The Key to Great Writing and 30 other articles on writing fiction

Dawn Field
3 min readMay 10, 2017

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Towards getting a book out the door

Do you have a mokita in your book? Have you built the emotional map of your story? Do you know its shape?

During 2016, I wrote this collection of articles for the BookBaby blog. To promote discussion and to give a bit of flow, they are presented here grouped into four sections: Contemplating Yourself as a Writer, The Big Picture, Filling in the Details, and How To Write A Book By Not Writing One

I’m fascinated with the process of writing and the variation in the ways people go about writing. I’m always interested in hearing new perspectives and I am willing to join writers groups or workshops to discuss any of these or other topics.

I’m also happy to read for people and comment on strengths and weaknesses — in fact, that’s exactly how these articles got written. As the result of reading a range of in-progress and finished works and passing comment. In doing so, I always try to pick up on and amplify what the author is trying to achieve as well as to point out the strengths of the writing.

I especially love reading finished books, but can read works at any stage and shorter items as well.

I can be contacted through my gmail account with the name ‘fiedawn’.

Happy Writing.

The Key to Great Writing and 30 other articles on writing fiction

Dawn Field

Contemplating Yourself As A Writer: How well do you know yourself as a writer?

What Kind Of Writer Are You?
How To Fail As A Writer
Six Things You Need To Write A Book
Make Peace With Your Inner Plotter And Pantser
Take Your “Self” Out Of Your Fiction
Finding Your Voice

Grasping the Big Picture: To many, the “big picture” is an elusive beast, but it’s the main selling point of your book.

The Simple Shapes of Stories
Rags to Riches, Riches to Rags, and Roundtrips
The Yin And Yang Of Great Fiction
The Mokita Of Your Book
One Thing You Absolutely Need In Your Book
A Lesson In Storytelling: The Ultimate Dog Tease
Tightening Your Story’s Cause And Effect Chain With “And So”
Plotting The Emotional Map Of Your Book

Filling In The Details: The number of details in a single book is staggering, and they all must fit together perfectly.

Using [Bracket] Shorthand
On-purpose Writing
The Number One Enemy Of The Writer
Omissions, Tangents, And Rambling Passages
Eleven Ways To Take A New Look At Your Story
The Key To Great Writing

How To Write A Book By Not Writing One: Ways to finish your story by not working on it.

Why You Should Read About Writing
A Fun Way To Build Your Writing Muscles
Four Things To Do Before You Write Your Memoir
Start Your Memoir With A Moment
Six Writing Formats Every Writer Should Try
How To Improve Your Writing (By Not Writing)
Abandon Your Draft And Become A Better Writer
Six Essential Book Descriptions
Getting Good Feedback From Beta Readers
How To Be A Good Beta Reader

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Dawn Field

Founder of Unity in Writing (http://unityinwriting.com), developmental editor, scientist and author of “Biocode” for Oxford University Press.