THE LITTLE BLUE BOOK ON WRITING FICTION
By T. J. Vargo
Copyright 2012 T.J. Vargo
Smashwords Edition
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Foreword:
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you have a story in your head. That’s where the magic always starts with us creative types. Our heads get filled with the sights, sounds and characters of a tremendous story that is destined to be a best seller. The next thing you know, there you sit, typing away furiously, trying to transfer the excitement of your story to paper. If you have talent and persistence, you’ll finish your story. It feels so good to type that last period. I know. I’ve been there many times. But then comes the reckoning—you give your book or short story to some friends, or a neighbor, or fellow writers in a local creative writing group. You sit back, waiting to hear the glowing reviews. And what you get instead is a lukewarm smile and a “I usually don’t read these kinds of stories so I’m not the best person to judge if it’s any good,” or a, “I really liked that one scene in the beginning, but I got lost after that,” or the ever popular, “I got too busy to finish it, but what I read was good.” Your reaction is probably the same as mine was when I first began writing fiction over twenty years ago. You smile and say “Thanks” as your story—your precious story—is handed back to you. “Why isn’t she talking about the story?” you think to yourself. “Doesn’t she get it?”” And that’s where many people hang it up. They’re at a loss as to what exactly it is that they’ve done wrong. They’ve written a book based on a fantastic, sure-fire idea, but something was lost in the translation. The story fizzled, wasting all their countless hours of work. At this point the smart person packs it in, never to write again. To tell you the truth, I wish I had—I would’ve saved myself a lot of heartache and fruitless hours of work. My problem, however, is stubbornness. I don’t like to lose. Never have and never will. So over a twenty year period I spent all my free time reading how-to-books, going to workshops, taking classes, and even studying in an M.F.A. in creative writing program, all because I had to know how it’s done. And lo and behold, after many years and thousands of hours of labor, I figured out a few things— I learned the basic rules of writing good fiction. Simple, straightforward rules that kept people up all night reading my stories. Rules that made me an award-winning author. I wrote this book about ten years ago when I taught a high school workshop for talented and gifted writers. The reason I’m passing it along to you is because I don’t want you to have to go through the long process of discovery I had to endure. What is most exciting about this book is that it condenses everything I learned into a short, no-nonsense package that walks you through the steps I used to become a published writer. What you’ll find inside are six short workshops that will walk you through the whole process of creating a story from conception to completion. So let’s begin, but before you read any further, clear your mind and let yourself believe that you too can write stories that will read like the best sellers. If you follow the rules I’ve outlined in this little blue book, It can be done. Just follow the blueprint of my little blue book of fiction writing.
Happy and successful writing!
TJ Vargo
Table Of Contents
Workshop 3: The Body of the Story
Workshop 6: Revising and Editing
First element of creating good fiction:
Do not write stories – write situations.
Which of these fiction ideas is a story and which is a situation?
1.A bully learns the meaning of love when he is blinded in a fire and has to rely on his classmates to help get him through high school.
2. A teenage girl wakes up to the sight of her German Shepherd growling and baring its fangs at her.
If you identified 1 as story and 2 as a situation, you’re right. From this point on you’ll be using this understanding of situation versus story to craft your project.