist of what you meant just from your narrative, although the videos I'm sure would have been helpful, as you intended. I tend to envision the scene first then add dialogue to show how the character reacts to it. Sometimes, but not usually, I will turn it around and put a character in a situation and then build the scene around that to see if it works better. It usually doesn't. lol

Thanks for the great insight.

I love the way you describe scenes, Bill. They're always very colorful with words etching the lay of the land across the canvas of the reader's mind.

Or we could all just be delusional and think we have really lived it and stay in our psychosis while we write -- or is that just me?

Great information, Bill.

With the internet, we can float down most any street, in any town to get a feel for the area.

Research is at the tip of our fingers, thanks to the computer age. But, it is those feeling from the gut that brings a scene to life and makes it jump right off the paper.

Thank, Bill.

DJ.