The talent part of the equation is the part that can't be learned (or taught). You've either got talent or you don't (but before you give up in despair, realize that you may simply not have discovered your talent yet; for example, someone may have very little talent for fiction, but a great deal of talent for poetry). Talent in writing is like genius in science. You can't explain it, it's just there.

Fortunately, the craft part of the equation can be learned. This is the nuts and bolts of how writing works. Much of the craft of writing will be learned through trial and error. Reading the work of other writers and figuring out how they did things will also help you learn. But there are some general principles of writing that can be described and understood. It is those principles that this guide will address.

What to Write About

Sometimes becoming a better writer involves figuring out what to write about. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given is "write about what haunts you." What are the things you always want to read about? What topics would get you to watch a documentary on TV? What things do you think about, wonder about when you're alone? Are there images or themes that keep coming up in your dreams, the doodles you make in your notebooks, the examples you use when trying to explain things to other people? Those are the things you should write about. Write about topics that fascinate you or horrify you or delight you. Whatever you feel passionately about has the potential to be a good topic.

If you find yourself lacking ideas, read through Ideas and Where to Get Them to see if any of the suggestions are helpful. If ideas aren't the problem, but getting a story going is, try You've Got An Idea. Now What? There are also plenty of useful tips available on finding ideas and on getting started, submitted by readers of the teenwriting site.

How to Use This Guide

I've attempted to arrange the sections of this guide in a logical and useful way, but the parts aren't meant to indicate the order in which things are tackled when writing. In fact, all of the elements of fiction that I will address are interrelated, and many of them happen at the same time as a writer writes. The major topics covered in the guide are:

plot: the events that happen and how they are arranged

setting: where things happen

characters: the people in the story

point of view and narrative voice: whose point of view the story is told from and the way the author chooses to tell it

types of prose: exposition, dialogue and other kinds of writing and their uses

scenes and half-scenes: when and how to dramatize the story

form and structure: what shape the narrative has and how the pieces fit together

types of story: stories can be about characters, ideas and other things

genre: categories for fiction, including things like mysteries or fantasy or realism

reading and revision: the importance of reading other people's work, and how to make yours better

The best way to use this guide, and others like it, is to read it all the way through once. You may want to take notes (either mentally or on paper) on anything you need to work on or that you hadn’t really thought of before. Then go and write something, but don't come back to the guide (or even think about it) until you've finished a draft of whatever you're working on. Then, when you're at the revision stage, return to the guide and see if any of the elements discussed can help you improve your work.

Many of these topics will need to become incorporated into your unconscious mental processes before they're of much use. That will happen gradually if you refer to the guide (or any notes you made) every now and then as a refresher. Other topics will need to be more directly worked on (which ones will vary with the individual). Like so many things in writing, how you write is something you ultimately need to figure out for yourself.

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