Should you be trying to achieve artistic truth in your fiction or writing the next commercial blockbuster?

Form in fiction is a specific and conscious decision, but your final decision may take several drafts and unsuccessful trials before you find that which suits the material best.

Although the marketplace for short stories is difficult, many new writers choose to begin with writing them, almost as a right of passage, a place for honing language, testing their narrative nerve over a shortish distance, and organising a palette.

So, after all, it was a dream... A fiction writer depends on the dream or fantasy of scenes that are true to life or, at least, carry verisimilitude however fantastic the setting or story.

Character is the heart and mind of your story - it is what makes it live.

Where do you, the writer, stand in relation to your characters and readers?

How do I begin?

When reading novels as a writer, you will immediately notice the importance of conflict as the engine of fiction.

All writing is rewriting. With fiction the best test is to read your story aloud, and read it to somebody.