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#atozchallenge : A for Action #fiction #writing #quotes

A to Z Challenge Theme: Quotes from Authors and Bookish People about Writing

And here we go! Today is the first day of the April A to Z Blogging Challenge, and we’re getting off to a fine start! If you haven’t signed  up yet, the list is still open– get on this mega-blogging ride, and join in the fun and games with the rest of us!

Today on Amlokiblogs, I begin the challenge with a word that leads a lot of fiction to hit bestseller lists: Action. Action is the method fiction writers use to show movement in the story. It is the heartbeat of a story– and no story, no matter how abstract or literary, can do without action.

Here are few quotes that talk about action:

 “Begin your writing, fiction or article, where the action begins. This
action can be internal (e.g., an important insight or personal decision)
or external (e.g., a murder or calamity). Begin too early, you lose
your reader. Begin too late, you lose your story.”
— Walt Shiel


“Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn’t enough.
Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted
prose; what they sometimes lack is the ability to take the reader on a
journey, with all the changes of terrain, speed and mood that a long
journey involves. Again, I find that looking at films can help. Most
novels will want to move close, linger, move back, move on, in pretty
cinematic ways.”
– Rose Tremain

“Character gives us qualities, but it is in actions – what we do – that
we are happy or the reverse….All human happiness and misery take the
form of action.”
— Aristotle

“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’
the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of
description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball
rolling.”

― Stephen King
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Do you like stories with action? What sort of stories do you like to read or write?

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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