by Ali | Jan 20, 2023 | Fiction
How to Start a Novel: Eight Options Plus Examples Writing the first scene of a novel is tricky. Perhaps you’ve been slowly developing an idea for weeks, months, or even years. You might have written pages of notes or created a full outline. And now you’ve opened up...
![Choosing the Right Viewpoint and Tense for Your Fiction [With Examples]](https://www.aliventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/viewpoint-blog-image-1.jpg)
by Ali | Oct 17, 2022 | Fiction
Choosing the Right Viewpoint and Tense for Your Fiction [With Examples] Note: This post was first published in 2013, and was last updated in October 2022. Who’s telling your story? Perhaps the choice is easy and obvious: you’re writing from a particular character’s...
by Ali | Apr 25, 2022 | Fiction
Five Different Approaches to Developing Characters This post was first published in April 2019 and updated in April 2022. Whether you consider plot to be more important than character or you believe they’re just two sides of the same coin, it’s clear that character...
![Character Flaws: Why They’re So Important to Your Story [With Examples]](https://www.aliventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/character-flaws-fiction.png)
by Ali | Jan 11, 2022 | Fiction
Character Flaws: Why They’re So Important to Your Story [With Examples] Maybe you’ve heard that your characters “should” have flaws. Or maybe you’ve come across terms like “tragic flaw” or “fatal flaw” in literature. So what exactly is a character flaw … and...
by Ali | Oct 26, 2021 | Fiction
How Do You Divide Your Novel into Chapters? This post was inspired by an email conversation with Emma from the brilliant blog Science at Your Doorstep and by a question from an Aliventures reader. It was first published in April 2018 and updated in October 2021. Pick...
by Ali | Oct 4, 2021 | Fiction
19 Tips for Writing Fiction (Whatever Stage You’re At) Whether you’re new to writing fiction or you’ve already written a bunch of stories, it often feels like there’s a lot to learn. There’s tons of great advice out there – but some of it can seem confusing...
