Narration – narration pertains to plot, conflict, symbol, and theme and basically in its simpliest form is how a story is told. It’s also probably the most difficult to master of these three. I’m primarily a science fiction and fantasy author, however, before I devoted my writing and reading specifically to the genre, for four years in university I was exposed to many novels that make up the literary canon of the past 200 years. While I can’t offer much advice in the way of how to write, the best advice I can give is to read books on how to write as well as to read  whatever novels you can get your hands on (for a good start pick up the “1001 books to read before you die“).

Dialogue – I’ll be honest, I don’t put particular effort into dialogue as much as I’d like to. What should my characters should say is the last thing on my mind when I’m writing and in my opinion should come naturally rather than forced. However, I do know some of the pitfalls when it comes to dialogue that tend to plague aspiring writers. Some believe that your characters always have to be talking and therefore feel guilty that they’ll bore the reader to death with long passages of description or narration. Others, write dialogue and think to themselves “Would my character really say that?” and often delete quality prose for some rather dumbed-down dialogue. Don’t fall into this trap. How often do you know what you’re doing to say before you say it? Don’t be afraid for your characters to ask as many questions as they want. It’s okay, that’s how they get information.

Tier Three (Voice, Atmosphere, and Mood)

I won’t go into the details with this level except to say that in terms of creating a realistic experience for the reader, this is the level you’re going to want to achieve with your future writing. I like to think that it is a step up from Tier Two in how each engages the sensory perceptions of the reader. Voice is not the voice of the character. It is how the story is told, but the author’s use of language and diction to tell that story is where it becomes crucical. Atmosphere and Mood is again related to narration but it’s more how you want to tell the story. Will it be dark? Will it be light-hearted? How will you use language to convey the tone of a particular scene or story. This is the level you’re going to want to keep in mind constantly whenever you begin and write your new novel or short story. I wish I could go into further details but it’s hard to describe a craft when you do it on a daily basis.

Hope this helped you. Don’t be shy about leaving comments or PMing me.