For some weeks now, I've been training some guys on how to write fiction and I think we should not limit it to those few.So, I'm bringing it to Nairaland via my site.

So, I've written a comprehensive textbook to that effect. Else, it will be more of rambling. Despite the textbook, I have made plans on how every of my student will surely publish a book before graduating from the class.
All you'll need is to get the books
1. Lite Fiction Help( tools, rules and exercises to help you finish that novel) on Okadabooks at https://www.okadabooks.com/book/about/10464
for 200naira( there are different option for payment) and
2. Lite Character Chart ( the best tool for building that unique character) at Okadabooks : https://www.okadabooks.com/book/about/10465 for 100 naira.
3. Indicate your interest by sending your name, email address to me
4. Also, you will need to send me the Title of the Novel you'll publish- This can change as the class go on.

But if you don't have the means to get it on Okadabooks, I can send you the PDFs at the amount. All you'll need to do is to send me a PM in my box or email.
So, your source of payment( if you are not on Okadabooks) will be to either pay
1. 300 naira to my Gtb account or
2. 400 naira etisalat recharge card.

However, if you don't want to join the group but need the materials. You can still get the materials in the same ways I've stated up there.
I'm also using this medium to tell you about my book ' The Unknown Shadow', you can now get it
at https://www.okadabooks.com/book/about/10463

If you are Outside Nigeria, the only means is Okadabooks.
Class Starts: January 15,2016. But there's room for late Application.
The students there are already enjoying the benefits.
Hurry while there's still time.
Contact me:
Only whatsapp, 07089578428.
https://litehelp./2016/01/08/learn-how-to-write-fiction/
The classes will hold on
Fridays- 9.00pm
Saturdays- 12:00noon
Sunday- 8pm

I'll drop pictures of what the people who got the pdf are saying.

one of them

Class starts today.

Good evening, this is D-day.
the first thing we need to know is the definition of Fiction.
Fiction is a written imagination of someone. Most times, this imagination are birth out of desire to see something happen or are used to escape from an event. Most times they are they are replica of some events. But they are still the event that are well arranged by the writer.

The next on Agenda is why do we write fiction?

: As I stated in the book, many people write just to
1. escape from the troubles of this world
2. To entertain. Writing is done to entertain others. To relieve people of the day to day stress. Many people sit after a day's hardwork and need a story to calm their nerves. That's why couples always wait for their partners to return so that they'll tell them something exciting that happened during the day.
3. To educate: Writing is also done to teach something new. Today, there won't be more teaching.
So... Why do you want to write? Tell us the class


https://litehelp./2016/01/15/why-do-we-write-fiction/

Okay... The next would be to define
Genre...
The book will best define it..
But it simply means category in which books are categorised.
The first is thriller.
Thriller is any work that stimulates readers interest, giving them heightened feeling of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, and anxiety.
Thriller makes reader be on the edge of their seat. A good example is The Unknown Shadow, my story. That was the aim. To make people feel the end of the protagonist is near.
: The next is suspense
: It's classed under Thriller but it has a feature of not having too much at stake like Thriller. It just makes the reader keeps turning the page of the book just too know more. Despite the fact that many stories must have suspense yet stories must be filled with them
[: Lastly for today...

Horror.
: This is essentially stories that are gruesome in nature. They paint blood, death and injury so vividly for the reader. They seek to elicit negative emotions from the readers.
It was inspired by Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley.
You see them in Vampire stories, Werewolves mishap, Monster troubles...
E.g Blood on the moon... The witch mysteries. Buffy the vampire slayer. The exorcism of Emily etc...
And here we stop for today...
Assignment

Find out some other reasons people write..


Tomorrow, we'll
Deal more some other genres of fiction
https://litehelp./2016/01/15/genres-of-literature/

Fridays : 9pm- 10 Saturday 12 noon-1pm Sunday 8 pm- 9pm

Good afternoon, it's time.

Today, we'll be talking about the remaining genre..
And today is
Mystery
Wikipedia defines it as a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved. In a closed circle of suspects, each suspect must
have a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime.: Most example can be found in stories of sherlock Holmes By Author Conan
Edgar Allan Poe is also a good writer of mysteries ..
Nigerian writer that does that is Larry Sun. To see more of his work visit www.Nigerianwritershub.com


Mystery fiction may involve a supernatural
mystery where the solution does not have to be
logical, and even no crime involved. This usage
was common in the pulp magazines of the
1930s and 1940s, where titles such as Dime
Mystery , Thrilling Mystery and Spicy Mystery
offered what at the time were described as
" weird menace" stories—supernatural horror in
the vein of Grand Guignol. Many mysteries leave one debating within one self how one did not see something or so happening
: .now can you give examples of films you've seen or books you've read that are mysteries.



https://litehelp./2016/01/16/mystery-genre-of-literature-continues/

I'm sorry I couldn't finish the class yesterday. But since that was the introductory week, let's get to real work... Do exercise 1.
There are prompts at the end of your Ebook in case you need ideas

