Do you remember the short story The Lady or the Tiger? All suspected criminals in a kingdom are put through an unusual trial – the criminal is sent to an open arena and has to open one out of two doors in front of the entire kingdom. Behind one door there is a beautiful bride, blushing and dressed in bridal finery while behind the other prowls a hungry tiger. Depending on the door the criminal opens, he either gains a wife (irrespective of his marital status) or loses his life.
How to write a book
How to use Falling Action in a story
In this fourth part of the series on the dramatic arcs we look at what constitutes the Falling Action and how you can write it.
4 Tips to write the climax of a story
In the simplest of words the climax is the point of maximum tension in your story. Throughout this series, we have been using The Emperor’s New Clothes, a popular children’s story as an example. Until now, we know that the emperor is obsessed with new clothes and that he has appointed two weavers who are actually swindlers. The swindlers have promised to weave the finest cloth for the Emperor but the ‘finest cloth’ cannot be seen by incompetent or stupid people.
Rising Action in Novels
In the second post of our 5-part series on plot development in fiction, we cover Rising action.
6 Ways to write an effective Exposition (with examples)
In our earlier post on the questions to consider while Plotting, we briefly spoke to you about what plotting entails when you are writing a novel. In this five-part series on the structures of plots we bring to you what goes into plotting and why it is an extremely important literary element.
7 Writing Mistakes to avoid in fiction
That readers’ attention span is dwindling is no secret. It has been said that an average reader takes less than a minute to abandon a book or a piece of writing. Reason? Not captivating enough. Writing mistakes take on many forms. There are instances of fiction that start off on a very ‘promising’ note and leave the reader feeling cheated at the end of what can sometimes be a long tedious read.
Our guest writer Preeti Milind More, a voracious reader herself, has compiled a list of what she calls Super Bloopers (ahem!) that generally ticks her off when she is reading fiction. So whether you are writing a short story or something longer, avoid these writing mistakes like the dengue
5 Ideas for writing the synopsis for your short story collection
Ealier we shared tips on how to write an effective Synopsis for your novel. In this post we bring to you possible ways to write an effective synopsis for your collection of short stories.
Book writing consultants: How a coach and mentor can help
In the western world, writing consultants, coaches or mentors are common. [Read the note at the bottom of this post on the nomenclature]. Not so much in India, where most writers and aspiring authors prefer a do-it-yourself approach. This is less out of over-confidence and more out of a lack of awareness (about the concept itself and the availability of good writing mentors).
At Booksoarus, apart from the blog posts that we write, we have also been formally mentoring writers (who’ve approached us proactively for coaching and consulting) and thought it was a good time we write an article on it so more aspiring authors can polish their work before they approach literary agents and publishers in India and abroad.
Genres: Different types of Non-fiction books
Earlier, we had covered why non-fiction sells better than fiction. After reading it, if you’ve been wondering whether there are any non-fiction genres where you can make a mark, this post should help. It provides a short introduction to the different types of non-fiction books that you can write. Find out which one you are most qualified to take up.
How to write an effective novel synopsis
Once you finish writing your potentially best-selling book you realise that you now face the intimidating task of peddling it to literary agents and publishing houses. It’s judgement day; well, almost.
If you look at the Submissions page (perhaps the most visited page) of most literary agents and publishing houses you will notice that you are being asked to submit a few chapters from your novel and (almost always) a Synopsis of your book.