Inspiration is very often the result of
habit, of getting into a rhythm of work,
and of setting yourself goals of how
much and about what you wish to write
each day. Oddly enough, the
determination that you will finish a
particular piece of work is a great source
of inspiration. So set yourself a realistic
goal each time you sit down to write.
Find out how much you are comfortable
writing each day. Achieve that. Then
extend it and try to double your output.
Remember: decide where you’re going
before you set out. If you end up
somewhere else, simply ask: do you
mind? It might be a good thing to have
strayed from the path. Assess this once
the work is done.
Don’t wait until you have the perfect first
line. In practice, it often transpires that
perfect first lines no longer fit with the
story once it’s written out. Instead, try to
think of your opening line as being
simply like a doorway that you must pass
through to get into the ‘room’ of your
story. The doorway is much less
important than what’s inside the room –
focus on that. If you find yourself ‘seeing
the whole story at once’, and you’re
unsure where to begin, concentrate on
one particular detail and start there.
Example: You want to write about a
young man and his girlfriend. He’s just
realised he’s in love with her, and is
going to say so, but you think that having
him just saying ‘I love you’ will sound a
bit flat. So, think about how else you
could approach it. You could:
begin with him trying to decide
which shirt to wear
begin when he’s stuck in
conversation with someone else,
and can’t get away. He has
something important to say, and yet
a friend is talking to him about
football
begin after the actual moment of
him telling her ‘I love you’
tell it from someone else’s point of
view – for example, one of the
boy’s friends, overhearing him, or
the girlfriend herself.
In this way, focusing on an apparently
‘irrelevant’ detail might be the perfect
way in to your story:
a plane flying overhead as he
speaks, drowning out his words
a piece of lettuce stuck between
her teeth that makes him smile
a gang of schoolchildren who loiter
close by, making him self-
conscious.
Peripheral details like this can have the
effect of making the scene seem more
believable: real life is full of such details
and delays, obstructions to the main
story unfolding.
If you’re still unsure about how to begin,
surprise yourself – approach your story
from a different angle. Or surprise your
story – make a particular detail appear
distinctive. Or start your story randomly,
at a point that you don’t think is
important. It might turn out to be crucial.
Remember: once you’ve reached the end,
you can always go back and ‘add on’ or
improve your beginning.
https://litehelp./2016/01/18/why-
you-shouldnt-wait-to-be-inspired-before-writing

Divepen1, pls I ve sent you a mail... Kindly reply.

Three Genres to Notice Oddities. Numerous oddities have been published over recent years that might not fit neatly into a genre or are unusual due to size. The Christmas Box, The Bridges of Madison County and The Celestine Prophecy were all small by the way of word count, but each of these books ended up as bestsellers. To use them as guides might be a mistake for the beginning novelist, as they are considered experimental and thus can be hard to sell. I might note that all three of these books were originally self-published and received critical notice due to the authors’ own hard work and tenacity at self-marketing. Serial and Sequel are types of novels that often find great success. They feature reappearing characters and / or recurring themes. You’ll find these novels popular in most current genres. What makes them successful, of course, are convincingly real, yet original characters and situations. Sex, Foul Language, Violence, Death and Aberrant Behavior. The amount and depth of risqué scenes, controversial themes and offensive language you include in your novel is not only story and genre dependent but also depends on the tastes and policies of your publisher. It can limit not only your audience but whether your novel will get published all together. Candid, uncensored scenes depicting real-life scenarios are important to the integrity of writer and story, but understanding the audience and dealing with those matters tastefully and appropriately are just as important. Sex and sexual tension as well as violence are key factors in most aspects of human life and can be interesting and important dimensions of many stories. However, the amounts of these elements and the approach taken by the writer should be considered carefully. How these important and controversial aspects of human life are portrayed in adult novels will be very different than in young-adult mysteries. Again, the best advice I can offer is to look at novels already published and currently on bookstore shelves to see what is appropriate. Even then, a good rule of thumb is that a story should never include gratuitous sex or violence. However, these issues should be dealt with if they are important aspects of the story itself. Perhaps you feel explicit depiction of a violent rape / murder scene provides important character motivation, characterization or plot information in a novel about Miami drug gangs. If so, fine. But in typical suspense or mystery novels, giving details about body fluids and death throes probably won’t be appropriate. In his book Novel Writing Made Easy, Kindle Publishers, Gordon Kessler had this to say. Be honest with yourself and with your writing. Don’t pull punches because your mother or your pastor might read your story. Make your scenes live, give them verisimilitude by realistic depiction, but do so with consideration of what is acceptable to your target audience. For an example of a story written in a genre that is generally full of violence and four letter words but was very well done without either, read Ted Dekker’s thriller Three. It’s an incredible novel that I read without realizing its publisher, Westbow, is a religious publishing house. Discovering this after I finished the novel, I tried to recall if at any point Dekker crossed the line by using crude language or gratuitous sex or violence, and I realized he hadn’t. Still, he told a fantastic story, and I hadn’t noticed the lack of swearing or graphic violence. What an excellent job of storytelling! NovelWriting Made Easy, Gordon Kessler. http:// www.Gordonkessler.com

https://litehelp./2016/02/01/genres-to-notice/

This is the central idea in a piece of work. Although there are other ideas that may be birth in your story, the concept which you decided to write about is the main idea in your story. Merriam Webster defines it as the ‘The main subject that is being discussed often or repeatedly’.
Few stories are written simply to entertain – some young children’s stories might be, but most stories are, in reality, an entertaining ‘vehicle’ or means for their author to present a series of persuasive ideas to the reader. These ideas are called the themes of the story; they are the author’s views concerning some important aspect – one if the ‘big issues’ – of life. Many authors choose themes that relate to aspects of their society’s prevailing or dominant ideologies. As I said earlier, you can’t entertain without Educate. But it’s mundane to keep Educating without entertaining. Who wants to read your rant about life issues. They need to realise this truth themselves. Your story has to show them what they need to see.
Writers are peculiarly creative and sensitive individuals; they can be deeply aware of the frictions within society. They use their imaginative genius to weave compelling stories around interesting characters to highlight and help you sympathise with certain ideas and points of view. And this is what you should always aim to do.
If you have read ‘ Purple Hibiscus’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, however much you enjoyed the story, after you finish the last page and close the cover, many of its ideas will stay with you for a long time, if not for the remainder of your life. These ideas or themes will have been revealed and explored in the story through the actions of its characters. You will have been brought to empathise with and often feel sympathy for the plight of certain characters in a story, and to dislike others. Those with which you sympathise, you will tend to feel strongly about, even identify with. What happens to them will interest you – and it is in this way that many ideas about society can be highlighted and brought to your attention.
J.K Rowling’s Novel, HarryPorter1-7’ centred on the way people saw death. Although many other theme were birth from the original theme like the issue of bad parenting/Guiding( from Guidants). We were open to series of ways Voldemort tried to escape death.
To develop a theme, these questions should ring in your mind. 1.Why am I writing? 2. What lesson do I want to teach in this story? In the movie Afterlife written by Will Smith, the concept of Fear was discussed through a child point of view(POV). 3. What misconception do I want to correct? Many horror movies we see and horror novels that are out there are out to prove a religious truth or a psychological fact. A good film that portrayed that is the Exorcism of Emily. The film was trying to bring to the notice of readers that there are spiritual occurrences. How do you get Theme? The following ways are the best way to get a theme.
Love: What do you like? What is that thing you love others to know how to do? What is that message you wish others should learn of? What do you want to people improve themselves on. Hatred: What do you hate most? What problems are you seeing in Nigeria? The best novels and plays in Nigeria are noticed because they portrayed a hatred for certain event or culture. Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe was known because it was trying to show the world the way European maltreated Eastern Nigerians. And that Igbo community had a system that governs them at the advent of the whites.


https://litehelp./2016/02/02/theme/

Plot

This is the line with which event in a story
happens. It refers to the way the author makes
event happen in his story. The action element in
fiction is the arrangement of events that make up
a story.
In present time, the best sellers are divided into
two broad format.
Timely stories: These are plots taken from
tomorrow’s headline. They include events that
concern modern happenings. This events might
include near-future problems. They are written
with a view of providing alternative solutions to
this problems or an alternative which, though,
might not be satisfactory but is popularly
accepted. They use things that are recent, thereby
causing realism to be felt in their story.
Universal stories: These deal with Universal theme
of human heart and mind that are always and will
be of interest. They are concerned with romance
and of survival. Some go as far as changing belief
systems and making us have a rethink about life.
An example of such is The Celestine Prophecy by
James Redfield.
Plot can be structured in the following ways.
Internal plot: This is the thought plot. It is seen
through the Point of view from which the story is
being told. This deals the POV’s emotion. How it
changes. The internal plot is essential in making a
believable Character. You can’t present a
character who cannot think, who is seen only
performing but does not detest things, does not
like things, does not have quirks etc.
Emotional plot: This refers to the tie between few
people in the story. It deals with conflict of desire
between two characters. It also deal with their
ability to agree on something or the rate at which
they agree. And if they disagree always, there
must be a place the disagreement either help
them or mar them. Also, if they always agree on
issues/things, then their agreement must cause
trouble for them or help them out of dire
situation.
Thematic plot: This is when the story revolves
around the theme that is to be taught. Here you
change events to suite what you are teaching.
You have to make sure the events of your plots
are acceptable by your readers. As that might
cause your novel to be thrown aside for no
reason.
External plot: This revolves around the storyline
itself. It gives you ample opportunities to show
events without just telling us what happened in
the story. It is typically based on visuals, physical
actions or what happens.
Exercise 3
Infuse the four plots structure into your story.
Preferably, write it out on a note.